12/09/2026
🚨 OFFICIAL REFORM UK STATEMENT: SURREY DENIED THE SCRUTINY OFFERED TO OTHER COUNTIES
Reform UK East Surrey and Reform UK West Surrey have issued a joint official statement challenging the Government’s handling of Local Government Reorganisation.
19% POSITIVE. 56% NEGATIVE. YET SURREY IS BEING DENIED THE REVIEW GIVEN TO OTHER COUNTIES.
This is not merely another council reshuffle. It could affect your council tax, local services and who remains accountable when things go wrong.
On 7 September, the Government announced that Local Government Reorganisation would be reviewed across significant parts of England following updated legal advice. Decisions affecting Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk have been withdrawn or reconsidered.
Surrey, however, has been excluded, simply because the new East and West Surrey councils have already been established in law.
That may explain the technical position. It does not answer the real question:
Why should Surrey residents receive less scrutiny than everybody coming behind us?
The Government’s own consultation produced a remarkably clear result:
❌ The chosen two-unitary model averaged just 19% positive responses and 56% negative responses.
✅ The three unitary alternative averaged 51% positive responses and only 29% negative responses.
The Labour Government selected the two-unitary model. Surrey’s Conservative leadership strongly promoted it. Reform UK opposed it.
For Surrey Heath, the consequences are significant. We will become part of an enormous West Surrey authority alongside Guildford, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Waverley and Woking.
That raises serious questions which cannot simply be brushed aside:
• Will Surrey Heath residents receive better services?
• Will taxpayers genuinely receive better value for money?
• Will our towns and villages retain a meaningful local voice?
• Will residents be protected from historic debts and financial failures they did not create?
• Are we genuinely simplifying local government—or abolishing one tier only to recreate another through new Parish and Town Councils, additional administration and further taxation?
BIGGER DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN BETTER.
In this official joint statement, Reform UK East and West Surrey are calling on the Government to provide:
1️⃣ A clear explanation of why Surrey is being excluded from the review.
2️⃣ A firm guarantee that residents will not be made responsible for exceptional and unsustainable legacy debt.
3️⃣ Publicly measurable benchmarks showing whether reorganisation delivers better services, genuine savings and stronger accountability.
4️⃣ Proper scrutiny of proposals for additional Parish and Town Councils before another costly layer of local government is created.
Reform UK councillors will work constructively to make the new councils succeed. But working constructively does not mean remaining silent about how they were created—or failing to challenge decisions which could affect Surrey residents for generations.
If the Government believes its model is right for Surrey, it should have no difficulty proving it.
Read the full statement above.
