The County Councils Network (CCN) has warned that the Government’s review of local government reorganisation must lead to a genuine shift in approach, or risk creating councils that cost more and are less financially stable than those they replace.

The review, covering 20 county areas, follows widespread concern among CCN members over the transparency of previous decisions made in March and July, with several councils considering legal challenges.

Many of the proposals to create 51 new unitary councils involved extensive boundary changes and splits to costly services like social care, deviating from the Government's own criteria, including a 500,000-population threshold.

It has emerged that ministers overrode official advice in areas such as Essex and Suffolk despite warnings about financial and service risks.

In a letter to Local Government Minister Jim McMahon, CCN chair-elect Cllr Sean Matthews called for the review to realign decisions with the original criteria rather than rewrite them, arguing failure to do so risks fragmented, costlier reform.

‘Unless this review results in a material change in direction, we will continue to face the prospect of large-scale fragmentation and complex boundary change that will create a pattern of reform that is more costly, less stable and less effective than the current two-tier system. This will ultimately undermine the Government’s reform and devolution objectives,’ he wrote.

The network is also urging ministers to give certainty to areas where existing proposals have local support, and to press ahead with devolution plans, including establishing strategic authorities across England by 2028.

Watch: LGIU's Jonathan Carr-West on the Government's LGR pause