The Government has confirmed that it will be pushing back elections for mayors in four new strategic authorities by two years.

Elections for new mayors in strategic authorities in Greater Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, Hampshire & the Solent, and Sussex and Brighton were to take place in May next year.

However, they will now be rescheduled until May in 2028 amid concerns from ministers that more time is needed to reorganise local government in these areas.

In the House of Commons this morning, housing, communities and local government parliamentary under secretary, Miatta FahnBulleh, said: ‘We want to allow for a meaningful period of time between the establishment of the strategic authorities and the mayoral elections.

‘We are also conscious that these places are simultaneously undergoing local government reorganisation whilst building these new institutions.

‘Therefore, the Government is minded to hold the inaugural mayoral elections for Sussex and Brighton, Hampshire & the Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Greater Essex in May 2028 so these areas have the opportunity to conclude their local government reorganisation to build strong effective unitaries which is what we want to see.’

Opposition politicians, candidates and democracy campaigners have raised concerns about the delays.

The Conservative Party’s shadow housing and communities minister, David Simmonds, has accused the Government of reneging on earlier commitments to hold swift elections in new strategic authorities, as well as creating ‘ambiguity’ that has ‘caused a huge amount of doubt, created considerable cost and logistical challenges at a local level’.

Green Party deputy leader and mayoral candidate for Sussex and Brighton, Rachel Millward, said the delay is ‘incompetent, anti-democratic, and a clear sign that Labour is running scared of voters’.

She added that the ‘Government’s rushed devolution agenda’ has fallen into ‘utter chaos’.

Donna Jones, the Conservative Party’s candidate for Hampshire & the Solent, said she first heard about delay via the media on Wednesday night, adding ‘my campaign will continue, standing up and being the voice our sub-region so desperately needs’.

Tom Brake, chief executive of democracy organisation Unlock Democracy, claims the Government ‘is denying voters in these areas their democratic say’ due to a ‘chaotic, damaging local government reorganisation it ordered’.

Meanwhile, District Councils Network chair Richard Wright said the delay is a ‘backwards step that perpetuates England’s enduring power imbalance’.

‘It’s completely unacceptable that 28 million people living in non-metropolitan areas continue to be deprived of the mayoral devolution now given to all urban areas,’ he added.