The Government has launched two separate consultations on modified proposals for local government reorganisation in Sussex.

The consultations follow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Steve Reed’s announcement in late March 2026 that he had not yet reached a decision on any of the four original proposals submitted by Sussex councils in September 2025, citing concerns across all of them.

As an alternative, Reed has put forward a modified plan for splitting Sussex into four authority areas.

For East Sussex and Brighton and Hove, the potential modification to the two-unitary proposal – originally submitted by East Sussex County Council, Eastbourne Borough Council, Hastings Borough Council, Lewes District Council and Rother District Council – would see four wards and one parish transferred from Lewes District into an expanded Brighton and Hove.

The secretary of state wishes to explore whether this change would preserve the strengths of the East Sussex proposal while facilitating the growth of Brighton and Hove, which he had expressed concern about keeping on its current footprint.

In response to this modified proposal the leader of Lewes District Council issued a call for residents to take part in the consultation, warning that the future of several coastal towns, and Lewes district more broadly, was ‘at a real risk of becoming part of Brighton & Hove’.

For West Sussex, the potential modification to the two-unitary proposal submitted by the seven West Sussex district and borough councils would create a coastal unitary authority covering Adur, Arun and Worthing, and a second unitary covering Chichester, Crawley, Horsham and Mid Sussex.

Reed said he wanted to explore whether this modification would ensure that new West Sussex councils ‘reflect distinct communities and rural/coastal identities in the area’ while maintaining balance under the mayoral combined authority.

To learn more about LGR, check out Local Government Reorganisation: What It Means and Why It Matters.