We now know that Essex is one of the areas that has made it onto the Government's Devolution Priority Programme.  Its population of 1.85 million is therefore set to see the biggest churn in local government structures since the early 1970s with both a new Mayor elected in May 2026, and its 12 districts, upper tier county and two smaller unitaries in Thurrock and Southend replaced by a new set of unitary councils in either 2027 or 2028.

We've also had the ministerial invitation to submit initial proposals for Local Government Reform, with helpful additional detail about the criteria that will be used to assess bids – especially important where there turn out to be competing proposals.  Not much new though on the vexed question of size – still an expectation of 500,000+, but with the same broad exceptions trailed.