County council elections to go ahead as unitary bids invited

Councils in Oxfordshire have been informed that the 2025 county council elections on 1 May will go ahead as planned.

Meanwhile Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner also announced that all 21 two tier (district and county council) areas in England, including Oxfordshire, will be asked to submit plans for unitary structures. Local authorities in Oxfordshire will await further information from government on future timescales as to when a new unitary council or councils would go live.

Changes will ultimately mean that the present two-tier system of county and district councils that has been in place in Oxfordshire since 1974 will be replaced by consolidating all council services into unitary authorities. This is already the case in neighbouring areas such as Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Northamptonshire.

Councillor Liz Leffman, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said: “We are now able to confirm that our county council elections will go ahead on 1 May, which has always been our preference.”

“The government is pressing ahead with conversion to unitary authorities and, as a group of partner councils in Oxfordshire, we are continuing to discuss this and prepare for it.

“We are also continuing our discussions with neighbouring authorities across the Thames Valley about devolution.