{"id":4656,"date":"2025-10-13T15:11:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T15:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/?p=4656"},"modified":"2026-03-20T11:33:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T11:33:19","slug":"sir-john-whittingdale-presses-minister-on-local-government-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/?p=4656","title":{"rendered":"Local Government reform"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>John Whittingdale\u00a0Conservative, Maldon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether Essex ends up with three, four or five authorities under the local government reforms, my constituents will certainly come under an authority that is no longer local. As part of the reforms, will more powers be devolved to town and parish councils that are able to understand and properly reflect their local residents?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Alison McGovern\u00a0Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local government reorganisation will create opportunities to improve public services, efficiency and clarity. The final proposals from councils in Essex were submitted by&nbsp;26 September, and we anticipate launching a statutory consultation in November. I am sure we will discuss the right hon. Gentleman\u2019s points in detail over the weeks and months to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Sir John Whittingdale MP questions Minister on local government reform in Essex\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YJt5IkYkAz0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sir John asks Government whether local government reforms in Essex will devolve more powers to town and parish councils, ensuring decisions remain responsive to local residents despite larger authorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-speeches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5684,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656\/revisions\/5684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}