Ministers withdrew the North Kent council decision on 29 October. Medway Council stays for now, May 2027 polls go ahead and any merger waits to April 2029.

The government has withdrawn its decision to merge Medway Council with Dartford and Gravesham. The July ruling that created a North Kent council from April 2028 was taken back on Thursday 29 October, in a letter from the local government minister, Jim McMahon.

Kent and Medway is one of nine areas whose July decisions went the same day. No new decision has been made. The minister says one will come by early 2027, and that any new council would not start before 1 April 2029. (MHCLG, letter to nine areas, 29 October 2026)

What the letter says

Ministers “have concluded that further time is required to consider the outcome” in the nine areas, the letter says. To give councils “clarity on the status of the existing decisions”, they withdrew them.

Withdrawn does not mean cancelled. The letter is plain on two points:

  • Reorganisation is still happening. The government “remains committed to delivering Local Government Reorganisation” on the criteria set in February 2025.
  • Every option is back on the table. “For the avoidance of doubt, all options and proposals in your area will remain under consideration as part of the review.”

So North Kent, with Medway, Dartford and Gravesham under one council, is still one of the options. So are the rival Kent plans ministers turned down in July. (MHCLG, 29 October 2026)

The new timetable

Timeline of Medway's reorganisation: the July 2026 North Kent decision, the programme paused on 7 September, the decision withdrawn on 29 October 2026, an outcome for Kent and Medway due in early 2027, the Medway Council election in May 2027, elections to any new councils in May 2028, and 1 April 2029 as the earliest date a new council starts
Graphic by Medway Live, from the MHCLG letters and Medway Council's statement of 29 October 2026.
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The letter sets out what happens next for all 15 areas still under review:

  • Some outcomes by Christmas. The minister promises “updates on outcomes in another set of areas by Christmas”, without naming which.
  • Every area by early 2027. “Every area will have an outcome announced by early next year.”
  • May 2027 elections go ahead to the councils that exist now. That was already the position after the September pause, and the letter confirms it.
  • Elections to any new councils in May 2028, followed by vesting day, when a new council takes over, on 1 April 2029.

Under the July decision, North Kent would have taken over on 1 April 2028. That date has now gone. (MHCLG, 29 October 2026)

What Medway Council says

Medway Council’s leader, Cllr Vince Maple, said in a statement the same day that the council welcomed “confirmation that a decision on proposals for Kent and Medway is now expected in early 2027”.

“While we are keen to receive that outcome as soon as possible, this revised timetable provides greater certainty and allows us to continue planning for the significant changes ahead,” he said. “In particular, it will help ensure we are prepared to meet the Government’s timetable for shadow elections in 2028 and the establishment of new unitary arrangements.”

He tied it to the other announcement of the week. The Budget on 28 October confirmed Kent and Medway will get a strategic authority, a regional body with an elected mayor only if reorganisation allows (our report). Cllr Maple said the council’s focus “now turns to securing a full Mayoral Strategic Authority for Kent and Medway”, but that its “implementation is dependent on the outcome of the Local Government Reorganisation process”. (Medway Council, 29 October 2026)

The money

Councils had spent time and money preparing for the July decisions. The letter says the government will pay half of the £900,000 transition support it promised for each new council, “based on the number of new unitaries in the initial announcement”. That money “is guaranteed and will be paid in the coming weeks”, whatever the review decides.

Kent and Medway’s July decision created four new councils. Half of £900,000 for each of four is £1.8 million for the area. The letter does not say how it will be split between Kent’s 14 councils. The rest, and £150,000 per new council for children’s services, adult social care and public health leadership, comes when final decisions are made. (MHCLG, 29 October 2026)

What it means for you

  • Medway Council carries on. It still runs your bins, schools, social care, planning and roads, and will do until April 2029 at the earliest. Your bin collection days and council tax bands are unchanged.
  • Your vote next May is for Medway Council. Medway’s 59 councillors were elected in May 2023 and their terms run to 11 May 2027, according to the council’s member register. That election goes ahead on the wards you live in now.
  • There may be another vote a year later. If a new council is created, its first elections would be in May 2028, the “shadow elections” Cllr Maple refers to.
  • North Kent is not dead, but it is not decided. The July plan gave Medway, Dartford and Gravesham one council of 81 councillors. Medway alone has 59 today. Whether that plan survives the review is now a question for early 2027.

Our earlier reports set out what the North Kent plan would have meant and the September pause.

Sources