The borough helped write the four-council plan that would have abolished it in 2028. Its leaders now want to know if ministers will refund what was spent.

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council was due to be abolished on 1 April 2028. Two weeks ago that was settled government policy. It is not settled now.

The council’s Leader and Deputy Leader have written jointly to the Secretary of State and the Local Government Minister after ministers paused local government reorganisation in Hertfordshire. The letter is dated 10 September and the council published it in full on 11 September.

It is signed by Councillor Rose Grewal, Leader of the council and leader of its Labour group, and Councillor Sandreni Bonfante, Deputy Leader and leader of its Liberal Democrat group. Publishing the document rather than a summary is unusual, and it is worth reading, because it says plainly what a press release would not.

“It is important that I express my deep disappointment at this outcome, coming as it does at such a late stage,” the letter says. It goes on: “The decision to pause and review the programme now creates significant uncertainty.”

What Welwyn Hatfield was signed up to

This matters more here than in most Hertfordshire boroughs, for one reason. Welwyn Hatfield was not a bystander. It was one of the six councils that submitted the four-unitary proposal the government chose.

The decision letter of 16 July 2026 names them: Broxbourne, Dacorum, Hertsmere, North Hertfordshire, Stevenage and Welwyn Hatfield. The minister decided to “move forward with the implementation of the four unitary proposal” they put forward, with one boundary change refused.

Under that decision the borough would have been broken up as follows:

  • most of Welwyn Hatfield, including Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield, Welwyn and Brookmans Park, joins Stevenage and most of North Hertfordshire in a new Central Hertfordshire Council with 89 councillors
  • the Northaw and Cuffley ward leaves the borough altogether and goes into a new East Hertfordshire and Broxbourne Council with 75 councillors, alongside Broxbourne, East Herts and five North Hertfordshire wards

Those names and councillor numbers come from the implementation letter sent to chief executives on 21 July. The council’s own announcement in July used the working labels “Central Hertfordshire” and “Eastern Hertfordshire”; the legal names in the letter drop the “-ern”.

Diagram showing Welwyn Hatfield less one ward joining Central Hertfordshire Council with 89 councillors, the Northaw and Cuffley ward joining East Hertfordshire and Broxbourne Council with 75 councillors, and a timeline from the 16 July 2026 decision through the 7 September pause and the 10 September letter to the 1 April 2028 start date.
Graphic by Welwyn Online. Council names and councillor numbers from the government's implementation letter of 21 July 2026; the ward transfer is in the decision letter of 16 July.

What the government actually said

The pause was set out in a letter to council leaders dated 7 September from Jim McMahon MP, Minister for Local Government, Devolution and Regional Growth.

It withdrew outright the decisions made in March for four other areas. Hertfordshire’s decision was made in July, so it is not withdrawn. It is under review, along with the other 13 July decisions, and McMahon is leading that review himself.

Three lines in the letter do the work:

  • “now is the time to pause and reflect. It is important that this is done right”
  • “I am asking you, together with your partners, to cease work on implementing the decisions that were announced in July”
  • “elections scheduled to take place in May 2027 will go ahead to existing council boundaries”

That last point reverses a firm commitment. The July implementation letter had said the government’s order “will replace any scheduled local elections in May 2027 with elections to the new councils”.

A statement issued on 8 September by Angie Ridgwell, Senior Responsible Officer for the Hertfordshire LGR Programme on behalf of all eleven councils, spells out the local effect. It says the elections to the Shadow Authorities will not take place in May 2027, and “Local authorities will continue with their usual cycle of local elections for 2027”. The statement was published on North Herts Council’s website rather than Welwyn Hatfield’s.

No reporting date has been given for the review.

The five questions the borough is asking

The letter sets out what Councillors Grewal and Bonfante want from ministers. In their own order:

  1. The scope and terms of the review, including “the criteria against which existing decisions will be reassessed” and “a clear understanding of the financial implications of whichever option is finally agreed”.
  2. The timetable and decision making process, including when the review starts and when a final decision comes. “The loss of momentum created by this pause will only increase the longer the delay continues.”
  3. The role of councils in the review, and how members and local partners will be involved.
  4. The relationship between reorganisation and devolution. The two leaders say they support “the establishment of a Hertfordshire based Mayoral Strategic Authority” and want to know the review will not damage it.
  5. The financial consequences of the pause, “including whether Government will consider reimbursing councils for expenditure already incurred and committed in good faith”.

That fifth question is the sharpest one, and the letter does not put a figure on it. Welwyn Hatfield has not published what it has spent on reorganisation over the last two years. The letter says only that councils invested “significant energy, time, effort and resources” and that this required “substantial commitment from elected Members, chief executives, senior staff and partner organisations”.

The government’s own position is in McMahon’s letter, and it is about future waste rather than past waste. Pausing now, he wrote, “reduces the risk of nugatory work if, after further review, we decide to change course”.

For context on the sums already committed centrally, the July implementation letter allocated £900,000 per new unitary authority for transition costs, “For Hertfordshire this means a total of £3,600,000”.

One local plan the pause has helped

There is one place where the pause has quietly removed an obstacle rather than creating one, and it appears in the borough’s own papers for Full Council this Wednesday.

The report on the proposed Welwyn Garden City parish council, item 9a on the agenda for 16 September, explains at paragraphs 7.3 and 7.4 that once a shadow unitary council exists, the borough loses the power to make the order creating a parish council. It could then only recommend that the shadow authority make it.

At paragraph 7.5 the report now says: “The timing of local government reorganisation is uncertain, and officers consider it is now unlikely that the process will be impacted by the legal considerations set out in paragraphs 7.3 and 7.4 above.” Paragraph 5.4 repeats the point, citing “recent announcements on the pause and review of local government reorganisation in Hertfordshire”.

There is a cost on the other side of the ledger too. The same report warns of a capacity risk because “the number of CGRs has increased as a result of local government reorganisation”, meaning the specialist help councils buy in for community governance reviews is in short supply nationally.

We covered the parish proposal, its £25 band D year-one cost and its 17 September to 31 October consultation, in our report last week.

What it means for you

  1. Nothing changes about who empties your bin or sets your council tax. Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council and Hertfordshire County Council both continue exactly as now. The 2028 date is no longer a date you can rely on, in either direction.
  2. If you vote next May, it will be for the council you already have. The shadow authority elections are off and the government says polls scheduled for May 2027 go ahead on existing boundaries. Check the council’s election pages nearer the time for what is actually on your ballot paper.
  3. If you live in Cuffley or Northaw, your ward was going to change council altogether. That transfer was in the July decision and it is now under review with everything else. It has not happened and it is not certain to.
  4. Expect the borough’s own published material to lag. The council’s July announcement that “from 1 April 2028 new authorities will take over” is still online unamended. So is a good deal of similar material across Hertfordshire. Treat any 2028 date you read as provisional until the review reports.

We have corrected our own pages that carried the 2028 date as settled, and we will report the review’s outcome here when it lands.

Frequently asked questions

Is Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council still being abolished?

The decision to abolish it on 1 April 2028 has not been withdrawn, but it is under review and the government has asked councils to stop implementing it. The four decisions that were withdrawn outright on 7 September were for Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Hertfordshire’s was a July decision, so it is paused rather than cancelled.

Which council would Welwyn Hatfield have become part of?

Central Hertfordshire Council, with 89 councillors, covering Stevenage and most of North Hertfordshire as well. The exception is the Northaw and Cuffley ward, which was to move into East Hertfordshire and Broxbourne Council.

Will there be council elections in May 2027?

The government says elections scheduled for May 2027 will go ahead to existing council boundaries. The elections to the shadow unitary authorities, which would have replaced them, are not happening.

Sources