Response 4110969

Response to request for information

Reference

4110969

Response date

9 October 2026

Request

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following: For each of the financial years 2024/25, 2025/26, and 2026/27 (2026/27 to run from 1 April 2026 to 7 September 2026, the date the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) review was announced), please provide: 

1. The total amount spent by the council on preparation for the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR). Including, but not exclusive to spending external consultants, advisers, and/or law firms engaged specifically in relation to LGR, as recorded in the council's financial ledger/accounts system. Please provide this as a single total figure per financial year.
    
   If the council holds this information under a specific budget or cost code relating to LGR, please provide the figure recorded against that code. If not, please provide your best readily available total on LGR-related work.
    
   For 2026/27, if your finance system cannot  isolate spend to 7 September 2026, please instead provide the total for the nearest full reporting period you can readily extract and state which period the figure covers.
    

Response

Our response to the question is £253,000. This is split over financial years as follows: 

• £6000 – 2024/25.
• £211,000 – 2025/26.
• £36,000 – 2026/27