Are local council boundaries set to change in England?

That’s what the Electoral Commission is suggesting in its ‘farewell’ press release to mark the handing over of responsibilities for local government boundaries to a new body.

The release says:

Max Caller, Chair of the Boundary Committee and Electoral Commissioner, said: “The new Local Government Boundary Commission for England’s job will be to keep the map of local government in England in good repair. Having fair local electoral arrangements is important to ensure that every voter, wherever they live in a council area, has a vote of similar weight in electing their representatives.

“We estimate that, by 2014, a quarter of all English local authorities will have imbalances between wards that meet the Electoral Commission’s current criteria for electoral reviews. We also know from talking to councils that there is a demand out there for reviews to look at the external boundaries of authorities, something that hasn’t been done since the early 1990s.”

The reason for spinning off the local government boundary work to a new body – which in fact simply restores the situation until a few years ago – is to make the Electoral Commission a more narrowly focused body.

It has already shed much of its policy consultation and formation role, with the Ministry of Justice taking that back on board.