Will Sussex get to vote in 2026 or will elections be called off?

Everyone expected 2026 to be a very significant year of elections for Sussex.

Residents were going to elect the first ever mayor of Sussex and Brighton, to vote for county councillors for the first time in five years, and see Hastings, Crawley, Adur and Worthing hold elections that had the potential to change political control in some areas.

Now, this could be the second year in a row that residents don’t get to cast their ballot on who runs services like planning, schools, roads, social care and how waste and the environment is managed.

The government says it is listening to councils who say they are concerned about delivering elections alongside devolution and local government reorganisation.

A year ago Sussex joined the devolution priority programme, committing to introducing an elected mayor and replacing all the county and borough and district councils with new unitary authorities.

In September, councils submitted a variety of plans for how many new authorities in Sussex should be created and what size and shape they should take.

The government’s public consultation on these plans opened in November and closes on Sunday.

Elections for new unitary authorities are due to take place in May 2027.

Some councils in Sussex and elsewhere argued that the pressure of biggest overhaul of councils in a generation meant they did not have the capacity to hold local elections at the same time for councils that will not exist for much longer.

Opponents expressed anger and disappointment as county council elections for East and West Sussex were cancelled in May 2025 to allow for reorganisation, saying democratic rights were being taken away.

In early December, the government announced the election for a new mayor of Sussex and Brighton would be postponed for two years until 2028.

On 18 December, the last day of Parliament in 2025, in a shock announcement the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government invited all councils who are reorganising to request to cancel elections.

Both East Sussex and West Sussex already made a request in September and both have confirmed they will resubmit that request by the deadline of 15 January.

Paul Marshall, Conservative leader of West Sussex County Council, said: “If the government want to deliver [local government reorganisation] and devolution then an election in May would need to be postponed.”

But Martin Boffey, Liberal Democrat leader of Horsham District Council argued that it was the responsibility of borough and district councils, not counties, to conduct elections.

He says: “It is most definitely not the case that as a council we would struggle with capacity to hold elections.”

He added the right to vote was “precious” and said the council “stands 100% ready to carry out this duty for our residents”.

The government’s invitation to request a cancelation of elections also extended to Hastings Borough Council and Adur District Council, who are due to elect half of their councillors, and to Crawley Borough Council and Worthing Borough Council who are due to elect a third of their councillors on 7 May.

Hastings has confirmed it will be requesting to postpone due to concerns about stability and finances.

In a joint statement the Green, Labour, Conservative and Hastings Independents groups said: “This would likely divert attention from critical reorganisation work to election campaigning and political leaders need to be fully focused on getting the best deal for Hastings out of the reorganisation process.

“There are also concerns about the financial costs of an election at a time when council budgets are tight. Spending money on elections for such a short term could lead to criticism when things like the housing crisis should be taking priority.”

Extraordinary full council meetings are being held to debate the issue in Worthing on 13 January and in Crawley the following day.

Michael Jones, Labour leader of Crawley Borough Council, has said while he personally favours proceeding with elections, he called the meeting because the decision “needs to be collectively made due to its significance”.

He added: “I intend to honour the will of the majority of the whole council after councillors have debated this in a public forum.”

Councils will submit their responses on 15th January with a decision from the government expected by March.