What's changing in Suffolk?
The county council, district and borough councils in Suffolk are being replaced by 3 new unitary councils:
- Central and East Suffolk Council
- Ipswich and South Suffolk Council
- West Suffolk Council
Elections will be held for these councils in May 2027.
The unitary councils will formally take over local services on 1 April 2028. This is also known as Vesting Day.
From this point, each council will serve a population of about 260,000 people. They'll be responsible for all the services currently shared between the county, district and borough councils.
How will this affect you?
Once the new councils are in place, you'll have just one local council to deal with, making it simpler to access services and know who is responsible for what.
Until then, nothing will change for residents. Services will carry on as normal, and the current councils will work together to make sure the transition causes as little disruption as possible.
You can find out which council will provide your local services from April 2028.
To create these new councils – Central and East Suffolk, Ipswich and South Suffolk, and West Suffolk – there's a series of key milestones that must be met to ensure a smooth transition.
Explore our LGR timeline to understand exactly how this process will roll out ahead of Vesting Day in April 2028.