City council to pursue controversial boundary review under reorganisation proposal

If successful, the move would see the creation of a unitary council that covers areas currently under the control of Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe councils.

The plans have proven controversial among some neighbouring authorities, with Rushcliffe Borough Council's leader Neil Clarke labelling the move a "land grab", according to a report from the BBC.

Nottingham is alone in backing boundary changes in the area. 

The city council's leader, Neghat Khan, said the "reality" is that the current city boundaries – set in 1997 – "don’t reflect the ‘real’ Nottingham".

She added: "While our official population is 328,000, the built-up area of our city contains over 750,000 people, many of whom call Nottingham home. We can’t let outdated boundaries or political preference dictate what is right for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

"We have always said that we should prioritise conurbation based on local identify and a sensible geography, it is therefore pleasing to see that view shared by Nottingham people. We need to set a boundary for the next 50 years."

She argued that two other options considered by the council – which did not involve a boundary change – would split the Nottingham conurbation, "with no thought to the surrounding suburbs identifying with the city".

The city council's decision comes after commissioning an independent report from PwC on reorganisation.

The PwC report, made public on Wednesday (15 October) concluded that the boundary review model could achieve similar – and in some instances greater – level of benefits as two other options being considered in the county.

The report suggested that the boundary review approach could help Children’s Social Care and SEND, services by offering much greater spread of demand across the region.

A council statement on the plan added: "Naturally it’s expected that the complexity of disaggregating services from existing district footprints may incur additional one-off transition costs, however the overall ‘payback’ time has been found to be minimal, and indeed the model could provide even greater coherence in service delivery in some areas."

Nottingham City Council now plans to develop the proposal ahead of a submission to the Council’s Executive Board in November 2025. The final proposal for LGR will be submitted to Government by 28 November 2025, with a decision expected in the Summer of 2026.

The news comes a week on from a separate row in Nottinghamshire, in which Nottinghamshire County Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council admonished seven of the county’s local authorities over the “premature” publication of a reorganisation report.

Adam Carey