Plans to expand Leicester's city boundary and abolish existing councils have been withdrawn.

Government officials in Westminster have said that a decision made in July this year to expand Leicester's city's boundary into parts of Leicestershire and abolish councils in a move known as local government reorganisation (LGR) is now not going ahead as planned.

That July decision – which would also have seen two larger authorities created in place of the abolished councils – proved highly contentious among councillors and MPs, leading many councils across Leicestershire to file for judicial review.

However, in September, Secretary of State Angela Rayner announced in the House of Commons that the government had paused and was reviewing LGR plans for Leicestershire, alongside other neighbouring counties, including Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

It is believed that ministers will revisit the three initial options put to them in November 2025 and could reach a new decision as early as the end of this year.

Ministers have confirmed they will still proceed with LGR, with a decision on how that will look coming by early 2027.

Initial proposals put forward for LGR included two unitary councils in Leicester and Leicestershire with an expanded city boundary, a 'North, City, South' option with three councils operating different parts of Leicestershire and two unitary councils but without an expanded boundary.

Jim McMahon, Minister for Local Government, Devolution and Growth, said: "We are withdrawing the decisions announced in July. I want to be absolutely clear, this is not a reflection of the work underpinning those proposals. I can now set out the plan for the final phases of the review.

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"The review with now focus on the 15 areas that are due to have minded-to decisions.

"To be clear all options and proposals in these areas will remain under consideration and I will approach all of those with an open mind.

"As such it should not be assumed the same proposal will be automatically selected. It is important to allow the process to run its course and to allow full and proper consideration.

"We will move faster where we can and some of the remaining areas may receive an outcome decision before others. I commit to coming back to the house with updates for another set of areas by Christmas, and every area will have an outcome by early next year."

Local elections set for Leicestershire in May next year will still go ahead despite the LGR project's withdrawal.