The Guildford Borough Council is being replaced in 2027 by the West Surrey Unitary Authority (WSUA). This will report to a Mayorial Combined Authority (MCA) proposed to cover the whole of Surrey (East & West) from a date yet to be determined.
Existing Parish Councils will continue to exist managing some local facilities e.g. allotments and representing their areas to higher tiers of Local Government.
Several aspects of the re-organisation of Local Government are becoming Clearer.
The new West Surrey Unitary Authority (covering Guildford, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Waverley, and Woking) will replace both the borough/district councils and Surrey County Council. West Surrey Unitary will absorb all functions of both tiers in its area (education, highways, social care, planning, housing, waste, etc.)
Elections for councillors are scheduled for May 2026, with councillors taking office in April 2027 at the conclusion of a 12 month transition period.
Surrey County Council currently has 81 single-member electoral divisions, each represented by one councillor. These divisions cover the whole county, replacing the older two-member arrangements in some areas. The boundaries were reviewed in 2024 by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) to ensure fair representation, and the new map applied from May 2025.
The new West Surrey Unitary Council will be elected in May 2026. It is proposed to have 38 electoral divisions, each returning two councillors, giving a total of 76 councillors. Under the unitary model, West Surrey councillors will represent their electoral division, handling all responsibilities (education, highways, social care, housing, planning, waste, etc.); thus combining responsibilities of county and district councillors. The two councilors per division is to reflect the increase in responsibilities covered by the Unitary Authority Councillors (See Below). The citizens of the Guildford Town area would thus be represented by 8 Unitary Authority Councillors as opposed to 4 Surrey County Councillors today. Note this needs to be finally confirmed as there has been some suggestion there may need to be 5 divisions not 4 representing Guilford Town and Urban area.
The exisiting Parish Councils, as noted above, continue in place but acting under the umbrella for the West Surrey Unitary Authroity. Currently a large area of Guildford Borough has no local parish level of government being ‘unparished’. Guildford Town and Urban Area, for historical reasons, has never recently had a Town Council. Guildford Town and Urban Area has a population of circa 80,000.
The Council at its meeting 9th December 2025 approved a recommendation from the executive to proceed with a Community Government Review. This will cover the unparished urban area of Guildford.
The Governance Review will answer the question; should a local town council be set up covering the Town Centre and Urban Areas. If this Town Council is proceeded with, it should provide better local democracy for the residents of Guildford Town and Urban Area,
The Council approved the draft Terms of Reference for the Community Governance Review, and budget for the next stage of the review was approved.
If this level of local government is implemented for Guildford Town it will mean representation for the area will be in the form of 24 Town/Parish councillors with far more limited powers than the exisitng Guildford Borough Councillors, representing the wards that currently exist. As noted above 8 Unitary Authority Councilors will also be elected for the Town area as part of the elections for the West Surrey Unitary Authority.
The Council is consulting for eight weeks from the beginning of January 2026 on the recommendation to create one parish area called 'Guildford Parish Council' to cover the ten wards that are currently unparished.. An extraordinary Full Council meeting in mid-March will, consider the consultation responses, and decide next steps.
The ten wards would be represented as follows:
See Map Below at foot of post
The new council must initially be set up as a parish council but could change to a town council at its first meeting.
A Guildford Town/Parish Council would provide a united single democratically elected body to represent the town's interests (for the first time in a very long time) and could be a voice for the people of Guildford and a champion for positive change, improvements into the place in which 80,000 residents live. A council would be in a position to represent the town and it's residents' views within the West Surrey Unitary Authority.
To begin with, a new parish council automatically have limited responsibilities:
At a later date it could collaborate with the new unitary authority and other partners to take on more responsibilities. Examples of what other parish councils look after include
A precept (a new increase to the amount of council tax paid by each household) to pay for the running of the parish council and the services it may provide. A precept is already charged in the Parish Councils that surround Guildford.
See More Details at the Guildford Borough Website
At a date yet to be decided a Mayorial Combined Authority will be established covering West Surrey Unitary Authority, and East Surrey Unitary Authority. The MCA will have an elected Mayor.
The elected Mayor is being empowered with powers of competence via the 'English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill' to be passed through parliament. See More Detail Here
The ‘mayoral powers of competence.’ will strengthen the role, giving them the means to drive growth, collaboration and improvements within their areas. The mayoral powers of competence are made up of:
The bill also outlines seven specific ‘areas of competence’ for strategic authorities:
The Mayor is allowed to appoint up to seven commissioners for these areas to assist them.
All mayors must also produce a local growth plan. These must include an overview of the area’s economic conditions, priorities for growth agreed with the Secretary of State, and key projects. The bill will require certain public organisations to ‘have regard’ to the shared priorities of each local growth plan, if they are relevant to what they do.
The bill also proposes that where mayoral geographies align with Police Force and Fire and Rescue Authority geographies, mayors will be, by default, responsible for exercising these functions.
At 1.25million the population the Surrey MCA falls short of the desire to have MCA’s of 1.5million plus. No agreed date has yet been announced for the creation of the Surrey MCA. There have been rumours the government might suggest the MCA is for a combined Surrey/Sussex unit that would create a MCA of circa 3 Million one of the largest units by population in the country.
It seems unlikely that Surrey and Sussex will combined partly due to the very different needs of the two areas and that they are on different MCA timescales with the Sussx MCA starting in 2027.
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