North Herts, Stevenage and Welwyn Hatfield councils are set to be merged into a new Central Hertfordshire council, the Government has confirmed.

Communities Secretary Steve Reed announced today (Thursday, July 16) that Hertfordshire will be split into four new unitary authorities, rejecting the two- and three-unitary options that had been on the table.

Borough and district councils in North Hertfordshire, Stevenage and Welwyn Hatfield will be abolished in 2028, as well as the county council, with their responsibilities transferred to the new Central Hertfordshire unitary authority.

However, several wards from North Herts and Welwyn Hatfield – Ermine, Northaw & Cuffley, Weston & Sandon and those in Royston – will become part of a new Eastern Hertfordshire council, rather than joining the Central Hertfordshire authority.

Arbury ward had also been set to join the Eastern Hertfordshire council, but will instead be part of Central Hertfordshire after Daniel Allen, the former leader of North Herts Council, asked the government to consider the move following a campaign by Tom Tyson, the ward's district councillor.

Elections for the new council will be held in May 2027, and it will act as a shadow authority until it formally takes power on April 1, 2028.

All services, ranging from highways and education to bin collections and social care, will be run by the same council, rather than being divided between the county council and the district or borough council.

Labour leaders at North Herts, Stevenage and Welwyn Hatfield councils had all supported the four-unitary option in North Herts, while the Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups backed the two- or three-unitary options.

Stevenage Borough Council is run by Labour, while North Herts Council has a minority Labour administration and Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition in charge.

Provisional plans suggested the new council will cover a population of around 321,000 and have 89 councillors across 47 wards.

It has not yet been decided where the new council will be based, though the existing borough and district councils in the area are located in Letchworth, Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City.

It is estimated that the shake-up will have paid for itself between 2032/33 and 2036/37, though financial projections suggest the authority could begin with a £22m deficit.

The county-wide transition to new councils is expected to cost up to £120m to implement, with annual savings of between £11m and £23m across the county after the first five years.

Richard Henry, Labour leader of Stevenage Borough Council, backed the four-unitary model and said it is "large enough to secure meaningful efficiencies while remaining closely connected to the identities and priorities of our local communities".

He said the council's "focus now is to ensure a smooth transition that safeguards local services and makes the most of the opportunities that reorganisation will create".

The Labour leader of North Herts Council, Val Bryant, said she is "pleased" at the government's decision and added: "I'm looking forward to continuing to work positively with neighbouring councils to embed the new arrangements."

And Rose Grewal, the Labour leader of Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, said the move to a new single council would avoid confusion from residents about which councils deliver which services.

She added that the four-unitary model would "retain a strong level of localism" while allowing for "more effective and joined-up strategic delivery" along the A1 corridor, and providing the "potential to create a really strong identity that residents can relate to".

But Liberal Democrats across Central Hertfordshire criticised the government's decision, with the deputy leader of Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, Sandreni Bonfante, warning that the new council will "face severe financial pressures from its inception, placing additional strain on the delivery of vital services such as social care and housing".

"There is also a real risk that decisions affecting our communities will increasingly be taken in Stevenage, further removed from the towns and villages they impact most directly," she said.

In North Hertfordshire, Liberal Democrat group leader Ruth Brown said the decision was "absolute madness" and would "not save the taxpayer any money or deliver better services".

"The objective was to simplify councils and to save money, and they have chosen the most complex and the least financially viable option for Hertfordshire," she said.

Cllr Brown added that it was "deeply depressing" that Royston would be "divided" from the rest of North Herts.

"Royston is going to be cut off from Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock. Royston looks to Cambridge and to Stevenage and to the towns in between; Royston has nothing in common with Bishop's Stortford and Broxbourne …it doesn't make any sense.

"I'm deeply concerned for service delivery, for the financial viability, and for what that means for our residents."

Andy McGuinness, leader of the Liberal Democrat group at Stevenage Borough Council, said reorganisation is "not wanted nor needed" and described the four-unitary model as a "gerrymandered solution, designed solely to be more favourable to the Labour party in Hertfordshire".

Conservative group leaders in Central Hertfordshire have also criticised the four-unitary decision, with Ralph Muncer (North Herts) arguing it will be "disastrous" for the county and Tony Kingsbury (Welwyn Hatfield) saying it is "by far the worst of the options put forward".

Cllr Muncer warned that the decision will "result in significant and avoidable disruption being experienced by people across Hertfordshire and will undoubtedly lead to people paying more in council tax".

Cllr Kingsbury said: "It will split Welwyn Hatfield between different authorities, weaken our borough's identity and bring together communities with very different priorities, with a real risk that the interests of our residents will be overshadowed."

Phil Bibby, the sole Conservative member of Stevenage Borough Council, said the two-unitary option would have saved "hundreds of millions of pounds" whereas the four-unitary model "will end up costing money that could be much better used for services".