Kent and Medway councils face shake-up as government picks four-unitary plan

Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran has updated councillors on plans to replace the county’s 14 existing councils with four new unitary authorities — but a legal challenge and government review mean the outcome remains uncertain.

People living across Kent and Medway could see their local council replaced entirely by April 2028. The government chose a four-council model for the area in July — a decision that touches everyone from Dartford in the north to Dover in the east, Tunbridge Wells in the west to Thanet on the coast.

On 16 July 2026, ministers announced Kent and Medway would move to Option 4B: four new unitary councils sweeping away Kent County Council, Medway Council and all 12 district, borough and city councils in one go. The proposed boundaries are:

Northern unitary: Dartford, Gravesham and Medway
Western unitary: Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Malling, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells
Central unitary: Swale, Ashford and Folkestone and Hythe
Eastern unitary: Canterbury, Thanet and Dover

Not what Kent County Council wanted. Full Council voted on 6 November 2025 to back Option 1A — a single unitary authority covering the whole of Kent and Medway, with three area assemblies for the north, east and west. The government went its own way.

So Kent County Council is fighting back. The authority confirmed on 12 October 2026 that it’s pursuing a legal challenge against the decision — and separately, the government paused the entire reorganisation programme in September 2026 to allow its July decision to be reviewed. Which means both the timetable and the final shape of any new councils are, for now, anyone’s guess.

There’s a further wrinkle. Kent and Medway weren’t selected for the government’s Devolution Priority Programme. But ministers have said they’ll work with Kent County Council and Medway Council towards a Mayoral Strategic Authority — a directly elected mayor covering the area — with an ambition to have that in place by 2028.

Kemkaran set out the current position across both reorganisation and devolution in a post to councillors on 5 November 2026.

Whether April 2028 remains realistic depends on what the legal challenge and government review actually produce. Nobody knows yet.

Source: @LeaderofKCC

Published: 6 November 2026