Ministers decide future shape of Kent and Medway’s councils

Government ministers have today (Thursday 16 July) decided Kent and Medway will be served by four completely new councils from April 2028.

In the biggest shake up of local authority arrangements in 50 years, the government is replacing Kent County Council, Medway Council and the 12 district, borough and city councils that currently deliver services in the county with four new unitary councils.

Those councils will deliver all of the services in their area, much like Medway Council does today, including education, social services, highways, libraries, emptying your bins, leisure centres and housing services.

Following a government consultation which attracted around 3,000 responses, the Secretary of State has opted for (as per the above map):

• a unitary council covering the areas currently served by Dartford, Gravesham and Medway in the north
• a unitary council covering the areas currently served by Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Malling, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells in the west
• a unitary council covering the areas currently served by Swale, Ashford and Folkestone and Hythe in the middle of Kent
• a unitary council covering the areas currently served by Canterbury, Thanet and Dover in the east

In a statement, Kent and Medway’s council leaders said: “We want to reassure our residents that not one of our services will change overnight – you will still be dealing with the same council staff tomorrow and the day after that.

“The new councils will not come into being until 1 April 2028.

“All of the councils in Kent and Medway have a long history of working closely together to do the very best for the people we serve and that will not change one bit.

“This is the start of the process of bringing our different teams together with the aim of designing then delivering the best possible services for the people we serve.

“Of course, this change affects the thousands of council staff across the county who work incredibly hard day in and day out.

“Our focus will be supporting them through this change while helping them to carry on delivering our business-as-usual services seamlessly.

“There is a lot of work to do but we will make sure we take every opportunity to make our services the very best they can be.”

Read the government’s written statement on local government reorganisation.

Published: 16 July 2026