This is a survey for people who live and work in Burnley and Pendle
The Government wants to change how local councils are organised across England. This is called Local Government Reorganisation.
Lancashire is currently made up of 15 authorities - one county council, two unitary authorities and 12 district councils. Each organisation is responsible for delivering different services.
Burnley Borough Council and Pendle Borough Council currently provide services to around 100,000 residents each.
Local Government Reorganisation will replace the current two-tier system with larger unitary authorities in Lancashire which will be responsible for all local services in an area. While it appears that the majority opinion is to retain the current structure across Lancashire, Government has indicated that this is not a viable option.
The options
There are five different proposals for unitary councils that are being prepared for Lancashire. A consultation was launched across Lancashire last month requesting your initial views which ended on Sunday 28 September 2025.
As there isn’t a consensus on the unitary footprints across Lancashire, different councils are preparing their own bids and developing their preferred option.
The options include:
- two unitary authorities
- three unitary authorities
- four unitary authorities
- five unitary authorities
For Burnley and Pendle, four of these options would mean a new unitary council providing services to between 500,000 and almost 880,000 residents. Due to concerns over the size, Burnley and Pendle Councils are proposing smaller unitary councils with the five unitary model.
> Click here to view the options
Our preferred option
Burnley Borough Council and Pendle Borough Council support developing proposals for five unitary councils across Lancashire and are jointly preparing a business case for this.
We want a unitary council which covers Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale and serves approximately 272,000 residents. We believe that a smaller unitary council would mean we’re closer to residents and more able to engage with people and deliver good quality services like adult social care, health services, highways and waste services.
(Map shows the five unitary model)
We believe that it is important to engage with residents, businesses and key stakeholders on our preferred option to get your views. Other councils may also do something similar in their areas.
Have your say
Any new council model needs to have our residents and communities at its heart. That’s why we want to hear from you.
This survey seeks the views of people who live and/or work in Burnley and Pendle.
Responses to this survey are anonymous and will be used to help us understand what local people think about local government reorganisation in the area. You can find out more about how we process data in this Privacy Notice.