22 September 2026 — A change in council boundaries matters if it changes whether a resident can get a problem resolved. Scotland’s newly published reform proposal should be judged through that everyday test, as well as through its organisation chart.
First, the proposal—not a decision
On 21 September, the Scottish Government sent parliamentary committees an initial proposition for changing local governance. It envisages roughly six to ten regional authorities and 120 to 160 community authorities, with a separate approach for islands. The ministerial letter dated 21 September 2026 and attached proposal describe a starting point for discussion, not an enacted replacement for councils.
The jurisdiction is Scotland. The responsible body is the Scottish Government, seeking discussion with local government and scrutiny through the Scottish Parliament. Ministers seek broad agreement by the end of the year, with early decisions intended to inform the next Scottish Budget. This does not establish an agreed implementation date.
As STV’s reporting on 21 September explains, the existing 32-council structure could be replaced by two levels. Strategic functions would sit regionally and more local functions with community bodies. Councillors would sit on both. Funding arrangements remain unresolved.
For residents, the important word is “could”. No one should read this announcement as an instruction to contact a newly created authority. The issue now is what powers, money and practical capacity a different arrangement would provide.
Follow one unresolved problem
Consider a hypothetical resident trying to get a dangerous route to a community facility improved. The route crosses administrative responsibilities: a damaged path, a road crossing and the opening arrangements of the facility. This example illustrates the questions reform should answer; it is not a reported case.
A smaller community authority might understand the problem quickly. It could hear directly from people who avoid the route after dark or cannot use it with a wheelchair. That closeness would be valuable.
But recognition is only part of the task. If the authority cannot authorise work, access technical advice or agree expenditure with the regional body, the resident could still be passed between offices. Creating a nearer point of contact would not, by itself, create a route to resolution.
AE reading: where does a decision become possible?
That distinction is central to an autopoietic ecology (AE) reading. Developed by Steven Watson and Erik Brezovec, AE asks how capacities to act take shape through organised activity and its supports. In this example, a repair becomes possible through a combination of local knowledge, professional judgement, authorisation and resources. No single part substitutes for all the others.
A reform can change where a meeting takes place without changing who controls the next step. Equally, a regional arrangement could make action easier by giving several communities access to expertise they could not each maintain separately. The label “local” does not settle which arrangement works better.
EdgeLab’s Research Programme suggests following how a difficulty is recognised, translated into an institutional decision and acted upon. For this reform, that would mean tracing representative service requests through the proposed arrangements before treating a redesigned map as an improvement.
Ask who receives the request, who checks the evidence, who can commit money and who must explain a refusal. Then ask what happens when those people disagree. If the answers are unclear in a realistic trial, the ambiguity will not disappear because an organisational diagram looks tidy.
The work of changing over
There is older, relevant context from COSLA’s statement of 11 September. COSLA, the body representing Scottish councils, called for meaningful involvement of communities, staff and trade unions, clearer financial implications and attention to workforce effects. This preceded the new detailed proposition; it should not be presented as a response to every element published yesterday.
Those concerns point towards work that an announcement can leave out. In any redesign, someone must make records usable across changed responsibilities, explain the new arrangements to residents and keep ordinary services operating during the transition. These are implementation questions, not a claim that a particular transition cost has already been calculated.
The AE Concept Guide distinguishes completing an activity once from renewing the capacity to continue. Staff might get through a changeover by carrying extra duties for a short period. That would not show that the new arrangement has enough staffing, accessible procedures or stable expertise for the following years.
There is a democratic version of the same issue. Inviting people to attend meetings does not ensure they can participate. A useful design would examine travel, accessible formats, caring responsibilities and whether comments can affect decisions before options are closed. The point is to test participation in practice rather than count invitations.
The strongest case for reform
A plausible argument for the proposal is that shared regional capacity could reduce fragmentation while community bodies provide a stronger local voice. Keeping the present structure also has costs and weaknesses; continuity is not evidence of success.
This alternative deserves more than dismissal. It calls for comparison with options such as greater joint working within current arrangements. Compare not only administration costs but service access, responsibility for failures and the time residents spend navigating the system. Claimed savings and claimed harms both need evidence.
At this stage, the documents establish the proposal and intended discussion. They do not establish realised savings or improved services. The most useful next publication would show, for a small set of ordinary tasks, the proposed authority, budget, staffing and appeal route side by side. Before asking whether Scotland needs fewer or more bodies, ask: who will be able to resolve the problem, and how will the resident know?
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