Norfolk County Council elections will take place in May 2026, following an unexpected government announcement on 16 February 2026 — the day before the council's annual budget meeting.

Council Leader Cllr Kay Mason Billig told councillors that Norfolk had agreed in early 2025 to postpone its scheduled May 2025 county elections as part of a devolution deal that promised a 30-year investment in the county. Significant work was carried out during 2025 to establish a Norfolk and Suffolk Mayoral Combined Authority (MCCA).

The government then delayed the inaugural mayoral election from May 2026 to May 2028. In late December 2025, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) asked whether Norfolk could manage devolution preparations and local government reorganisation at the same time as running county elections. The council responded honestly that it lacked the capacity to do both, and a further postponement of county elections was granted.

That postponement has now been reversed with no prior warning. Cllr Mason Billig said Norfolk County Council could not, in the months before an election, consent to the new Statutory Instrument required to formally establish the MCCA. She was critical of what she described as significant and untoward pressure placed on Norfolk by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed MP, and said she was looking forward to the May 2026 elections.

The practical effect is that Norfolk residents will now be able to vote for their county councillors in May 2026, having had that election delayed from May 2025. The future of the devolution and combined authority process is now uncertain.