Historic English cities including Winchester, Canterbury and Southend-on-Sea risk losing their official city status as a result of Angela Rayner's Local Government Reorganisation, which is abolishing the councils that currently hold their royal charters. Councils are now racing to set up "charter trustee" bodies to preserve their titles, mayoralties and coats of arms before new, larger unitary authorities take over in 2028, a process officials have described as complex and unnecessary. The Conservatives have criticised the reforms as a "constitutional wrecking ball" that burdens historic places with costly bureaucracy for no clear benefit.

Winchester, once capital of Alfred the Great's Anglo-Saxon kingdom, and Canterbury, home to England's oldest cathedral, are both being folded into larger authorities and are uncertain about the cost or timescale of retaining their status, with council leaders citing fears of repeating Rochester's 1998 loss of its centuries-old city status through an administrative error. Southend-on-Sea, granted city status only in 2021 in honour of murdered MP Sir David Amess, is similarly at risk. Setting up charter trustees to safeguard civic identity is expected to add a "modest" annual precept of between £2 and £18 to household council tax bills.