What effect do you think the boundary changes will have in 2009 ? And what seats do you think will be competitive ?
The final report of the Boundary Commission for Wales was made to the Secretary of State on 31 January. The government probably didn't place an order before Parliament so as to avoid having Wales get ahead of England (this is the opposite of Scotland, where they would want to lock in the reduction of seats).
In Wales, the number of seats is the same (40), and the distribution roughly the same. The boundary between Clwyd and Gwynedd was moved westward, which had a beneficial effect on the population parity for the Gwynedd seats (only 3 constituencies).
But since you said metropolitan counties, you were probably referring to England. The BCE issued its provisional recommendations for its last review, Greater Manchester, in March. Typically, it has been taking from 12-15 months from provisional recommendation to final recommendation. Perhaps this may speed up now that no new recommendations have to be generated.
The stage of remaining areas is:
22. Greater Manchester. Provisional recommendations made. Based on public representations, local hearings may be held (hearings are held in almost all areas, though some boroughs in metro areas are sometimes skipped). Hearings would probably be held in late fall, with revised recommendations then happening early in 2006. This would mean that the final report England could be submitted about a year from now.
21. Tyne&Wear. Hearings will be held in June.
20. West Yorkshire. Hearings will be held in late June/early July (they were rescheduled because of election).
19. South Yorkshire. Hearings were held in March. Commission will decide in September whether to accept any revisions proposed in response hearings.
18. West Midlands. Hearings were held in January. The commission will decide in June whether to accept any revisions proposed in response to hearings.
I think that the commission takes public representations in response to the revised recommendations - but almost always they do not result in any changes.
17&16 Merseyside&Cleveland. Hearings were held last Sepetember. The commission will decide in June whether to accept any revisions proposed in response to hearings. This was delayed from May due to election.
