The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has issued a consultation on the proposal from seven of the eight Northamptonshire councils for local government reorganisation.
The consultation will consider whether the proposals will improve the quality of local government, whether there is public support for them, if the new council areas are workable, and if all options have been fully considered.
The affected councils, and specifically Corby Borough which did not join in making the proposal, along with interested residents, businesses and representatives of the voluntary sector, are invited to submit their views.
The consultation will close on 25 January 2019.
Its launch follows the decision of independent inspector Max Caller in March 2018 that the County Council was not able to put in place a recovery package quickly enough to avoid having a harmful effect on residents.
Caller recommended replacing the current two-tier system of county and district/borough councils with single-tier authorities.
The eight principal councils were asked to come up with proposals and submitted their proposal in August. It was endorsed by seven of them, with Corby voting to not formally support it.
The proposal would see the creation of two unitary authorities: one covering the north; and the other the west of the county.
