Norfolk's councils will not be forced to reorganise, the cabinet minister in charge of local government has said. Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, insisted that proposals for unitary councils would have to come from the 'bottom up', insisting every area was different.

There have been calls for the reorganisation of Norfolk's two-tier county and district council structure after a raft of Norfolk councils rejected proposals for an elected mayor for Norfolk and Suffolk. Some critics did not want to see another layer of government created.

Questioned about whether he wanted to see a local government reorganisation in Norfolk, Mr Javid said: 'It won't be something initiated by central government. I have been quite clear that it is up to local areas if they want to get together to make a proposal to central government, we will listen to it carefully and analyse it.

'It is up to every area how they want to approach the challenges and opportunities they see. It is not up to me to say whether I like it or don't like it. What I have said to people is if they want to put proposals to me, I will look at them.'

Former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader at County Hall Toby Coke said before he resigned last month that UKIP would push for the country's 420 council posts and eight separate bodies to be replaced by 100 councillors in one authority.

Conservative Norfolk County Council leader Cliff Jordan, who has previously indicated he is in favour of a single unitary authority for Norfolk, said nothing would happen until after the May council elections because there was no time to enter into discussions about what they should or should not do. 'If the government are serious about devolving power, you have to have a different system to what just failed. It is not rocket science that one. But I can't say what until after the election because I am too busy fighting an election,' he added. Mr Jordan said there should be an 'open and frank discussion' with districts and parish councils, but said he thought there would be a limit on the size set by central government.