NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has been forced to publicly correct one of her ministers and declare there will be no more council mergers, after the minister flagged a possible revival of the controversial policy before the next state election.

Local government minister Gabrielle Upton revived the issue of forced mergers during a budget estimates hearing on Friday morning, where she repeatedly refused to rule out further forced mergers, saying only that "there are no plans at this time".

However, Ms Berejikilian moved quickly to correct the record on Friday afternoon, issuing a statement soon after Fairfax Media had published Ms Upton's comments.

"We have drawn a line under this issue," Ms Berejiklian said in the statement. "There will be no more forced council amalgamations."