On 29 January 2007 Challen announced that he would not contest the 2010 general election after a Boundary Commission review abolished his constituency, thus letting Ed Balls contest the new Morley and Outwood constituency, formed from a merger of parts of Morley and Rothwell and Balls' also abolished Normanton constituency.
In 2013 Challen opened an art gallery called 'artHERENT' in Scarborough (North Yorkshire) Market, to display recent works.