Guide to the 2026 English local elections

Local elections are always difficult to summarise, but this year it’s almost impossible. At the time of writing, national polls have five parties polling between 10% and 25%. When this is filtered through the chaotic lenses of First Past the Post, local electoral contexts and low turnout, predicting the results of any individual contest is very difficult.

These elections are already unprecedented. Just a few weeks ago, we thought that 30 council elections would be postponed due to local government reorganisation. However, faced with a legal challenge, the government reversed this decision on 16 February and reinstated these elections on their original schedule. This has meant that many places have had to hastily arrange these elections, parties have had to find candidates and administrators have had to put in all the work behind the scenes to make sure they go ahead. Our research into the work of electoral administrators finds major challenges to providing this essential service in a normal election year, so the volatility of this postponement and reinstatement is far from welcome. From the outset, these contests have been unusual.

Setting aside this delay and reinstatement, we can use recent results to provide some context. In any set of local elections, we usually look at what happened four years ago and what happened last year. Four years ago, when many of these contests were last held, Boris Johnson was the Prime Minister, and the results were marked by Conservative losses, modest Labour gains, and a handful of significant victories for the Liberal Democrats and the Greens. In these elections, Reform UK was still a minor party, winning only a handful of seats.

Against that backdrop, Labour has a lot to lose, and the Conservatives still have much that could go wrong in the counties. Following their strong performances last time these seats were up, the Liberal Democrats and Greens could win many new seats this year, particularly at Labour’s expense in urban areas, and the Conservatives’ expense across rural and suburban southern England.

The results in 2025, however, show just how much has changed in the intervening years. The collapse in the polls of Labour and the Conservatives, and the giant surge in Reform UK support, mean that from a national perspective, the question everyone will be asking is: how far can Labour and Conservative support fall, and how much can Reform win?

However, LGIU takes a slightly different approach. As interesting as the national picture always is, these are local contests, and the effects they have will be primarily felt by local residents – with the possible exception of if they lead to a change in Prime Minister. Local contests are not only important for what they tell us about the state of the national parties; they are important in their own right as decisions about how a local area should be governed.

Keep reading for findings of exclusive polling on public attitudes to local government, LGR and voting reforms.

Looking at the political control of the councils up for election this year, it is clear that the Labour Party has most to lose on 7 May. That is largely a product of geography, with Labour dominating the northern metropolitan councils and London boroughs that elect their representatives this year. This is in stark contrast to last year’s elections, where the Labour Party only had one council defence, and the Conservatives lost majority control of all 15 of the 15 councils they were defending. The Greens and Reform UK hold none of the councils up for election this year, making them, arguably, those with the least to lose.

County councils

This year, we will see six county council elections take place, exclusively across the South of England. This handful of counties were due to hold elections in May 2025, but these were postponed due to the Government’s ambition to accelerate the process of local government reorganisation in these Devolution Priority Programme areas. The Government sought again to postpone some of these elections from May 2026 to May 2027, but reversed these plans in the face of a mounting legal challenge. Therefore, elections will be taking place this year to:

• Norfolk County Council
• Suffolk County Council
• Essex County Council
• East Sussex County Council
• West Sussex County Council
• Hampshire County Council

A unique pair of elections this year is that of East and West Surrey councils – the shadow unitaries that are the successors of Surrey County Council, which is undergoing an accelerated local government reorganisation timeline – which will elect their inaugural set of councillors.

Last year’s elections saw the Conservatives lose control of every county council that they held of those up for election, with Reform being the largest beneficiary of their losses, while other councils were claimed by the Liberal Democrats, or spun into a new state of No Overall Control. Will we see a similar pattern across the handful of county councils up for election this year?

Non-county councils

Of course, the vast majority of contests this year are not county councils, and those going to the polls on 7 May 2026 will largely do so across:

• All 32 London boroughs
• 32 metropolitan boroughs
• 18 unitary authorities
• 48 district councils

There will also be six directly elected mayoral contests. However,  these are only for those covering a single council/borough, and the scheduled inaugural Strategic Authority mayoral elections for the Devolution Priority Programme areas were postponed from this year to May 2028.

Most of these councils last had their seats up for election in 2022, though some of these include the other councils in Devolution Priority Programme areas who had their 2025 elections postponed to this year – meaning it has been up to five years since these council seats were last contested. A lot has changed since the 2022 local elections – in the final months of Boris Johnson’s premiership – but that does not mean we cannot infer from polling that these councils will see other parties gain at the expense of Labour and the Conservatives.

East Midlands

There is only one contest in the East Midlands this year, in the City of Lincoln, where a third of seats are up. However, Labour could still lose the majority they have held here since 2011. They are defending seven of the eleven vacancies, in some of which they have consistently polled more than 50% of the vote share. Yet Reform picked up a few seats in the Lincoln area for the Lincolnshire County Council elections last year (although so did Labour and the Liberal Democrats), so this will be an interesting one to watch.

East of England

The Conservatives will be eager to hold on to Essex County Council, where they face a strong Reform challenge. The same is true in Suffolk County Council, where they defend 60% of seats, and Norfolk County Council, where there have been boundary changes. They will want to avoid a similar outcome to 2025, when the Conservatives lost control of many county/unitary councils to Reform UK.

Labour doesn’t control many councils in the region outright, and only one (Thurrock) has all its seats up. However, their majority in Cambridge is small, and they defend ten of the 14 seats in contention. Whilst they only won one seat in 2022, a resurgent Green or Liberal Democrat (who won three in 2022) force could easily deprive them of an overall majority.

This region is at the forefront of the Government’s plans for local government reorganisation, and represents three of the five areas that constitute the Devolution Priority Programme. Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk recently received decisions on what their future councils will look like – these new authorities will have their inaugural elections at the next set of elections.

London

Every borough in London is up for election this year, all of which will be electing their whole councils, and the sheer breadth of different contests makes it hard to summarise. Labour has full control of more than half the councils in London, and won 21 of the 32 last time they were up in 2022, so it has the furthest to fall. They face threats from several parties across the capital.

The extent to which Labour are concerned about Reform UK was made evident when the Labour Leader of Barking and Dagenham – where Labour won all of the 51 seats in 2022 – warned against complacency in London. Barking and Dagenham voted to leave the EU in 2016, and the dynamics at play here will be a bellwether for Reform’s support more generally. While Labour are dominant, they now have 47 councillors after three defections to the Green party and one to the Conservatives, and Reform UK could come from having no seats to a sizeable proportion of them.

Lewisham is one borough where Labour’s biggest threat comes from the Greens. In 2022, Labour won all of the 54 seats here but have since had four defections to the Green party. The Green candidate came second in the 2024 Mayoral by-election, and while they received less than a fifth of the votes, tides have changed over the last two years. A left-wing swing could see several Labour seats go Green. Other possible Labour-to-Green ones to watch are the boroughs of Islington, Lambeth, and Hackney.

In Merton, Labour face a challenge from the Liberal Democrats. Both the vote share and seat totals were more evenly split across parties in this borough at the 2022 election. Labour won a little over half of the 57 seats, the Liberal Democrats coming second with 17 councillors, the Conservatives winning seven and two for Merton Park Residents. However, the Liberal Democrats gained 12 seats in 2022 to become the official opposition for the first time, and any continued shift away from Labour to them could result in a change of governance.

There are far fewer Conservative-controlled councils in London, meaning a smaller number where any party might pose a challenge. Bexley council is a likely target for Reform UK, and there are opportunities in Croydon (where the Conservatives hold the relatively new mayoral position) and in Bromley.

Havering is also an interesting one to watch. In 2022, the Havering Residents Association won 23 of the 55 seats in the borough and entered a short-lived coalition with Labour (which had eight seats), but they now govern with a 25-seat minority after defections to them from both Labour and the Conservatives. Reform UK now have three councillors on the council, all of who have defected from the Conservatives since 2025. Sitting on the Essex border, and with voters turning away from the two main parties, this may become a Residents-Reform battleground.

This year is likely to be when No Overall Control (NOC) reaches London. A region which has typically seen one-party dominance in its boroughs, the NOC phenomenon, increasingly experienced in the rest of the country, might hit the capital. You can read more about how councils in NOC operate in our guide here.

North East

The North East has a host of Labour-dominated areas that could go to Reform UK. As a region that voted heavily in favour of Brexit, UKIP enjoyed success here that may have paved the way for Reform to win seats in 2026.

Two councils that are both Labour but could flip are Sunderland and Gateshead. Having been through a boundary review, all 75 seats in Sunderland are up for election. Of these, 54 are considered Labour defences, 12 for the Liberal Democrats and the remaining nine Conservative. Labour have run the council since its creation in 1974, but since winning the neighbouring Durham in 2025, plus a council by-election in the area (though the councillor later chose to sit as an Independent), Reform UK are heavily targeting Sunderland. Similarly Gateshead is also ‘all out’ due to boundary changes.

Despite only a third of seats being up, Labour may also lose control in Hartlepool. The picture here is more precarious for Labour as they only need to lose a handful of the seven seats they defend for a No Overall Control result. A combination of defections and a 2025 council by-election win in the Thorston ward means Reform UK have this local authority in their sights.

North West

Labour has historically been very strong in the North West. Indeed, more than two-thirds of the seats being contested are defended by Labour incumbents. Most contests in the region only have a third of their seats up, so although Labour could lose control, in very few of them could another party take outright control. However, it’s worth keeping an eye on some of the ethnically diverse areas of Central Manchester and Salford, to see if trends in Green party support continue following the Gorton & Denton parliamentary by-election. Whereas places like Bolton are worth watching as targets for Reform UK.

South East

There are more than 900 vacancies in the South East. Across the region, 45% of seats are being defended by the Conservatives, then roughly a fifth each by Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Just two are Reform UK defences and the remaining are split between the Greens, Independents and local parties. This diversity is reflected in the council control too, which is set to change in some areas.

One to look out for is Hampshire. The council has been under Conservative party control since 1997, and has never been controlled by any other single party since its creation in 1974. Its comparable year is 2021 because elections were postponed last year. This means the 54 out of 78 seats being defended by the Conservatives were won in a year when they were still making gains, before Boris Johnson had left his premiership. With their support in a substantially different state in 2026, the Conservatives could lose their solid majority there.

Hampshire – together with Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk – represents one of the Devolution Priority Programme areas, and recently received a decision on what the region’s future councils will look like after local government reorganisation. These new authorities will have their inaugural elections at the next set of elections.

Surrey, which is on an accelerated timeline for local government reorganisation, is transitioning from two-tier local government to two new unitary authorities. Therefore, there are elections for two new Surrey councils this year, whose representatives will have “shadow” status until the unitary authorities come into force next year. East Surrey is the most solidly Conservative, electing 72 shadow councillors who will be in post until 2031. Whereas West Surrey, where there are 90 vacancies, sees a credible Liberal Democrat presence alongside the Conservatives.

Six councils in the South East are currently controlled by Labour. Each of these is flippable, the largest majority being by seven seats in Reading. There are 16 vacancies this May, 10 of which are being defended by Labour, and the Greens could continue to eat into their support here. In Milton Keynes, a boundary review forces an ‘all out’ election for 60 seats and Labour only needs to be down one to lose the overall majority they gained for the first time there in 2024.

The Green party have their sights set on Hastings, where they need to make five gains to win overall control of the council. There are 16 seats in contention, with Labour defending nine of those, and any Labour losses mean the Greens could take it.

Another one to watch is West Oxfordshire, where the Liberal Democrats only need four gains to achieve a council majority. Again, electing in thirds, 16 vacancies are up. With Labour defending three seats and the Conservatives four, 2026 could be the first time West Oxfordshire has been governed by a single party that is not the Conservatives since its creation in 1974.

South West

There are 77 wards electing councillors in the South West and all four local authorities could be considered ones to watch. Labour currently control three of them but could lose all if they have a particularly bad night.

In Exeter, Labour have held a majority since 2012, but last year’s May by-elections saw their support fragment. Reform UK returned their first councillor in the area in 2025, and the Greens currently hold seven seats (the remaining being four Liberal Democrats, three Conservatives and two Independents). If voters continue to split, Labour may retain their seats on a smaller vote share, but if support coalesces around a single party, then they could lose control of the council for the first time in 14 years.

Plymouth is a council that has repeatedly swung between Labour, Conservative and No Overall Control. There was a strong UKIP presence here in the pre-referendum years, making it a target for Reform UK. Yet some of the leafy wards on the outskirts of Plymouth have elected Greens. With five different local government reorganisation plans under consultation for Devon, the leadership of this council is one to keep an eye on.

It is the first time that Swindon is using the ‘all out’ method of electing councillors. As the largest council electing in the South West, it has 57 seats up for grabs. Boundary changes mean there is no directly comparable year, but Labour currently hold 41 seats and controls the council. It was Conservative until 2023, but a growing mobilisation from the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Reform means it is certainly one to watch.

Finally, Cheltenham has been Liberal Democrat since 2024, when the Conservatives lost heavily. In 2022, our comparison year, all seats bar two that elected Greens went to the Liberal Democrats.

West Midlands

The West Midlands has been a Conservative-Labour battleground; the two parties combined are defending 90% of the 490 seats in contention. But this might be the year we see more fragmentation.

One of the big symbolic contests is whether Labour can hold Birmingham. There are 101 seats up for election in 69 wards and Labour are defending nearly 65% of them. The party’s average share was more than half of all votes in 2022, and they won the Mayoral election for West Midlands Combined Authority from the Conservatives in 2024. Yet as an ethnically diverse area of England, there is a strong Independent presence and Reform UK have been polling well in some parts of the local authority. The financial difficulties of the council, along with strikes and dissatisfaction with the Labour government in Westminster, could see voters turn to alternatives.

Walsall is a key contest for the Conservatives. Most of the 20 wards have been subject to boundary changes, and the Conservatives defend 38 of the 60 vacancies. Just three have Independent incumbents, the remaining 19 are currently held by Labour. Reform UK see the council as a target, after taking control of nearby local authorities such as Staffordshire, and winning their first seat in Walsall at a by-election in September 2025. This is one to watch for the extent of Conservative losses.

Yorkshire and The Humber

The Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley is one to watch in the Yorkshire region. Labour have held control of the council since its creation in 1974 but are now facing a credible threat from Reform UK. Of the 63 vacancies up for election, Labour defend more than three-quarters of them. So far, Reform have only ever won two seats in Barnsley, but Labour fared worst here the last time it was in government, when the Barnsley Independents won 22 seats in 2006. The same could happen again with Reform as the challenger, though boundary changes make it difficult to tell. Turnout here is often among the lowest in the country, sometimes only reaching 16% of eligible voters, meaning any change might be brought by a small subset of residents and making every vote count more.

It’s also worth keeping an eye on Sheffield, which is currently No Overall Control with Labour as the largest party. There are 28 seats up and 15 of these are being defended by Labour, nine by the Liberal Democrats and four by the Greens. This split reflects the balance of the council’s 84-seat total. With Labour’s vote share expected to collapse across England, the Liberal Democrats would need to make 15 gains (for instance, take all of Labour’s seats) to take control of the council, but the Greens are also rising in vote share. This one is a battle for the left, who are all currently working together in the local authority administration.

Every year, LGIU commissions Ipsos to conduct polling of public attitudes towards local government and local issues around the time of that year’s local elections. This year, Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,877 adults in England, aged 18-75, via the Ipsos online omnibus. This data was collected between 6-10 March 2026 and quotas have been applied on age and gender, region and working status. The data was then weighted to the England adult population profile on age, region and working status within gender, as well as on education and social grade.

Insights from Ipsos polling

Councils are trusted, and their impact on people’s lives is recognised

Polling of the general public indicates that more than three in five recognise the role that councils play in impacting the quality of life in their local area. The public also sees councils as possessing a stronger ability to impact people’s everyday lives than national government, the civil service, and other sectors of society – at 61%

Local authorities run an array of essential services, and despite reduced spending power under sustained funding pressures, they remain the first port of call for residents during times of need. From education to housing, and social care to green spaces, councillors, supported by officers, are elected to effect positive change in their areas, with local elections marking the essential process of determining who takes on these key responsibilities.

Councils and councillors are also more trusted than the UK government, national media and civil service to act in the best interest of people in their local area – a trend that has been visible in this polling over a number of years. However, they are less trusted than local community groups and businesses, and this trust varies across different social groups and regions. For instance, older cohorts and non-graduates tend to trust local councils least, while those living in London are more likely to trust them to act in the best interest of people in their local area.

To what extent, if at all, do you trust each of the following to act in the best interests of people in your local area?

To what extent, if at all, do you trust your local council to act in the best interests of people in your local area?

Councils enable local decision-making, which the public largely supports

The views of local residents and councillors are seen as the most important in making decisions about local areas (both at 48%) – notably higher than the UK government (26%) or the civil service (9%). Other local actors (e.g. local MP, community groups, businesses) are also seen as more important than national bodies.

Overall, whose views do you think are most important, if any, when it comes to making decisions like these that impact your local area?

There is also strong public consensus that local residents should have a say in decision making. However, outcomes are important too, and most of those polled said that it does not matter who makes the decisions, or where they are made, so long as they are the ‘right decisions’.

Which of these statements, if any, comes closest to your own views towards how the local council makes decisions about local public services in your area?

Furthermore, a majority say they want to know more about how decisions are taken locally or have more of a say in making them – though only a few want to be actively involved.

To what extent, if at all, do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

Our view at LGIU:

Taken together, these findings indicate the essential democratic role of local government. Councils enjoy higher levels of trust than national institutions, and are seen as possessing greater powers to influence local quality of life. They anchor decision-making to the local level, filling what would otherwise be a significant democratic deficit. While individuals may not want to be heavily involved in all local decisions, they do want their voices listened to – and assurance that decisions are being made in their best interests. Local elections provide a platform for this voice and ensure that officials make decisions based on elected mandates.

As we know already, people vote more often in general elections than in local elections, with older cohorts most likely to vote compared to young people. This year, the majority (81%) are registered to vote in local elections, but those aged 18-24 are the least likely to be registered compared to all other age groups.

Many people don’t always vote in all types of elections. How often, if at all, would you say you vote in….

As you may know, the upcoming local elections in England are scheduled to be held on 7th May 2026. As far as you know, are you registered to take part in these local elections?

Will electoral reforms influence turnout?

Earlier this month, the Government announced that weekend voting and shopping centre polling stations would be trialled across a handful of pilot local authorities during this year’s local elections. The Government also indicated its intent to shift towards an automated system of voter registration. However, such changes will not yet shift the dial on the sustained lows of local election turnout this year, particularly since any material changes are restricted to only a handful of areas and other changes remain on the horizon for now. Nevertheless, this polling gives a chance to test the public’s view on potential changes to the electoral system.

About two-thirds of those polled support the idea of automatically registering eligible adults to vote and polling stations being open on weekends, while a majority support voters having the option to vote online and polling stations being open on more than one day. Notably, though, older age groups are more likely to oppose these changes, with 31% of 55–75-year-olds opposing polling stations being open on more than one day and 27% opposing voters having the option to vote online.

To what extent would you support or oppose, if either, the following changes being made to how people currently vote in local elections?

Over two-thirds say voters in England would be more likely to vote at local elections if they had the option to vote online, with a majority also saying that weekend/multi-day voting and automatic registration would increase the likelihood of voters casting ballots. However, on an individual level, a majority say hypothetical changes would make no difference in their own likelihood to vote in local elections.

Do you think voters in England overall would be more or less likely to vote at local elections if these changes were made, or would it make no difference?

Do you think you personally would be more or less likely to vote at local elections if these changes were made, or would it make no difference?

Overall, there is broad public support for the proposed electoral reforms of online voting, weekend polling, and automatic registration. These may help to increase voter turnout in future elections – but will not substantively increase this year’s turnout, as they are not yet enacted policies nationwide.

These elections are taking place against a backdrop of the twin processes of local government reorganisation and devolution. However, the majority of those polled were unfamiliar with government plans to devolve further powers to local government – with less than one in three saying they were following these plans fairly/very closely. This is significantly below the ‘bigger’ news stories of recent months – and notably lower than the Government’s postponement and reinstatement of some local elections.

How closely, if at all, have you been following stories about…

The Government’s plans for devolution are dominated by the shift towards directly-elected regional Mayors. This polling tested the public’s perception of these Mayors, finding that over two in five see directly elected Mayors as more of a good thing than a bad thing for local government, overall. This was highest among younger cohorts and Labour voters are more likely to see them as a good thing. Only 12% of those polled see Mayors as more of a bad thing than a good thing for local areas.

Overall, do you think having a directly elected Mayor is a good or bad thing for a local area?

Furthermore, nearly half think Mayors make local government accountable to residents and give the area a voice in Westminster. In comparison to last year, there has been an increase in the proportion of those who think that having a directly elected Mayor can have a positive impact across the listed areas. Older age groups were the most likely to feel negatively about the impact of having a directly elected Mayor – this was felt most strongly in that 31% of 55-75s thought having a Mayor would negatively impact ‘value for money for the taxpayer’. Those who claim to know how decisions are taken in local areas were more likely to say directly elected Mayors have a more positive impact across all of the listed areas. The proportion of those polled who expressed positive views on each potential advantage of an elected Mayor has risen 4-5% across the board.

Do you think that having a directly elected Mayor has a positive or negative impact, if either, on the following for a local area?

In terms of local government reorganisation – the other key strand of this Government’s plan for local government transformation – there is still no public consensus that unitary authorities produce better outcomes, with the highest share of those polled indicating that they prefer a combination of both district and county councils. Older age groups are most split on the question of which form produces better outcomes, while younger age groups are more likely to think a combination of both council types works best (47% of 18-44-year-olds; against 30% of those aged 45+).

To the best of your knowledge, which of the following arrangements for local government work best, if either?