English local elections will be held on the 4 May. As of March there are 75 councils across England in “No Overall Control”. Ingrid Koehler and Greg Stride look at what this means in practice. This post is part of LGIU’s one-stop shop for local elections coverage, analysis and support. We will update this page once we have the election results. Make sure you’re registered with us so you get election updates – including our ever popular local elections “Ones to Watch”
What does NOC mean in practice?
So what does it mean to be a NOC council? As you might expect, it’s a little different in each council area. Some councils have a minority administration often because one party has half or close to half of the seats and they are the largest party. In other places coalitions are formed where the political flavour is a little more evenly distributed. In some councils, the largest political party is unable to form a minority administration because a coalition of smaller parties has banded together. Across these different possibilities we see a range of governance options.
In practice, NOC councils can work really well and help politicians come together around local issues without spending too much time on party political issues. In other NOC councils, there is constant political jostling.
When councils mainly operated under committee systems, some councils had rotating chairs and power was genuinely shared. Most councils now have Cabinet systems and decisions are made by the executive rather than in committees. And this is why councils with a Leader and Cabinet model want clear majorities and there can be a scramble for power when the political balance is fine. Effectively, though, once the leader has been chosen he or she can form a cabinet and get on with running the council, with only occasional need to go to the full council on things like budget setting.
Jonathan Carr-West, Chief Executive of LGIU:
“Councils in No Overall Control is a quirk of local authority governance that can be confusing for citizens. But it doesn’t mean that no one’s making decisions. In most cases one party will be able to form a cabinet, either with support from other parties or because the other parties do not agree on enough to effectively oppose them. That might sound unstable but in reality NOC councils have a pretty good track record of getting business done effectively.”
How is it calculated?
At the LGIU, we define a council as NOC if no single party holds 50%+1 of the seats.
England’s “first past the post” system for individual wards tends to favour bigger parties so it’s often easier for local party machinery to get out candidates in all wards and depending on the flavour of local politics have one party or another in charge. Most of England’s councils are majority run and some councils are or nearly are a one party state, for example Lewisham in London or Manchester which has over 90 Labour councillors and only a few Liberal Democrats.
Where alternative voting systems are used, such as in Scotland or Northern Ireland, multiple parties often win considerable numbers of seats. In Northern Ireland, by design it’s very difficult for any single party to have a majority administration – none of the 11 Northern Ireland districts with elections in 2023 have a single party majority. The single transferrable vote (STV) system encourages multi-party ward representation so to gain an all-out majority means that not only must one party do really well across all wards, other parties must not also do consistently well as a 2nd or 3rd choice.
Councils with No Overall Control in England up for election this year
There are 230 councils in England holding elections this year. Unfortunately, there is no central data source collecting information on all council seats, vacancies or control, so we have made use of the excellent data collected at Open Council Data UK. The numbers here are correct as of 16/03/2023 using our definition of No Overall Control mentioned above.
Of the 230 councils holding elections, 75 of them do not currently have a party with 50%+1 seats. 49 of these are holding all-council elections, meaning that the party composition could change substantially after the election. The other 26 are holding elections in only a third of their seats.
Lancaster City Council is the council furthest away from any single party forming a majority. The council has 60 seats in total, but the largest party (Labour) only has 16.
On the other hand, there are 10 councils where only one seat has to flip to the largest party to give them an overall majority. In most of these the largest party is far and away the biggest and the other parties are only just preventing them from forming a majority alone, but one of them – Gravesham Borough Council in Kent – is on a knife edge between Labour and the Conservatives. Out of 44 total seats, the Conservatives have 21 and Labour 22. They will definitely be one of our ‘ones to watch’ this year’.
English Councils moving in and out of No Overall Control
| Council | Coalition | Type |
|---|---|---|
| North Kesteven District Council | CON/IND | District |
| Boston Borough Council | CON min | District |
| South Derbyshire District Council | LAB min | District |
| High Peak Borough Council | LAB min | District |
| West Lindsey District Council | CON min | District |
| Mansfield District Council | LAB Mayor | District |
| Rutland County Council | CON/IND/GRN | Unitary |
| Broxtowe Borough Council | LAB/LD/IND | District |
| Derby City Council | CON min | Unitary |
| Maldon District Council | CON/IND/LD | District |
| Mid Suffolk District Council | CON/IND | District |
| Rochford District Council | CON min | District |
| Tendring District Council | CON/IND | District |
| Babergh District Council | IND/LD/GRN | District |
| Bedford Borough Council | LD Mayor | Unitary |
| North Hertfordshire District Council | LAB/LD | District |
| Colchester Borough Council | LD/LAB/GRN | District |
| Southend-on-Sea City Council | LAB/IND/LD | Unitary |
| Peterborough City Council | CON min | Unitary |
| Middlesbrough Council | IND Mayor | Unitary |
| Hartlepool Borough Council | CON/IND | Unitary |
| Darlington Borough Council | CON min | Unitary |
| Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council | LAB min | Unitary |
| Redcar & Cleveland Council | IND/LD | Unitary |
| South Ribble Borough Council | LAB min | District |
| Hyndburn Borough Council | LAB min | District |
| Cheshire West and Chester Council | LAB min | Unitary |
| West Lancashire Borough Council | LAB min | District |
| Blackpool Council | LAB min | Unitary |
| Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council | LD min | Metropolitan |
| Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council | LAB min | Metropolitan |
| Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council | CON min | Metropolitan |
| Burnley Borough Council | LAB/LD | District |
| Lancaster City Council | GRN/IND | District |
| Cheshire East Council | LAB/IND | Unitary |
| Gravesham Borough Council | LAB min | District |
| Crawley Borough Council | LAB/IND | District |
| Wokingham Borough Council | LD/LAB/IND | Unitary |
| Hart District Council | IND/LD | District |
| Chichester District Council | CON min | District |
| Guildford Borough Council | IND/LD | District |
| Rother District Council | IND/LD/LAB | District |
| Milton Keynes Council | LAB/LD | Unitary |
| Portsmouth City Council | LD min | Unitary |
| South Oxfordshire District Council | LD/GRN | District |
| Spelthorne Borough Council | CON min | District |
| Surrey Heath Borough Council | CON min | District |
| Ashford Borough Council | CON min | District |
| Elmbridge Borough Council | IND/LD | District |
| Folkestone and Hythe District Council | CON/GRN/LD/IND | District |
| Swale Borough Council | LAB/IND/LD/GRN | District |
| West Oxfordshire District Council | LD/LAB/GRN | District |
| Arun District Council | CON min | District |
| Canterbury City Council | CON min | District |
| Brighton & Hove City Council | GRN min | Unitary |
| Lewes District Council | LD/GRN/LAB/IND | District |
| Tandridge District Council | IND | District |
| Tunbridge Wells Borough Council | LD/IND/LAB | District |
| Waverley Borough Council | IND/LD/LAB/GRN | District |
| Thanet District Council | CON min | District |
| Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council | CON min | District |
| Plymouth City Council | CON min | Unitary |
| Torbay Council | LD/IND | Unitary |
| East Devon District Council | IND/LD/GRN | District |
| Mid Devon District Council | CON/IND | District |
| Teignbridge District Council | LD min | District |
| Torridge District Council | IND | District |
| Forest of Dean District Council | IND/GRN | District |
| North Somerset Council | IND/LD/LAB/GRN | Unitary |
| Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council | CON min | Unitary |
| Wyre Forest District Council | IND/LD/LAB/GRN | District |
| Worcester City Council | CON min | District |
| Malvern Hills District Council | IND/LD | District |
| Stafford Borough Council | CON min | District |
| Stoke-on-Trent City Council | CON min | Unitary |
| Warwick District Council | CON/IND | District |
| York City Council | LD/GRN | Unitary |
| Sheffield City Council | LAB/LD/GRN | Metropolitan |
| Herefordshire Council | IND/GRN | Unitary |
LGIU’s full elections resources – updated every week
Every year LGIU puts the spotlight on local elections, with information, commentary and analysis for our members and wider local government.
Because for us, these elections are the most important elections – the part of our democracy that is embedded in the places where we live and work. And supporting the people who make local elections happen, who uphold our local democracy, is at the heart of what the LGIU is about.
