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Chiefs take charge
6/4/2026 Uncertainty at several local authorities as recent elections leave chief executives presiding over a changing political landscape. |
Half of teenagers uncertain about voting, Children's Commissioner warns
5/8/2026 Half of 13 to 17-year-olds either do not know which political party they would support at the next election or whether they would vote, new polling finds. |
Reform UK ousts Derbyshire deputy council leader in secret ballot
5/8/2026 Derbyshire County Council's Reform UK group has removed its deputy leader following a secret ballot of the party's councillors. |
Printing fault sees council distribute ballots by hand
5/7/2026 Cardiff Council has been required to deliver voting packs by hand following a printing error that resulted in nearly 1,400 ballots not reaching applicants. |
Prevention 'insufficiently embedded' in social care, says COSLA
4/28/2026 Scotland's social care system faces unsustainable strain, with services trapped in reactive crisis management rather than preventative support, COSLA warns. |
Greens propose council tax replacement
4/15/2026 The Scottish Greens have proposed replacing the current council tax with a residential property tax that would be more proportional to property values. |
Wales Green Party pledges ‘rent pressure zones’
4/9/2026 The Wales Green Party has pledged to allow local authorities to declare ‘rent pressure zones’ as part of its pitch ahead of the Senedd election in May. |
LocalGov Weekly Round Up
3/13/2026 William Eichler, editor of LocalGov.co.uk, reflects on the stories that captured readers’ attention this week. |
Councils urged to tackle family voting
3/10/2026 Councils have been challenged to focus on tackling family voting in May's local elections. |
Councils prepare for political turmoil
3/5/2026 Local government is braced for political turmoil after the Greens and Reform UK took first and second place in the Gorton and Denton by-election. |
Calls for local elections indemnity grow
2/27/2026 Further calls have been made to provide legal protection for returning officers after the Government backtracked on postponing May's elections. |
Local government reorganisation in Essex 'over'
2/25/2026 Uncertainty surrounds local government reorganisation (LGR) in Essex, with one leader branding the process ‘over' and little news on Thurrock's debt. |
Calls to indemnify officers after U-turn debacle
2/20/2026 Ministers are facing calls to indemnify returning officers as councils scramble to organise local elections following the Government’s postponement U-turn. |
Norfolk withdraws cooperation on LGR over elections debacle
2/17/2026 Norfolk CC’s leadership has withdrawn its cooperation with ministers to deliver local government reorganisation (LGR) following Steve Reed’s u-turn on postponed elections. |
Flexible voting options to be piloted during local elections
2/12/2026 Government has confirmed that a small number of councils will trial new flexible voting options at the local elections to make voting more accessible. |
Council leader ousted after election delay backlash
1/23/2026 Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council has removed its leader following political fallout over a request to postpone upcoming local elections. |
Reed confirms elections postponed for 29 councils
1/22/2026 The Government has confirmed that elections this year will be postponed for 29 local authorities as part of the push to reorganise local government. |
Elections could be postponed in reorganisation areas
12/19/2025 Councils undergoing local government reorganisation (LGR) could see elections postponed by a year. |
Government confirms mayoral election delays in four areas
12/4/2025 The Government has confirmed that it will be pushing back elections for mayors in four new strategic authorities by two years. |
Reform UK election challenge dismissed by High Court
10/22/2025 A Reform UK candidate who contested a tied local election result in Worcestershire has had her legal challenge dismissed by the High Court. |
Ballot error costs taxpayers £2,200
10/13/2025 Taxpayers in Birchington face a £2,200 bill following an election error that requires a re-run for the Birchington Parish Council (BPC). |
Labour conference: Growth could be derailed by Reform, warns Brabin
9/30/2025 West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin has warned Labour councillors that growth plans could be ‘derailed' in the event of big wins for Reform at the polls in May. |
Ministers axe elections holiday compensation
9/18/2025 Ministers have decided the Government will no longer reimburse electoral services staff if a late-notice General Election means they have to cancel holidays. |
Teenage Reform councillor vows to tackle crime
8/12/2025 Eighteen-year-old Sienna Churcher has become one of the youngest councillors in the UK after winning a by-election for Reform UK. |
Country’s youngest council leader appointed
7/23/2025 A Reform UK councillor has been confirmed as the country’s youngest permanent council leader. |
Election strategy sees voting age lowered by two years
7/18/2025 The Government has announced plans to allow 16-and 17-year-olds the right to vote in both local and general elections. |
Councils request delay to first mayoral election
7/17/2025 Cheshire and Warrington councils have requested that the area’s potential mayoral election be deferred by a year to reduce costs and increase turn out. |
Devo Bill to reintroduce supplementary vote in blow to Reform
7/10/2025 The supplementary vote system will be reintroduced to elect mayors in a move that is expected to reduce the chances of success for Reform UK. |
Ministers propose cancelling Surrey CC elections again
6/17/2025 Ministers have proposed cancelling Surrey CC elections for a second year as they launched a consultation on reorganisation options for the county. |
'Poor' awareness of election reforms
5/20/2025 There was ‘poor' awareness of extra measures to help disabled voters and those without ID in last year's General Election, according to an official report. |
MHCLG reshuffle after engagement improvements
4/4/2025 Engagement between the UK Government and councils has generally improved since Labour's General Election win, The MJ has been told. |
Confusion over unclear reorganisation picture
2/20/2025 Councillors in postponed elections could serve for just 12 months before fresh polls are held to new unitaries unless ministers pause voting again. |
Election reforms needed 'more than ever'
2/17/2025 Reform of how elections are run is needed now ‘more than ever', according to a new report. |
Ministry confirms 18 councils seeking election postponement
1/16/2025 The Government has officially revealed that it has received requests to postpone elections this year from 18 councils. |
Voters ‘set to be deprived of local democracy’
1/10/2025 The District Councils’ Network has warned that millions of voters will be ‘deprived of their local democracy’ due to plans to postpone some county council elections. |
Elections in limbo as devo deadline looms
1/6/2025 County councils across England will decide this week whether to ask the Government to postpone this year's elections in order to reorganise and pursue devolution. |
Notts leader steps down after ‘challenging’ year
11/7/2024 The leader of Nottinghamshire County Council has announced he is stepping down from the role after a ‘challenging’ year. |
Counties delay peer challenges
11/6/2024 English county councils appear to be putting off inviting peer challenges from the Local Government Association (LGA) ahead of next year's elections. |
Admin issue could lead to repeat by-election
10/4/2024 A by-election might have to be repeated for a seat on Sandbach Town Council due to an administrative issue. |
‘Spreadsheet issue’ led to 6.5k vote election declaration error
7/19/2024 A ‘spreadsheet issue’ led to over 6,550 votes being excluded from the declaration of the election result in the Putney constituency at the general election. |
Council housing landlords warn of £2.2bn ‘black hole’
7/11/2024 Twenty of England’s largest local authority landlords have warned council housing finances are ‘unsustainable’ with housing budgets facing a £2bn ‘black hole’. |
PM appoints former Camden Council leader
7/10/2024 Former Camden Council leader Georgia Gould has been appointed as a parliamentary secretary in the Cabinet Office. |
Badenoch takes shadow communities role
7/9/2024 Kemi Badenoch has been named shadow communities secretary by opposition leader Rishi Sunak. |
Council offers to brief Farage on SEND pressures
7/9/2024 Essex CC has offered to brief Nigel Farage MP on special educational needs and disabilities issues after the Reform UK leader criticised the council. |
Rayner: Labour ready to ‘transfer power out of Whitehall’
7/9/2024 Deputy PM Angela Rayner is set to tell regional mayors that Labour is ready to ‘transfer power out of Whitehall’ through a major programme of devolution. |
Department ditches 'levelling up' moniker
7/8/2024 PM Keir Starmer has ditched Whitehall’s 'levelling up' department and re-named it with immediate effect – signalling an end to the controversial brand. |
NewGov: Think local Labour
7/8/2024 Jonathan Owen, chief executive of the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), discusses what parish and town councils want from the new government. |
Reeves: Labour set to bring back housebuilding targets
7/8/2024 Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce today that she will bring back compulsory housebuilding targets. |
Transforming Local Government: A Strategic Guide for Labour
7/5/2024 The new Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has his work cut out. This is particularly the case where local government is concerned. |
Rayner named levelling up secretary
7/5/2024 Angela Rayner has been named secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities. |
Badenoch accuses council of ‘potentially’ disenfranchising voters
7/5/2024 Outgoing business secretary Kemi Badenoch accused Uttlesford District Council of ‘potentially’ disenfranchising thousands of postal voters. |
Councillors celebrate General Election success
7/5/2024 A string of high-profile figures from the local government sector are celebrating victory in the General Election. |
Leaders call on Labour to act on social care
7/5/2024 Local government leaders have called on Labour to act to save social care following its thumping General Election victory. |
DLUHC team wipeout in Labour landslide
7/5/2024 The Conservative Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) team has faced a near wipe out in Labour’s election landslide. |
Councils at loggerheads with Royal Mail over postal vote delays
7/3/2024 Councils are at loggerheads with Royal Mail over responsibility for delays in delivering postal votes ahead of the General Election. |
Call for chief to resign over postal vote error
7/2/2024 The chief executive of Uttlesford DC is facing a call to resign following delays to the delivery of postal votes. |
Postal vote pressures threaten 'overload'
6/28/2024 A surge of demand for postal votes is threatening to leave people unable to take part in the General Election. |
Labour could bring in automatic voter registration
6/27/2024 It has been reported that Labour plans to introduce automatic voter registration (AVR) if elected next week. |
Build 90,000 social homes per year, party leaders told
6/20/2024 Charities and housing bodies have urged the major parties to commit to building 90,000 social homes per year over the next decade. |
Birmingham councillor becomes West Midlands deputy mayor
6/17/2024 The deputy leader of Birmingham City Council has been appointed as the deputy mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). |
More than a million apply for vote
6/11/2024 Council elections teams are facing a workload surge as they race to register voters in time for the General Election. |
NextGov: Revitalising local democracy
6/10/2024 Dr Jess Garland, director of Research and Policy for the Electoral Reform Society, looks at what the next government should do to revitalise local democracy. |
Two Liberal Democrat campaigners arrested
6/7/2024 Two Liberal Democrat campaigners have been arrested on suspicion of election offences relating to a North Yorkshire Council by-election in March. |
Barking council leader dropped as election candidate
6/5/2024 Barking and Dagenham Council leader Darren Rodwell has been removed from the list of candidates being considered by the Labour Party for the general election. |
Councillors quit Labour over Shaheen, Abbot and Gaza
6/4/2024 Seven councillors in Slough have resigned from Labour citing as the reason the treatment of Faiza Shaheen and Diane Abbot and the party’s position on Gaza. |
Devolution deal delayed due to election
6/3/2024 Council leaders in the North West have reaffirmed their commitment to achieving a devolution deal despite election delay. |
Gove steps down
5/28/2024 Levelling up secretary Michael Gove has stepped down ahead of the next election after nearly two decades as an MP. |
EXCLUSIVE: Tower Hamlets Best Value Inspection extended
5/28/2024 The Best Value Inspection (BVI) team at Tower Hamlets LBC has extended its work to include the council’s oversight of the General Election. |
Stoke-on-Trent council welcomes last-minute £20m levelling up funding
5/28/2024 Stoke-on-Trent City Council has welcomed the approval of £20m in Levelling Up Partnership funding, describing the last-minute decision as a ‘relief’. |
LGA axes conference due to election clash
5/24/2024 The Local Government Association (LGA) has officially cancelled its annual conference after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the General Election that clashed with the event. |
General Election brings raft of reforms
5/23/2024 Elections officers face a raft of reforms to implement as voters nationwide prepare to go to the polls in July. |
Bristol councillor ‘absolutely gutted’ after disqualification
5/22/2024 A Labour councillor in Bristol has been disqualified less than three weeks after being elected because she teaches at a council-run school. |
New boundaries in Coventry, Surrey and Staffordshire council areas
5/15/2024 Coventry City Council’s wards will be altered and boundary divisions for Surrey and Staffordshire county councils are also set to change. |
North Yorkshire consults on new town councils
5/14/2024 Residents of Harrogate and Scarborough are being consulted on plans to create town councils for both areas. |
Siân Berry quits London Assembly three days after re-election
5/8/2024 Green Party politician Siân Berry has stood down from the London Assembly just three days after she was re-elected. |
Government relents over broadening forms of voter ID
5/7/2024 Complaints were raised by ex-servicemen who were turned away at polling stations after attempting to produce veteran cards as proof of ID. |
Re-elected Burnham calls for Right to Buy suspension powers
5/7/2024 Greater Manchester’s re-elected mayor has called for powers to suspend Right to Buy on new homes under plans to build 10,000 houses across the region. |
Labour’s majority in Swindon biggest since 1990s
5/3/2024 Labour’s majority on Swindon Borough Council is now the largest it has been since the 1990s. |
Minister ‘sorry’ to veteran turned away from polling station over ID
5/3/2024 The veterans minister has apologised to a former soldier who said he was unable to vote using his veteran card as photo identification. |
Cambridge council deploys polling boot
5/2/2024 Cambridge residents were confronted with the unexpected site of a car marked ‘polling station’ when they went out to vote this morning. |
Vote warning
5/1/2024 Elections officers have warned of the impact of changes to postal vote rules as polls open across England and Wales on Thursday. |
Local elections: YouGov predicts ‘significant gains’ for Labour
5/1/2024 Local authorities across the North and Midlands could see significant Labour gains as voters head to the polls on Thursday, according to YouGov. |
Gove could launch police inquiry for Birmingham
5/1/2024 Reports the levelling up secretary could send a police chief in to investigate financial mismanagement in Birmingham City Council have resurfaced. |
What really caused the council funding crisis?
4/30/2024 Max Mosley, NIESR, explores the origins of the local government funding crisis and warns the next government will have to act quickly to address it. |
Will local government pick up the tab for increased defence spending?
4/30/2024 Cllr Graham Chapman, SIGOMA, looks at what the PM’s announcement of an increase in defence spending means for local authorities. |
What is voter ID?
4/29/2024 Voter ID is now required in many elections across the UK. But what is it and how does it work? |
Rayner to be investigated by police after electoral law accusations
4/15/2024 Police have launched an investigation into whether Labour’s shadow local government secretary Angela Rayner broke electoral law a decade ago after allegations. |
LocalGov Elections: Vote reformation
4/10/2024 Jonathan Werran, chief exec, Localis draws inspiration from a popular podcast on the Reformation to ponder the question of just how local are our politics. |
Labour set out plan to ‘breathe new life’ into high streets
4/10/2024 Labour has announced a five-point plan that it argues could ‘breathe new life’ into high streets. |
Khan pledges to build 6,000 ‘rent control’ homes
4/5/2024 London mayor Sadiq Khan will today commit to building homes with capped rents as part of his bid for re-election next month. |
Council chiefs receive cyber espionage warnings
4/4/2024 Council chiefs have been warned their email accounts, phones and computers will ‘almost certainly’ be targets for ‘cyber espionage’ before elections. |
What this year’s election could mean for housing
4/3/2024 Jonathan Pearson, director at Residentially, looks at what the coming election could mean for the future of affordable housing in the UK. |
Parties draw battlelines for local elections
3/28/2024 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has given a speech in Dudley today following campaign launches by the Conservatives and Lib Dems. |
Elections on cyber alert
3/26/2024 Ministers have warned this year’s local and national elections are 'not business as usual’ – as councils prepare to tackle threats to voting security. |
'Victorian era' electoral registration failing voters, MPs warn
3/21/2024 The electoral registration system, which governs local elections in England, is ‘neither effective nor efficient’ and is disenfranchising millions, MPs warn. |
EXCLUSIVE: No pay offer until after local elections
3/14/2024 Local government employers will not make a pay offer until after the upcoming local elections in May, The MJ understands. |
Long-serving council leader to step down
3/12/2024 Sutton council leader Ruth Dombey, one of the longest-serving council leaders in the UK, has announced her intentions to step down. |
Prospective councillors told to campaign for MP
3/4/2024 Tory councillors in North Northamptonshire have been told they must do 30 sessions of canvassing if they want to stand in the upcoming local elections. |
Union urges prospective MPs to back national care service
2/21/2024 Election candidates in the forthcoming general election are being urged to support the creation of a new national care service in England. |
Voter ID legal challenge launched
2/19/2024 A legal challenge has been mounted against the Government over voter ID requirements for elections. |
