2025 Local Elections

The 2025 Local Elections will be held on the 1st of May 2025. Some 2,245 councillors will be elected across 32 Councils, including all 21 County Councils, 10 Unitary Authorities, and 1 Metropolitan Borough.

21 of these councils are currently controlled by the Conservative Party compared to just 2 for Labour, whilst 9 councils are under no overall control (NOC). Of these 9, five are run by Conservative minority administrations, two by Liberal Democrats, and two by Independents.

Barring Thurrock (which is moving to all-out elections for the first time) all but one of these councils was last contested in 2021. This was a particularly strong year for the Conservative Party, widely attributed to the ‘vaccine bounce’ - which could scupper any hope of the party making significant gains in its first local election cycle contested from opposition since 2010.

Additionally, 4 combined authority mayoral elections are due to take place, including 2 new contests. Cambridgeshire & Peterborough and the West of England were both won by Labour in 2021, whilst Greater Lincolnshire and Hull & East Yorkshire will be heading to the polls to elect a mayor for the first time. Doncaster and North Tyneside will also be electing single authority mayors, both of which are currently held by Labour.

Boundary changes are taking place in 12 councils, making it difficult to put an exact number to how many seats each party is defending - approximate values are as follows:

• Conservative: 1,290

• Labour 360

• Liberal Democrat 310

• Independent 160

• Green 60

• Localist Groups 60