2026 Local Elections

The 2026 Local Elections are scheduled to take place on Thursday 7th May 2026 - the same date as the Holyrood & Senedd elections.

Approximately 4,090 councillors are set to be elected across 106 councils, as well as 6 local authority mayors.

57 councils are having all-out elections (32 London Boroughs, 16 Metropolitan Boroughs, 5 Unitary Authorities, 3 District Councils, and 1 County Council), whilst the remaining 49 councils are having partial elections (23 District Councils, 16 Metropolitan Boroughs, 10 Unitary Authorities.

As part of Local Government Reorganisation, 2 new councils are being elected (East & West Surrey), whilst 29 councils opted to postpone elections until May 2027.

The current breakdown of defences by party is as follows [Includes Suspensions/Defections, but doesn’t take impact of boundary changes into account]:

LAB: 2,089, CON: 854, LDM: 576, GRN: 130, RFM: 50, Localists: 35, Ind/Oth: 351, 5 vacant seats.