Political make-up of local councils in the United Kingdom

src: rrlondoncouncils-web02.rs.rroom.net

This page documents political party strengths in the United Kingdom's principal local authorities (commonly known as local councils). The last major change to council compositions was the 4 May 2017 local elections, but changes in party representation arise frequently due to resignations, deaths, by-elections, co-options and defections. There are 418 principal local authorities in the UK: 27 county and 201 district councils (two tiers with separate responsibilities covering the same physical area), 55 unitary authorities plus the Council of the Isles of Scilly, 32 London boroughs plus the Corporation of the City of London, 36 metropolitan boroughs, 32 Scottish unitary authorities, 22 Welsh unitary authorities and 11 Northern Ireland councils. This list does not include parish and town councils, the lowest tier of local government with limited powers.

Information on this page is drawn from council websites and council data aggregators.

Video Political make-up of local councils in the United Kingdom

Summary

This table numbers the seats held by each party as of 22 March 2018.

Maps Political make-up of local councils in the United Kingdom

Technical information

Councils in England and Northern Ireland elect to each of their seats once every four years, while in Scotland and Wales elections are held every five years. English councils may elect to all of their seats at once, roughly half at a time, or roughly one third at a time; councils elsewhere in the UK elect to all of their seats at once. Election schedules are detailed further in the council system sections below.

Elections in England and Wales use first-past-the-post voting, while in Scotland and Northern Ireland the single transferable vote (STV) system is used. To facilitate the STV system, Scottish council wards elect multiple members, while Northern Ireland wards are grouped into District Electoral Areas with one seat per ward.

16 councils in England are distinguished by having a directly elected mayor, elected every four years. For these seats (indicated by (M) beside the council name) the affiliation of the mayor is given in the "Run by" column. For non-mayoral councils with no overall control (NOC) (i.e. where no party has a majority), the "Run by" column indicates the minority government or coalition that runs the council, or where unknown the largest party followed by ellipsis (...).

Entries in the "Last change" column indicate the cause and date of the latest change in composition when sources were last checked, and will link to a page section with more details: either a 'changes' section in the page of the last election in that council, or one in an 'elections' page for the council. This column thus serves to indicate the currency of the data.

src: upload.wikimedia.org

England: two-tier council system

County councils

Non-metropolitan counties elect their councillors all at once every four years, in the year after leap years. All 27 counties had elections in May 2017 and the next elections are expected on 6 May 2021.

District councils

Non-metropolitan districts are subdivisions of non-metropolitan counties, some of which have borough status. They vary in whether they elect all, half or one-third of their seats at once.

• Those that elect to half of their seats at a time do so in even years.
• Those that elect to a third of their seats all do so in leap years, two years after leap years and three years after.
• Those that elect to all of their seats at once:
  • mostly do so three years after leap years (${\displaystyle 4n+3}$),
  • some two years after (${\displaystyle 4n+2}$, 7 councils),
  • and one in leap years (${\displaystyle 4n}$, Gloucester).

Hence, none of the 201 district councils were up for election in May 2017.

Copeland and Mansefield have directly elected mayors.

Last update 23 March 2018.

src: www.londoncouncils.gov.uk

England: metropolitan borough councils

Of the 36 metropolitan borough councils:

• six elect to all of their seats at once, either:
  • in a leap year (${\displaystyle 4n}$, Rotherham),
  • in the year after a leap year (${\displaystyle 4n+1}$, Doncaster, e.g. May 2017),
  • or two years after (${\displaystyle 4n+2}$, 4 councils, e.g. May 2018);
• the other 30 boroughs hold elections for one third of their seats at a time, all with seats elected to either in ${\displaystyle 4n}$, ${\displaystyle 4n+2}$ or ${\displaystyle 4n+3}$ years.

They all next have elections in May 2018.

Doncaster, Liverpool and Salford are mayoral metropolitan boroughs.

Last update 23 March 2018.

src: images.theconversation.com

England: unitary authorities

Unitary authorities vary in whether they elect to all or a third of their seats at a time.

• The 16 that elect by thirds do so in in leap years (${\displaystyle 4n}$), two years after leap years (${\displaystyle 4n+2}$) and three years after (${\displaystyle 4n+3}$), as with similar district and metropolitan borough councils.
• Of the other 39 councils that elect to all of their seats at once:
  • one, Warrington, elects in leap years (${\displaystyle 4n}$),
  • six elect in the year after leap years (${\displaystyle 4n+1}$, e.g. May 2017),
  • and 32 elect three years after leap years (${\displaystyle 4n+3}$).

Five UAs are mayoral councils, with mayors elected every four years.

Last update 5 May 2017.

The Council of the Isles of Scilly is a similar single-tier authority, which had all its seats up for election in May 2017. All candidates stood independently.

src: i.ytimg.com

London borough councils

The London Assembly is (together with the elected Mayor of London) the governing body for the Greater London Authority. Within its administrative area, 32 councils perform lower functions.

Elections to all seats of all 32 London boroughs were last held in May 2014 and will next be held in May 2018.

Last update 3 December 2017.

The 100-member Court of Common Council of the City of London, a municipal corporation, was last elected in March 2017.

src: upload.wikimedia.org

Scotland

All 32 Scottish unitary authorities had all their seats up for election by Single Transferable Vote in May 2017. Elections are on a five-year cycle and are next due on 5 May 2022.

Political control may be held by minority governments (min), coalitions (co), joint leadership arrangements (j.l.) or partnership working arrangements (p.w.).

Last update 25 March 2018.

src: jis.gov.jm

Wales

All 22 Welsh unitary authorities had all of their seats up for election in May 2017, and the next elections are expected on 5 May 2022. The deaths of two candidates postponed the elections in one ward in Merthyr Tydfil and one in Ceredigion to 8 June, the day of the 2017 general election; no-one stood for election in one single-member ward in Powys.

Last update 6 November 2017.

src: www.thelocal.de

Northern Ireland

Elections were held for 11 newly created councils in Northern Ireland in May 2014, and will next be held in May 2019 and on a four-year cycle after that. All seats are filled at once by Single Transferable vote within district electoral areas of 5 to 7 wards.

The councils have ceremonial mayors elected by council members. Uniquely in the UK, vacancies are filled by co-option by whichever party won the seat at the previous election.

Last update 27 March 2018.

src: pbs.twimg.com

See also

• List of political parties in the United Kingdom by representation
• Local government in the United Kingdom
  • Local government in England
  • History of local government in England
  • Local government in Scotland
  • Local government in Wales
  • Local government in Northern Ireland

src: upload.wikimedia.org

References

src: www.trendsmap.com

External links

• Open Council Data UK: All UK councillors with parties and wards
• Edkins, Keith: Local Council Political Compositions
• A to Z of Local Councils. Directgov.

Source of article : Wikipedia