How can one party win all the seats in a local council election without all the votes? In May’s 2023 local elections in England, the Liberal Democrats won 72% of the seats on Bath & North East Somerset. In Broxbourne, the Conservatives won 90% of the seats that were up for election.... Posted 11 May 2023
90% of seats on less than half the vote? That’s England’s local democracy With nearly all the 2023 local election results declared, the First Past the Post system used across England has once again failed to reflect the views of voters in who runs their local community. Rather... Posted 09 May 2023
Elections Cancelled: 90,000 denied any say in local elections Following the publication of candidate notices for the May 2023 English local elections, it is clear that the scourge of uncontested and guaranteed seats will once again limit the democratic choices of hundreds of thousands... Posted 02 May 2023
The 2022 Welsh Local Elections and the case for STV On May 5th 2022 voters went to the polls in Wales to elect councillors for all 22 local authorities. These were not the only elections held that day; Northern Ireland held an Assembly election and... Posted 15 Nov 2022
Why England needs the Single Transferable Vote In May 2022, local elections will take place throughout Scotland and Wales, as well as in many parts of England, including the election of all local councillors in Greater London. In Scotland, these will be... Posted 07 Apr 2022
How are English local councils funded? While you might think that local councils are wholly funded by council tax, in fact, local government in England is funded by a combination of central government grants and local taxes. What are the problems... Posted 30 Mar 2022
ERS Live: Where next for English local governance? Following the publication of our latest research report Democracy Made in England, last week we hosted our latest #ERSLive event, in which an expert panel discussed the question, ‘where next for English local government?’ for... Posted 29 Mar 2022
What is a combined authority and what is a metro mayor? Local government in England comes in many different formats, unitary, district and county councils all cover different parts of the country. In recent years, mayoral combined authorities have become an established part of the English... Posted 24 Mar 2022
For local democracy to flourish our representatives need the power to deliver New ERS research finds over two-thirds of councillors feel they lack the powers to represent the needs of their local community. Local government is at the front line of our democracy. It’s the closest level... Posted 10 Mar 2022
Democracy Made in England: Where Next for English Local Government? In the context of the changing nature of UK governance, England remains an anomaly. While the centres of power in the rest of the UK have shifted away from Westminster over the last two decades,... Posted 09 Mar 2022