New rules see Mayors elected without majority support Coverage of the local elections has been dominated by punditry over what the results mean for next year’s general election and the government’s controversial voter ID scheme, which saw countless people turned away from casting... Posted 10 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
Early indications suggest Welsh voting pilots went well In May’s local elections, four areas in Wales trialled a different way of voting – allowing people to cast their vote before election day. As well as polling stations being open on the Thursday 5... Posted 05 Aug 2022
Scottish local democracy can build and strengthen our communities Democracy is the right for people to decide how the place where they live is run. But too few people now believe that this right is being honoured, too few believe that they decide and... Posted 13 May 2022
The Power of Preferences: STV in Scottish Local Elections Much talk of the need for electoral reform focuses on Westminster and the goal of a proportionally elected House of Commons. But while the UK Parliament, and almost all of England’s elections, are still held... Posted 26 Apr 2022
Elections Cancelled: Over 100,000 Welsh voters to be denied a vote With elections coming up across the country, campaigners across Wales are gearing up the familiar routine of doorstep conversations, leaflets through letterboxes and trying to convince voters that their candidate deserves to be re-elected, or... Posted 13 Apr 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
England and Wales can learn from Scotland’s success with STV It is now 15 years since Scotland abandoned First Past the Post for local government elections and adopted the Single Transferable Vote form of proportional representation. What many will have seen as a small shift in process... Posted 01 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