When are the 2024 local elections in the UK? All you need to know

Rishi Sunak remains tight-lipped about when the general election will be, but you can have your say about life in the UK in the local elections.

Thousands of council seats in England are being contested this week on Thursday, May 2.

Voters will choose a new Mayor of London, with Labour’s Sadiq Khan bidding for an unprecedented third term, and ten other mayors outside of the capital.

There will also be elections for 37 police and crime commissioners across England and Wales.

Here’s what you need to know…

When are the local elections in 2024?

Voting will start this week on Thursday, May 2. Polls will be open from 7am until 10pm.

In England, votes will affect who runs your local council for the next four years, with reps from each major political party vying to become councillors.

Are there local elections in my area?

In England, 107 councils will be holding local elections, along with the London Assembly.

Some are holding votes for all their seats – while others have around a third of seats up for grabs.

There are regional mayoral contests in London, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, the West Midlands, Tees Valley, South Yorkshire, and West Yorkshire. There are also three positions for new mayoralties in the North East, York and North Yorkshire and the East Midlands. Salford also elects a new mayor.

Londoners are also voting for a new London Assembly (the government body which scrutinises the mayor’s work).

Separately, there will be a parliamentary by-election in Blackpool South, after the sitting Conservative MP was caught in a lobbying sting.

You can see which local elections are taking place near you with the Electoral Commission’s postcode checker.

What are the current predictions?

Given Labour has had a significant poll lead for more than a year, the Conservatives are braced for heavy losses.

When these seats were last contested in 2021, Rishi Sunak’s Tories made significant gains. Partygate, numerous sleaze scandals and Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget have seen the governing party’s popularity plummet, however.

But it may not all be bad news for the Prime Minister. The Tory incumbents in the West Midlands, Andy Street, and Tees Valley, hope to be competitive.

What do the different voting systems mean?

Some of the ballot papers in this year’s local elections may look slightly different to last time.

For example, elections for mayors in England and for Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales used the Supplementary Vote system until May last year.

But you don’t need to worry about that anymore – this year, almost all of the votes will use the simple first-past-the-post system that’s also used to elect MPs to Westminster. The candidate with the highest percentage of votes wins.

The London Assembly elections are the exception, since they use the Additional Member system.

In that case, voters will get two ballot papers: one with the list of candidates for your constituency, and the other with a list of parties.

The candidate vote is decided using first-past-the-post, and then the make-up of the rest of the London Assembly is decided according to the percentage of votes that each party received city-wide.

How can local elections affect general elections?

These are the last set of local elections before the next general election. While the votes cast do not directly impact the forthcoming national poll, they can tell us a lot about voters’ mood.

A better or worse-than-expected result for the Conservatives could also influence when the Prime Minister chooses to call a general election.

Should Tory mayors Andy Street and Ben Houchen hang on to their roles, Sunak may feel more comfortable facing the ballot box. If the party takes a beating in some of its southern ‘Blue Wall’ heartlands, he may wish to hold off in the hope the picture improves.

What do regional mayors do?

Regional mayors, such as Greater Manchester’s Andy Burnham, represent a combined authority area and have strategic powers over areas such as skills, transport housing or parts of the local economy.

What type of councils are there in England?

Generally, councils look after public services (schools, libraries, social care, transport), housing developments, planning applications, environmental health, and, of course, your bin collection.

Your local council will also decide how much council tax you pay, which directly affects your income.

There are a few different types of council in England: county, district, metropolitan district, and unitary authorities.

County councils oversee all these public services across a whole county – while district and city councils look after services like housing and waste collection.

These are usually considered the ‘two tiers’ of local government, though some parts of England have a unitary authority, which covers all the above.

You can find your local council by on the government’s website.

Some places might also have a town and parish council, too – though usually these are responsible for smaller matters, such as parks, allotments and bus shelters.

Who can vote in the upcoming local elections?

To vote in your local election on May 2, you must be at least 18 years old. If you live in Wales, you are now eligible to vote at 16.

You’ll also need to be a citizen of Britain, Ireland or the EU/Commonwealth – and have a registered postal address in the area you wish to vote.

Voters will require voter ID in order to vote in person, such as a passport or driver’s licence. There are 22 forms of acceptable ID.

The deadline for registering to vote in this year’s local elections was April 16. If you do not have the correct form of ID, you can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate.

Do I have to vote?

No, there’s no legal requirement for you to vote as there is in some countries.

However, your local government arguably has a much greater effect on your day-to-day life than the higher-profile central government.

If you’ve got opinions on the number of potholes in your community, how often the bins are collected, the quality of your local schools, the areas where new houses are built and how many there are, the state of the high street, the brightness of the streetlights, the opening and closing times of pubs, the lack or excess of cycle paths, whether your favourite tree gets cut down or whether your neighbour gets their massive extension approved – this is your opportunity to express it.

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