Councils now run by Reform - end of the beginning or beginning of the end?

I’m in Worcestershire and work for the local authority. I’m praying Reform don’t do a deal with another party.

I know Greens won’t touch them and that one of the independents is aligned with the Greens so he won’t go, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Tories did. The Tory councillor with responsibility for Adult Social Care seems a decent guy so I’m hoping but who knows what the sway of power might do.

I’m watching closely.

Good luck them making people go back to the office- our HQ has RAAC and is being decommissioned and everyone is already dispersed and mostly deskless!

Fascinating map of Nottingham, seeing it laid out like that. Thanks @boys3 .
Line strait down the middle. West Notts old industrial and ex mining, voted Reform. While the East which is more agricultural and prosperous, all Conservative.

That says it all. Areas that have been left with few jobs and little prospect of one, feel forgotten by the main parties. They only have themselves to blame.

I' m really glad that my SEN children are no longer in school but I feel for those reliant on already stretched services.

I see it as a chance to see what they're really like at running things. If they cock it up they won't get voted in at the next GE, it's a bit of a trial period...

Well Council spending is basically swamped by social care, both elderly and SEN. This is the key issue facing councils and we can’t pretend it isn’t happening because it’s distasteful to talk about money in relation to vulnerable people.

However Reform rely on the pensioner vote so I think they’ll cut SEN to whatever level they can get away with, and channel the money to social care for the elderly.

I am sure they'll find a way.

The local reform candidate near me opposes rewilding and encouraged self-sufficiency. So presumably they will take all the greenbelt land and turn it into allotments.

She also has actively supported public houses to preserve the brewing industry apparently. I think that means she spends all day getting pissed at the bar shouting about immigrants.

How much discretionary spend do local councils actually have? Don't they have a whole load of stuff that they have to do with central Govt money to provide core services etc. Then they have business rates and council tax, which again they are limited in what they can do with those funds too. After that they can raise funds locally in other ways and spend that how they will.

I'm wondering how much damage Reform can actually do, particularly given that there are lots of councils already teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and only providing core services anyway. I have no doubt there will be lots of loud noises about making people work in the office, burning rainbow flags, putting people in the stocks if they are not British enough or whatever other wild crap Reform believe in, but can they actually do much damage?

Me too. It’ll be interesting as the Cllr who won in our constituency was also elected alongside other Cllrs in the last round but did absolutely nothing of substance in comparison to the others. It’s what happens when people vote based on the party as opposed to the individual and their track record at a local level.

Reform UK
Regional Director South Central https://g.co/kgs/xD4apRZ

Anyone still wanting to work from home could apply for this job??

Reform are predicted to have massive gains at next year's Senedd elections here in Wales. Welsh Labour have been in power here for over 25 years and are very unpopular. Many Labour Senedd Members have announced they won't be standing next year and I'm not surprised.

Due to intelligence not being a pre-requisite for party membership; I wouldn't want to post what I think will happen as they would probably use my comments to inform their strategy!

Look what's happening in the USA. Coming to you in Reform led council areas.

It's going to be an interesting few years, to be sure. Bad luck for any vulnerable people in those areas who depend heavily on council services. We can only hope that, when they fuck up at a local level, people will understand who needs to be held accountable.

I hear they're buying tents.

Absolutely. They’re going to be horrified when reality hits them.

I'm really interested to see how they're going to end 'working from home' culture, considering a lot of Council's have sold buildings on the basis that they don't need as much office space anymore.

Our LA, which isn't a Reform LA, certainly wouldn't have the space for all staff to be in. I'm wondering where the budget for buying more office space will come from?

Snap. One of these candidates is on video specifically saying “I’m just a normal bloke”

I don’t WANT normal blokes running the council! I want experienced counsellors / civil servants etc!!

my council is where Farage chose to hold his rally. I despair, I really do.

They’ll ask about sacking EDI staff and be told that it’s a 6 month process minimum, and those staff have 25 years of service, that there’s a policy of providing enhanced redundancy pay at eg 1.7 x a week’s gross salary x number of years’ service, plus an additional weighting if they’re over 41, plus pension contributions if they’re over 50. And you have a no compulsory redundancy policy with the unions who will bring everyone out on strike if you lay a finger on it. Anyway there’s only 10 of them, with a total annual budget of £400k, and in the first years you’ll be paying them to leave so won’t see any savings until year three or four. Meanwhile your adult social care budget is somewhere in the region of £600 million pounds, so a poxy £400k is a drop in the ocean.

They're going to have to start making decisions and being accountable. Much harder than standing on the sidelines saying what you wouldn't do.

And scrutiny of the councilors will go badly. Every few days one will be revealed as a swivel eyed loon.

That wasn’t positivity, it was rank cynicism! Admittedly I’m also in Scotland and we don’t have two council tiers, so my examples are more generalised across council services. All I mean is that they won’t have a scooby how local government operates, and I’ve seen a lot of new councillors come in ready to make their mark, only to be ground down by the reality of council life. They’ll be swayed by the first few months of constituents lobbying them - one mother with a disabled child here, one bullied pupil there, one old lady stuck indoors because gritting wasn’t done - and like everyone they’ll jump to be the person who fixes it. They’ll gradually learn that they can’t help everyone, and that local authority wheels turn slowly, even if you’re the Council Leader/the administration. They’ll try to get their own budget passed, and it’ll be scuppered by other parties voting for a coalition budget. They’ll ask for a radical new idea and the answer will be that an implementation plan will be drawn up and brought back to committee in 6 months…

I genuinely hope so .🤞
I know it was local elections in England but for a lot of people it must be scary having them at the helm of councils.

They talk about cutting costs (Doge) while claiming that they're going to spend tax payers money grinding the government to a halt over the environment and immigration.

That's going to cost a lot of money and with councils surviving on the bare bones at the moment, I'm wondering how that's going to work.