Can someone explain Council Elections to me please?

[WhereIsMyJumper]

I know I am a bit late to the party with this. I didn’t vote in the locals because I don’t really understand what they are for.

Can someone please explain this to me?
Let’s say, for argument sake, that my County Council is now Lib Dem. What does that mean in contrast to the government being Labour? How much control do Councils have? What can they change across a council that may contradict government policy? Or is it more about where funding is directed?

Obviously I know that Reform made huge gains but what does this mean in practice? They can’t (I assume) for example change the curriculum across a whole county can they?

Feel free to poke fun at me for being a bit dim

Local government runs local services. So they deliver children’s and adult’s social care, parks libraries, waste management, and some still do education.

the government wants to develop strategic authorities which would have more control over transportation and skills etc.

not sure how much different political party in charge make a difference to the day to day need to deliver stuff.

Have a look at your local council’s website, it will give you an idea of the range of services that they run. The govt gives councils money to run them so councils control the budget.
Different parties will have strong views on the priorities of how to spend that money.

I will go and have a look, thank you. I have been googling it but couldn’t find any answers - I should have thought to check there!

As you have understood, there are differing levels of Governance.
Your local elections elect ward councillors, wards are areas within your local Council's jurisdiction and assist residents within their own ward. Collectively, ward Councilllors make decisions at individual committees at local levels, such as planning decisions, whether to spend funding on a new play park, etc.
Your County Councillor sits on Committees that make decisions on different services such as education, social services and highways. A County Council division will cover several local wards and there will be far fewer County Councillors than local ward Councillors - a ward Councillor can also be a County Councillor.
For a Parliament (General) Election, this is broken down further in terms of areas - your local MP will cover very many wards & divisions. MP's make the big decisions you see in Parliament- such as immigration policies, etc.
At any level, decisions will only be agreed by a majority and political parties will generally agree together as a political group (and sometimes agree together with other political parties) the way to vote.
Local/County elections take place every 4 years whilst a General Election must take place within 5 years.
Whether changes will impact you in your area, depends on whether one particular political party has a big majority and can therefore practically force decisions through unchallenged.
Hope this helps!

I have never voted in local elections before now and have never seen it as important. I now work in local government and a change in councillors is a huge thing. I will never again underestimate it and will always use my vote. It’s going to become more important than ever.

Your council tax goes up and you might get new recycling bins.

The rest of it is largely where they argue amongst themselves about who not to spend their part of the money on - but these are the two things that most people will notice.

Would you mind elaborating on this please? I don’t want to give away where I live (ha) but our county council has changed and now Reform UK hold the majority of it. I’m trying to understand what that might mean in a practical sense

@WhereIsMyJumper our local council has been LibDem for as long as I remember (they were the de facto opposition to the Tories in SW England so have a much better showing in the locals). Others have explained what district/county councils are responsible for. As examples of small differences where I live, a vocal minority are complaining about the LibDem council having an environmental biodiversity policy (in practice it means they seeded verges with wildflowers one year). Our lot are pretty "green" - their social housing stock was fitted with solar when grants were available for example.
I suspect to see a lot less difference in the future though, most councils have no spare money to do anything than their statutory functions any more.

It depends on how many tiers your local government has. You may have separate Local Authority/County Council to district or borough. Between them they run local services like waste disposal, highways, planning, education, social care, social housing, parks and open spaces, allotments, public cemeteries, environmental services etc. have a look at your council tax bill and it should state how much goes towards council/s and police. There may be information on how last year’s was spent or on their website.

I’m ashamed to admit I don’t know a huge amount about it, either.
Thankfully I don’t live in an area where Reform have a presence. I’m very curious as to what changes their areas will see. For example, the one that now has a 19yo with responsibility for children’s service. What power does he actually hold / what changes can he make?

Your local council has the power to close libraries and sell off assets, for example that lovely victorian library building can be sold off to developers who, funnily enough, are major donors to the party in charge.

They also have in the past given away the running of council housing to private companies - I don't know if they still can but they certainly could 15 years ago.

Read the Rotten Boroughs section of Private Eye to find out what they can get up to!

Councils have a huge number of statutory duties scross a huge range of functions so not very much will change. In terms of day to day management, councils are also run by experienced officials who will, in reality, be advising and guiding the elected members. Some of these officials have statutory responsibilities, eg balancing the budget.

Councils are funded by a mix of central government grant, council tax, business rates and fees and charges for the services they provide.

The party in control of the council is setting the vision and strategy for the area and there may be differences in terms of appetite for working with the private sector, attracting external investment, developing local transport schemes, attitudes to planning and housing development etc. An effective political leader coupled with a strong and competent CEO, can make quite a difference to an area.

As Reform’s main concern seems to be migration, its difficult to see what they can do given councils don’t control migration policy although they do have a role in providing migrants with accommodation, helping them access services and in fostering community cohesion.

When council management really goes off the rails, central government can suspend governance and take over the running of it. This has happened a few times in recent years, eg Rotherham.

Thank you for the replies, these are really helpful

Reform will spend money on the things that are most important to them. I have heard that they will stop all work from home which would affect me quite badly as I live about an hour from the office and have childcare responsibilities. They will also end all housing for immigrants, even the Afghan translators who put themselves at risk to help us. Reform openly state they want more power at a local level so I should imagine they will want to go against central government policy wherever they can and this could be divisive. This is only my opinion . Have a look at what the BBC say www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdjl4k8jyxeo.amp

https://www.localgov.co.uk/A-day-in-the-life-of-local-government/37689 #OurDay an old initiatve, but a useful insight into the day to day delivery. It covers an VERY broad range of things that most of us take for granted in a civilsed society, but that are now breaking down.

and if you search "a day in the life of local government" lots of interesting stuff comes up.