What will Reform in local authorities look like?

[Picklez]

Sorry couldn’t find a thread that covered this. I’m in an area where Reform are now in charge of the council.

What does this actually mean in terms of what they will be able to do / powers they will have? I understand their biggest policy appears to be tackling immigration which doesn’t seem like something they would have power over in a county council. I saw Farage had said that all workers will be sent back to the office and that EDI jobs will become obsolete in a bid to save money, but I’m unsure what other changes we might see locally.

Yes, It could be £10-15k less but Conservative councillors refused to change it to a local firm. I'm hoping Reform will change it. I really hate money being wasted like this. It just means less in the budget for other things. I'm hoping common sense will prevail.

Flag flying over government buildings is the remit of central government departments.

Unless I've missed something, Reform have control over a small number of councils but not a majority in national government.

www.gov.uk/guidance/designated-days-for-union-flag-flying

As I posted above, in detail, all councils are reducing their home school council spend.

Not popular though. So many angry parents.
More difficult when a party is in office and has to take the public backlash, than when they are on the sidelines talking about it.

I'd be concerned they would save money by cancelling the taxis completely.

Farage's attack on WFH is especially galling when you consider his own party is advertising regional hybrid roles (at least 10 of them). Will any of his acolytes note the hypocrisy?

I admire your optimism that you’ll end up with any kind of taxi tbh. They have a statutory duty to provide free transport (depending on the age of your DC of course) but might think offering a cost per mile payment for you to use to arrange your own way there and back is adequate. And you’d have to fight any decision that you thought didn’t cover their legal obligation. My friend has more than once arrived to the transport pick up point for her DD only to be told the DD can get in but there is no room for her wheelchair. And once brought her DD home but left the wheelchair at the school. WTF? And that’s before Reform got anywhere near the LA. What happens now is anyone’s guess tbh.

I’d imagine not. Which is why hypocrisy like this needs to be kept highlighted. The message won’t get through to all of them, but if it makes a certain percentage think again that’s what count.

Likewise when Reform led councils set the councillor allowances for their authorities. Given the rhetoric about 10% cuts presumably the first thing they’ll do is reduce their own allowances by at least 10%. I’ll not hold my breath.

What councils are flying EU flags since Brexit?

Nationa Audit Office recently set out the reality facing Councils. I am sure all those elected as Reform candidates have read and taken note of it. 🤔

https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/local-government-financial-sustainability-2025/?nab=2

Someone I know has mentioned that they can’t fit everyone in the office. And the infrastructure in the building can’t cope with it. She has two kids with additional needs, so needs to partially work from home. So I suspect she’ll be looking for another job shortly.

Here are the job ads btw, posted on a recruitment site, in case anyone accuses me of Fake News.

Jobs at Reform UK

My county has gone Reform. But my part of the county is an outlier in that it is one of the few areas in this big county that did not elect a Reform councillor. I suspect that we will be punished for that by being the last to get our potholes repaired.

Re WFH. Reform don’t realise that a lot of Council workers, such as Housing, Social Services and Environmental inspectors spend most of the day out in their areas and spend a couple of hours at most in their office, which is why pre pandemic a lot of them introduced hot desking. It would be expensive and purposeless to provide them a desk and expect them to come in every day

Yes. It feels counterproductive in terms of cost saving, doesn't it?

They don't actually have any power as councillors in my experience.

As we're not in the EU anymore why would there be?

"Far too much detail" alert: 🤓

What is called "the EU flag" is in fact not really "the EU flag". It's the flag of "Europe" as a whole, in the public domain and not owned by any organisation. It was designed at the Council of Europe (the parent organisation of the ECHR) in the 1950s. The EEC didn't adopt it until the mid-1980s (hence why, for example, Margaret Thatcher's famous pro-EEC jumper from 1975 had the flags of all the member states on it, but not the 12-star European flag).

Strangely, the Council of Europe's own current flag is a variant on the European public domain flag, with slight differences in colour and a large, somewhat smile-like lowercase "e" on it. They adopted it to differentiate themselves from the EU, when the EU adopted the European (public domain) flag. I hope that's clear. 🤪

Since the UK is still a member of the Council of Europe (until Jenrick or Farage takes us out of the ECHR) it is presumably legitimate to signal one's membership of it, and indeed the UK's undeniable geographical and cultural position in Europe as opposed to any other continent (negotiations with Trump about becoming the 53rd state permitting). But I must say I haven't seen any European flags on council buildings in recent times. Maybe a Lib Dem-led council will put one up on Farage's birthday.

I live in Kent and Reform just won here. KCC weren't great by any stretch of the imagination but I think we now have the shitty end of the stick 'running the show.
Also notice Reform posters and the George flag flying in gardens and that's a first.

I didn't know that, thank you for enlightening me 🙂

They have to provide a taxi by law up to end of Year 11 academic year for DC attending special schools with EHCP. I'd prefer him to go to special school less than 1 mile away but no space for him there even though they could meet his needs. Several DC at that school are being taxi driven in from miles away too.

They could offer to pay parents 45p per mile which would be a lot cheaper but they don't offer that option. I know some parents don't drive, have a car or work full time so couldn't do it but I know many parents who would prefer this option. That would save about £40k per annum in our case.

Yes, I saw the adverts!

Farage has not a clue.

As others have said, LA’s/councils have sold off their buildings, to try and make ends meet in budgets under Conservative cuts.
I don't have a desk, we are so short of office space there is so much demand for ‘hot desks’ that these are booked way in advance.

I hope Reform led councils can find money to buy back office buildings and pay for services and heating. I much preferred working in the office ( and my home heating bill will be so much cheaper).

I'd prefer the drive him myself option tbh because taxis are not reliable. He's had to miss 2 days because taxi not arrived when it was supposed to in last month.

Thank you. That was a very sobering read.

Not specific to Reform but does highlight the SEND and associated transport challenges to which they (Reform) will find there are few if any easy answers.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy79z7550yo