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

[boys3]

So after 1st May Local Elections Reform have outright control of ten top tier Councils, and are the largest, or close to the largest party, in a number of others.

How will they get on do we think? Suddenly having responsibility and accountability for real stuff.

Just for a bit of context the recent National Audit Office report on Local Government in England.
https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/local-government-financial-sustainability-2025/?nab=2

These are the Councils they won outright. Number of seats they won and total seats on each Council, plus a link to the more detailed results. Some of the Councils have really good info sets with clear summaries and maps showing who won where. Others are a bit more basic. These councils deliver services for some 8 million people

Derbyshire
42/64 Derbyshire Results

Doncaster

37/55 Doncaster Results

County Durham
65/98 Durham Results

Kent

57/81 Kent Results

Lancashire
53/84 Lancashire Resuts

Lincolnshire

44/70 Lincolnshire Results

North Northants
39/68 North Northants Results

2 seats pending as ward election postponed due to death of a candidate

Nottinghamshire
40/66 Nottinghamshire Results
2 seats pending as ward election postponed due to death of a candidate

Staffordshire
49/62 Staffordshire Results

West Northants
42/76 West Northants Results

There are then 4 Councils where they are the largest party but short of a majority. Will Cons, or others, support them in any of these to give control? Or will others, incl Cons, coalesce to prevent that? We'll soon find out. If anyone knows already post away!

Cornwall 28/87. Cons have 7 seats so even combined well short of a majority. Lib Dems won 26 seats. I think more likely that Lib Dems will get support from sufficient Independents (19), Green (3) and Lab (4) to form an adminstration.
Cornwall Results

Leicestershire 25/55, so 3 short. Cons have 15 seats. So could easily support a Reform led adminstration. Or would they join with Lib Dems (11), Lab (2), Green (1) and Indie (1) to create a coalition administration that keeps Reform out?
Leicestershire Results

Warwickshire 23/57 so 5 short, Cons then have 9 seats, so could support to provide a majority. Lib Dems 14, Greens 7, Lab 3, Indie 1 - combined 25 so again short of a majority, Which way will Cons go?
Warwickshire Results

Worcestershire 27/57 so 2 short. Cons then have 12 seats, so could support to provide a majority. Or could join with the Greens (8), Lib Dems (6), Lab (2) and Indie (2) to thwart a Reform led Council. Equally only needs 2 of the 12 Cons to side with Reform to give them a majority and control though
Worcestshire Results

Of the remaining hung councils:

Northumberland Cons won 26/69, then Reform with 23, So the two combined have a comfortable majority, Or would the Cons look for support from 9 from Lab (8) Indie (7) Lib Dem (3) and Green (2) and avoid Reform. Northumberland Results

Buckinghamshire. Cons have 48/97 so 1 short of a majority. Reform only have 3 seats, but Cons only need support of 1. Equaly 1 of the 13 independents may provide that support. Buckinghamshire Results

In the others Devon, Gloucestershire and Hertfordshire support from Lab and Greens would give the Lib Dems control in each.
Hertfordshire Results
Gloucestshire Results
Devon Results

Lastly Wiltshire all down it seems to the Indies (7). Lib Dems have 43/98. Cons have 37 seats and Reform 10. Wiltshire Results

The final 3 Councils contested last Thursday all delivered Lib Dem majorities - Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire and Shropshire

Well based on farage's approach they just won't turn up. Then they'll come back in a few years to complain about why things haven't happened. Just like he campaigned on the eu being a bad deal for UK fishing despite not attending any meetings about fishing when he was a MEP.

On the bright side, at least the racists have helpfully highlighted to us where they are all based now, so we can keep away.

Not turning up not really an option when running a Council though @Sofasloth 🙂

As Reform are about to find out.

Phil Moorhouse has pointed out that for the first time, Reform will actually be under scrutiny. They have never had any power before now, and therefore, have never had to deliver, Farage has built Reform based on never having had to govern at all.

With the smidgeon of “power” they have now: let them show their true colours. Let them fail. Let the mask slip, and fall right off. Not unlike Uncle Scar, who found that being king wasn’t as easy as he thought.

I live in one of the counties in which Reform are now in charge of the council, having taken over from a long-standing Conservative administration. It will be interesting to see what happens next, because by all accounts very few of their newly elected councillors have any experience of running anything, never mind a large organisation with important statutory responsibilities, legal duties, hundreds of employees and a £multi-million budget. What could possibly go wrong?

They will really, really struggle.

Farage has already trotted out the DEI line (councils don’t have dedicated DEI staff), and stated they will be stopping all flags bar the Union Jack, England flag or county flag being flown at council buildings.

Yes, Nigel, that will really help these councils with the growing pressures of ASC. Well done!

It’s a case of leopards eating faces, isn’t it? The quality of life in these areas will get worse, but labour will get the blame.

They actually lost seats on my country council. Not sure if that’s because of their record as councillors or because they were Tory defectors.

Nothing much will change. Council are mostly run by the staff, who will keep chugging on behind the scenes fixing potholes/running schools/looking after the elderly etc. The councillors may make some crazy decisions at the top, but it would take a long time for this to have much effect on the day to day stuff like bin collections. If a council was already struggling it will continue to do so, possibly speeded on by unhinged decision-making, but we’re unlikely to see anything particularly visible for at least a couple of years.

Can we all move to where you are @GCAcademic 😀

Whilst I admire and respect your positive outlook @TooExtraImmatureCheddar I think objective reality - particularly in areas such as Childrens Services - may prove different. I think the bins will carry out getting collected without problem. But only because it two-tier areas its the District Councils that do that.

As you say time will tell.

I'm hoping that they gain bugger all in Scotlands next election in 2026.

but labour will get the blame

I'm not so convinced that Reform will be able to make that line work @mummytoonetryingfortwo

Now if their starting point was that councils are starved of funds from Central Government they woud have a case.

But as we're already hearing in County Durham and in Lincolnshire their starting point is that councils have too many people.

In this instance I really do think blaming others will be far more difficult for them - and that they will be shown up for what they are.

Most of these Councils probably won't have set Cllr allowances for 25/26 yet. How they handle that will be interesting to watch. Because logically based on all they've said they probably should be looking to reduce those allowances. I somehow suspect that won't be what happens.

Respectfully, their voters don’t have the capability to view it that way

They didn't make too much progress in terms of votes in Scotland at the last GE did they? And of course Scotland clearly rejected Brexit in the referendum. I've a feeling you'll all do the sensible thing again.

I am in Leicestershire and I think local paper has already reported that Reform will lead without a majority. It is a worry. I don't work for the council but for a charity that fulfills contracts for the council so could have significant impact for us. The whole east midlands councils now seem to be under Reform control as well as Lincs.

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.

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.

If you have a link for that you could post at sometime that would be useful.

I do wonder whether in Leicesteshire as per my thread opener the Con cllrs, and it doesn't need to be all of them, will give Reform the necessary support for a majority and to get votes through Council.

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…

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.

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.

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

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!!

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?

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