Local elections 2026: Where are they happening and what is at stake?

More than 5,000 council seats will be up for grabs when voters in England go to the polls on Thursday May 7.

Local elections are taking place for 136 local authorities, including some of the largest cities in the country and the whole of London.

A mix of urban authorities and rural districts are also holding contests, along with several county councils.

It is the largest set of local elections in England for three years and a key test for all political parties.

Here the Press Association runs through the locations, timings and significance of this year’s polls.

– Where are elections taking place?

The 136 local authorities holding elections are spread across England.

Polls will take place to elect members of six county councils: East Sussex, Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and West Sussex.

All 32 London boroughs are holding elections.

Voters in 32 Metropolitan boroughs will be able to choose new councillors: Barnsley, Birmingham, Bolton, Bradford, Bury, Calderdale, Coventry, Dudley, Gateshead, Kirklees, Knowsley, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Sandwell, Sefton, Sheffield, Solihull, South Tyneside, St Helens, Stockport, Sunderland, Tameside, Trafford, Wakefield, Walsall, Wigan and Wolverhampton.

There are 18 unitary authorities holding local elections: Blackburn with Darwen, East Surrey, Halton, Hartlepool, Hull, Isle of Wight, Milton Keynes, North East Lincolnshire, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Reading, Southampton, Southend-on-Sea, Swindon, Thurrock, West Surrey and Wokingham.

And voters will also be able to choose new councillors to sit on 48 district councils: Adur, Basildon, Basingstoke & Deane, Brentwood, Broxbourne, Burnley, Cambridge, Cannock Chase, Cheltenham, Cherwell, Chorley, Colchester, Crawley, Eastleigh, Epping Forest, Exeter, Fareham, Gosport, Harlow, Hart, Hastings, Havant, Huntingdonshire, Hyndburn, Ipswich, Lincoln, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Norwich, Nuneaton & Bedworth, Oxford, Pendle, Preston, Redditch, Rochford, Rugby, Rushmoor, South Cambridgeshire, St Albans, Stevenage, Tamworth, Three Rivers, Tunbridge Wells, Watford, Welwyn Hatfield, West Lancashire, West Oxfordshire, Winchester and Worthing.

In addition, elections are behind held for local mayors in six areas: Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Watford.

– How many council seats are being elected?

A total of 5,013 seats are being contested across the 136 authorities.

– When were these seats last elected?

Most of the seats were last up for election in 2022, at a time when the then-Conservative government, led by former prime minister Boris Johnson, was trailing Labour in the opinion polls and was losing support in the wake of the Partygate scandal.

This was reflected in the results of the 2022 local elections, which saw Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Greens all make gains at the Tories’ expense.

Reform UK contested only a small number of council seats in 2022 and won just two.

– How many seats are each party defending at the elections?

More than half of the seats up for grabs this year are being defended by Labour, reflecting the party’s current strength in London and in Metropolitan boroughs, while just over a quarter are Conservative defences.

This is a different scenario from last year’s local elections, when the Tories were defending the greatest number of council seats, due to most of those contests being for county councils where the party was dominant.

Of the 5,013 seats being contested this year, Labour is defending 2,557, the Conservatives 1,362, the Liberal Democrats 684 and other parties – including independents – 410.

These numbers have been calculated by Professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Exeter University – long-time specialists in the study of local elections – and include seats that are being fought this year for the first time because of boundary changes, where a notional defending party has been estimated.

– What do the polls and recent trends suggest could happen?

Labour could end up “over 1,000 councillors down”, according to analysis published by Profs Rallings and Thrasher.

This assumes the party will do as badly as it did in the May 2025 local elections, when both Labour and the Conservatives lost seats to Reform, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and independents.

“Neither opinion polls nor local by-elections suggest much has changed” in the past 12 months, their analysis says, suggesting Labour and the Tories could both face heavy losses.

Since May 2025 Labour has seen its share of the vote in local by-elections fall by an average of 25% – which, if reproduced at this year’s local elections, would “see the party’s losses edging closer to 2,000”.

The Conservatives “face particular jeopardy” in the six elections for county councils, where dozens of seats could change hands if Reform performs as well as it did in 2025.

Reform, the Lib Dems and Greens are all likely to end up making a net gain in seats overall – particularly Nigel Farage’s party, which is starting from a very low base.

– What challenges are facing the main parties at the elections?

Elections for local councillors and mayors can reflect voters’ attitudes about neighbourhood concerns, such as when bins are collected, the state of parks and pavements, or access to libraries and hospitals.

But they can also be a verdict on how parties and leaders are handling national issues – which this year could mean the cost of living, the economy and immigration, or even foreign affairs such as the wars in Iran and Ukraine.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch both face the challenge of limiting the number of potential losses.

By contrast, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, Reform leader Nigel Farage and Green leader Zack Polanksi each face their own challenge of being seen to make gains at the expense of the major parties and to meet the expectations of their supporters.

– When will the election results be declared?

Polls close at 10pm on May 7, but only around a third of councils are due to count and declare results overnight.

Most councils will wait until the following day, Friday May 8, to begin counting votes and are likely to start announcing their full results in the early afternoon.

A very small number of councils have indicated they will not finish counting votes until Saturday May 9.

A full list of estimated declaration times will be published by PA nearer to polling day.

– Are any other elections taking place on the same day in the UK?

Yes – elections are being held in Scotland for members of the Scottish Parliament and in Wales for members of the Senedd.

– When is the deadline to register to vote in the May 7 elections?

The deadline is 11.59pm on Monday April 20.

Applications to register can be made online at gov.uk/register-to-vote.

The deadline to apply for a postal vote is 5pm on Tuesday April 21 – applications can be made online at gov.uk/apply-postal-vote.

The deadline to apply for a proxy vote, to allow someone to vote at a polling station on your behalf, is 5pm on Tuesday April 28.

Applications for a proxy vote can be made online at gov.uk/apply-proxy-vote.