2026 United Kingdom local elections

The English Devolution White Paper on 16 December 2024 set out the Labour government's plans for local government reorganisation, involving the remaining two-tier counties of England being abolished with elections to new unitary authorities. Some of the elections scheduled for May 2025 were delayed by a year in order to allow reorganisation to take place. At least 13 of the 21 county councils asked the government to delay their elections. On 5 February 2025, the government announced that elections to nine councils (seven county councils and two unitary authorities) would not take place in 2025 to allow restructuring to take place, with elections to reformed or newly created replacement authorities taking place in 2026. Four new combined authority mayoral elections — Greater Essex, Hampshire and the Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Sussex and Brighton — were delayed to 2028, having been originally scheduled for 2026. ==London boroughs==

Elections for all councillors in all thirty-two London boroughs will be held in 2026 in line with their normal election schedule. The previous elections to London borough councils were held in 2022, which saw Labour win its second-best result in any London election and the Conservatives return their lowest-ever number of councillors in the capital. ==Metropolitan boroughs==

There are thirty-six metropolitan boroughs, which are single-tier local authorities. Thirty-two of them have an election in 2026 (Doncaster, Liverpool, Wirral and Rotherham do not). Of these, Birmingham City Council and St Helens Council hold their elections on a four-year cycle from 2022, so are due to hold an election in 2026. In 2025 Barnsley Council held a public consultation regarding the permanent adoption of the whole council election cycle, which has since been confirmed. Barnsley is going to hold its elections on a four-year cycle starting from 2026. The remaining twenty-nine councils generally elect a third of their councillors every year for three years with no election in each fourth year, on the same timetable which includes elections in 2026. Thirteen of these metropolitan borough councils have all of their councillors up for election in 2026 rather than the usual one-third, following ward boundary changes from their LGBCE electoral review. All thirteen will likely be reverting to thirds in 2027, 2028 and 2030. Elections for all councillors Elections for one third of councillors ==Unitary authorities==

Most of these unitary authorities elect councillors in thirds, with councillors elected in 2022 up for reelection in 2026. Swindon and Milton Keynes elect councillors by thirds, but have all seats up in 2026 due to new ward boundaries. Thurrock and Isle of Wight both have all-up elections delayed from 2025. East Surrey and West Surrey are both newly-created councils with all councillors to be elected. Elections for all councillors Elections for one third of councillors ==Mayors==

Local authorities == County councils ==

All of these elections were delayed from 2025. ==District councils==

Elections for all councillors Elections for half of councillors Elections for one third of councillors ==Campaigns==

Labour are defending more than 2,500 seats, the Conservatives over 1,300 and the Liberal Democrats just under 700. Over 25,000 candidates were nominated to stand in the elections. Reform UK, Labour, the Conservatives and the Green party all stood candidates in over 95% of wards, while the Liberal Democrats had candidates in 86%. The only other party with candidates in more than 2% of wards was the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, with 9%. Labour On 20 March 2026, General Secretary of Unite Sharon Graham said in a speech to refuse workers near a waste depot in Tyseley, Birmingham that Labour will be "decimated" in the upcoming local elections and should "hang their heads in shame" over its handling of the Birmingham bin strike. On 30 March 2026, Keir Starmer launched Labour's local election campaign at City of Wolverhampton College, West Midlands. According to ITV, Wolverhampton is one of Labour's safest councils in the region and Keir Starmer denied Birmingham was a "lost cause". The BBC said Labour is going into the elections with consistently low poll ratings. Conservatives On 19 March 2026, Kemi Badenoch launched the Conservative campaign for the local elections at an event at Sinfonia Smith Square in Westminster, London. Liberal Democrats On 24 March 2026, Ed Davey launched the Liberal Democrat campaign for the local elections at an event in Lovelace Lodge, in East Horsley, Surrey. Reform UK On 1 January 2026, Nigel Farage announced he wanted to go "double or quits" by planning to spend more than £5 million over the next four months in the run-up to the local elections, saying he wanted to spend "every single penny in the bank account" on a mass direct mail and social media campaign. He called this year's set of local elections the "single most important event" before the next general election. In August 2025, Reform UK received a £9 million donation from Christopher Harborne, a British–Thai billionaire businessman. On 10 March 2026, Farage launched Reform's local election campaign at a live-streamed event with 1,500 supporters at GG's restaurant, in Newport, Isle of Wight. This was the first in a planned nationwide series of rallies. Green Party Following the election of Zack Polanski as Green Party leader, the party rose sharply in popularity polls. The Green Party launched its local elections campaign on 9 April 2026. The party wants to build and maintain council housing and social homes, pointing to Green-led councils in Lewes and Mid Suffolk, which have built hundreds of new council homes in recent years. It also wants to put pressure on the Labour Party to introduce rent controls and abolish the leasehold system, "freeing five million people from the financial burden of service charges". 20 candidates in 17 wards are standing under the Your Party name. ==Polls==