• First, we have East and West Surrey, which will see elections in 2026
West Surrey UA (elections 2026, full transition Apr 2027):
Guildford
Runnymede
Spelthorne
Surrey Heath
Waverley
Woking
East Surrey UA (elections 2026, full transition Apr 2027):
Elmbridge
Epsom and Ewell ...
Mole Valley
Reigate and Banstead
Tandridge
• Second, we have the 4 areas which will get Mayoral Combined County Authorities as well as council reoganisation
Area of Greater Essex CA (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Essex (CC) - Re-warding completed, 2026 elections may or may not happen
Basildon - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Braintree
Brentwood - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Castle Point
Chelmsford
Colchester - Re-warding paused, 2026 elections may or may not happen
Eppiing Forest - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Harlow - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Maldon
Rochford - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Southend-on-Sea (UA) - Re-warding paused, 2026 elections may or may not happen
Tendring
Thurrock (UA) - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Uttlesford
Area of Hampshire and Solent CA (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Hampshire (CC) - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Basingstoke and Deane - 2026 elections may or may not happen
East Hampshire
Eastleigh - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Fareham - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Gosport - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Hart - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Havant - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Isle of Wight (UA) - 2026 elections may or may not happen
New Forest
Portsmouth (UA) - Re-warding paused, 2026 elections may or may not happen
Rushmoor - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Southampton (UA) - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Test Valley
Winchester - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Area of Norfolk and Suffolk CA (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Norfolk (CC) - Re-warding completed, 2026 elections may or may not happen
Breckland
Broadland
Great Yarmouth
King's Lynn and West Norfolk
North Norfolk
Norwich - 2026 elections may or may not happen
South Norfolk
Suffolk (CC) - Re-warding completed, 2026 elections may or may not happen
Babergh
East Suffolk
Ipswich - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Mid Suffolk
West Suffolk
Area of Sussex and Brighton CA (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
East Sussex (CC) - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Brighton and Hove (UA)
Eastbourne
Hastings - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Lewes
Rother
Wealden
West Sussex (CC) - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Adur - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Arun
Chichester
Crawley - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Horsham
Mid Sussex
Worthing - 2026 elections may or may not happen
• Third, we have 14 other areas using the county and district system
Area of Cambridgeshire County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Cambridgeshire (CC)
Cambridge - 2026 elections may or may not happen
East Cambridgeshire
Fenland
Huntingdonshire - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Peterborough (UA) - 2026 elections may or may not happen
South Cambridgeshire - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Area of Derbyshire County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Derbyshire (CC)
Amber Valley
Bolsover
Chesterfield
Derby (UA)
Derbyshire Dales
Erewash
High Peak
North East Derbyshire
South Derbyshire
Area of Devon County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Devon (CC)
East Devon
Exeter - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Mid Devon
North Devon
Plymouth (UA) - 2026 elections may or may not happen
South Hams
Teignbridge
Torbay (UA)
Torridge
West Devon
Area of Gloucestershire County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Gloucestershire (CC)
Cheltenham - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Cotswold
Forest of Dean
Gloucester
South Gloucestershire (UA)
Stroud
Tewkesbury
Area of Hertfordshire County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Hertfordshire (CC)
Broxbourne - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Dacorum
East Hertfordshire
Hertsmere
North Hertfordshire
St Albans - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Stevenage - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Three Rivers - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Watford - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Welwyn Hatfield - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Area of Kent County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Kent (CC)
Ashford
Canterbury
Dartford
Dover
Folkesstone and Hythe
Gravesham
Maidstone
Medway (UA)
Tonbridge and Malling
Tunbridge Wells - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Sevenoaks
Swale
Thanet
Area of Lancashire County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Lancashire (CC)
Blackburn with Darwen (UA) - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Blackpool (UA)
Burnley - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Chorley - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Fylde
Hyndburn - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Lancaster
Pendle - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Preston - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Ribble Valley
Rossendale
South Ribble
West Lancashire - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Wyre
Area of Leicestershire County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Leicestershire (CC)
Blaby
Charnwood
Harborough
Hinckley and Bosworth
Leicester (UA)
Melton
North West Leicestershire
Oadby and Wigston
Area of Lincolnshire County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Lincolnshire (CC)
Boston
East Lindsey
Lincoln - 2026 elections may or may not happen
North East Lincolnshire (UA) - 2026 elections may or may not happen
North Kesteven
North Lincolnshire (UA)
South Holland
South Kesteven
West Lindsey
Area of Nottinghamshire County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Nottinghamshire (CC)
Ashfield
Bassetlaw
Broxtowe
Gedling
Mansfield
Newark and Sherwood
Nottingham (UA)
Rushcliffe
Area of Oxfordshire County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Oxfordshire (CC)
Cherwell - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Oxford - 2026 elections may or may not happen
South Oxfordshire
Vale of White Horse
West Oxfordshire - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Area of Staffordshire County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Staffordshire (CC)
Cannock Chase - 2026 elections may or may not happen
East Staffordshire
Lichfield
Newcastle-under-Lyme - 2026 elections may or may not happen
South Staffordshire
Stafford
Staffordshire Moorlands
Stoke-on-Trent
Tamworth - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Area of Warwickshire County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Warwickshire (CC)
North Warwickshire
Nuneaton and Bedworth - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Rugby - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Stratford-on-Avon
Warwick
Area of Worcestershire County (split TBC, elections 2027, full transition Apr 2028):
Worcestershire (CC)
Bromsgrove
Malvern Hills
Redditch - 2026 elections may or may not happen
Worcester
Wychavon
Wyre Forest
Posted: 19th Dec 2025
Further potential changes to 2026 elections
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have announced the 63 councils due to be abolished in the next few years have been invited to request cancellation of their 2026 elections.
This BBC Article talks about a postponement to 2027, but I'm assuming this is conflating elections at the councils to be abolished with new elections to shadow authorities in 2027.
We could all see that the optimistic pace and subsequent delays to local government reoganisation would likely make this necessary. It's hard then to understand why the Ministry was briefing the exact opposite policy for the past month or so. Making big changes is a tricky business, I guess.
In any case, I'll post a full list of the councils affected later on, and make any updates to the Elections 2026 page as any cancellations are announced.
Posted: 15th Dec 2025
MCCA mayors now due 2028
It seems the news about a 1 year delay to the 4 new combined county mayors has also rapidly gone out of date. They're now expected in 2028.
To be fair, I may have jumped the gun and assumed it was a 1 year delay before the full story really became clear. In any case, 2028.
Posted: 10th Dec 2025
Random UK politics resources
I thought here would be a good place to highlight a few local politics resources that I think are pretty much just amazing.
• PollCheck: www.pollcheck.co.uk
A fantastic resource for tracking opinion polling and approval ratings. Lots of charts to get into as well as analysis and a new section with info on the 2026 locals and devolved parliament elections.
• This Week in Polls: theweekinpolls.substack.com
Weekly articles taking a more nuanced look at a wide range of political polling and related topics.
• ElectionMapsUK: Website | Bluesky
Enormous amount of info here on all aspects of elections and polling, with all those informative visuals that are missing from this site ;)
• Andrew's Previews: andrewspreviews.substack.com
Mentioned this one before, but it got a little buried beneath other posts. Always a nice read prior to weekly by-elections.
Ward boundary reviews take place at a small number of councils each year. This year, 4 of them have been paused following potential local government reforms, leaving us with the following.
This group of Metropolitan Boroughs usually elect by thirds, but will have one-off, all-up elections in 2026. There are no changes to the number of seats for these, just new boundaries.
• Bradford ...
• Coventry
• Gateshead
• Kirklees
• Newcastle
• Sandwell
• Sefton
• Solihull
• South Tyneside
• Sounderland
• Wakefield
• Walsall
• Barnsley (Metropolitan) usually elects by thirds but will move to an all-up cycle after this boundary update, meaning we won't see elections in't tarn again this decade.
• Calderdale (Metropolitan) will have a one-off, all-up election, but with 54 seats, up from 51
• Milton Keynes (Unitary) will also have a one-off, all-up election, but with 60 seats, up from 57
• Swindon (Unitary), finally, always elects all-up every 4 years, and has no change to seat numbers
Then we have North East Lincolnshire, Portsmouth, Southend-on-Sea and Colchester, all of which have had boundary reviews which were paused mid-way and so likely now won't see any changes by next May.
Posted: 6th Dec 2025
New 2026 Mayoral elections postponed
Well, my post a couple of days ago aged like... well, not milk because I still have the same perfectly good milk in the fridge...
The new regional mayors will now see their inaugural elections in 2027 rather than next May. There has been a sense that these reforms have had a very fast pace, so while I wouldn't say potential postponement was on the cards, it was certainly somewhere in the pack.
That doesn't preclude consternation from political parties who have been spending and planning for these elections, only for them to be cancelled by their rivals quite late in the day. ...
The affected areas are the Mayoral Combined County Authorities:
• Greater Essex MCCA
• Hampshire and the Solent MCCA
• Norfolk and Suffolk MCCA
• Sussex and Brighton MCCA
Along with this annoucement we have also been reassured that all planned council elections for 2026 (including those postponed in May this year) will take place unless there's a tremendously good reason otherwise. I'll be posting with a full list shortly.
Posted: 4th Dec 2025
What do we know about upcoming local government restructuring?
Over the next few years we can look forward to a large number of changes due to local government restructuring. We have a new type of combined authority - a Mayoral Combined County Authority - which will put an elected regional Mayor at the top of a group of County Councils and/or Unitary Authorities. This differs from Mayoral Combined Authorities in that District Councils won't be able to take part as constituent (voting) members. Of course, District Councils are being phased out anyway.
Here is what's known so far about the latest changes.
2026: Mayors will be elected for these new Mayoral Combined County Authorities: ...
• Greater Essex MCCA
• Hampshire and the Solent MCCA
• Norfolk and Suffolk MCCA
• Sussex and Brighton MCCA
All of these areas are also scheduled to be combined into a number of Unitary Authorities. It seems as though scheduled 2026 elections at County, District and Unitary Councils within the boundaries of these areas will go ahead. Either way the councils themselves won’t be abolished until at least 2027.
2026: Shadow authorities will be elected for these new Unitary Authorities:
• West Surrey Unitary Authority
• East Surrey Unitary Authority
However, these will not take over from existing councils until 1st April 2027.
In addition to Surrey County Council, the following District Councils will be abolished to make way for West Surrey in 2027:
• Guildford, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Waverley, and Woking
And the following District Councils will be abolished to make way for East Surrey in 2027:
• Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, and Tandridge
All other two-tier areas are expected to migrate to new unitaries, with shadow authorities elected in 2027, followed by the formal transition in 2028.
2027: Mayors will be elected for these new Mayoral Combined Authorities:
• Cumbria MCA
• Cheshire and Warrington MCA
These areas have already completed their conversion from County/District to Unitary structure.
Welcome to Open Council Data UK's first actual written content. It should make a nice change from all the tables of numbers. ...
Hopefully I'll find something of interest to post here from time to time.
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