There are 25 council elections, six mayoral elections and one parliamentary by-election on 1 May
Local elections will be taking place across England on 1 May 2025. Not every area will have elections, with some councils not scheduled to face elections this year and others having had their elections postponed as a result of being on the fast-track for local government reorganisation. In addition to elections to local councils, some voters will be electing regional mayors, and there’s even a parliamentary by-election taking place too.
Local council elections taking place on 1 May 2025
Local elections are scheduled for 25 councils across England. This year, a large proportion of the councils with elections are County Councils. Of the 25 councils with elections, 19 returned Conservative majorities at the last elections.
Here’s the full list of councils with elections this year:
- Buckinghamshire. Last election: Conservative
- Cambridgeshire. Last election: No overall control
- City of London. Last election: Independent
- Cornwall. Last election: Conservative
- County Durham. Last election: No overall control
- Derbyshire. Last election: Conservative
- Devon. Last election: Conservative
- Doncaster. Last election: Labour
- Gloucestershire. Last election: Conservative
- Hertfordshire. Last election: Conservative
- Isles of Scilly. Last election: Independent
- Kent. Last election: Conservative
- Lancashire. Last election: Conservative
- Leicestershire. Last election: Conservative
- Lincolnshire. Last election: Conservative
- North Northamptonshire. Last election: Conservative
- Northumberland. Last election: Conservative
- Nottinghamshire. Last election: Conservative
- Oxfordshire. Last election: No overall control
- Shropshire. Last election. Conservative
- Staffordshire. Last election: Conservative
- Warwickshire. Last election: Conservative
- West Northamptonshire. Last election: Conservative
- Wiltshire. Last election: Conservative
- Worcestershire. Last election: Conservative
Local councils where elections have been postponed
As mentioned above, there are a number of councils which were originally scheduled to have elections this year. However, the reorganisation of local government which will see areas with a two tier model (ie. a district and a county council), move to having a single unitary authority has led to some elections being postponed.
The following councils will not be having elections this year as they have been fast tracked in this unitarisation process, meaning elections will take place for the new unitary authority in later years:
- East Sussex
- Essex
- Hampshire
- Norfolk
- Surrey
- Suffolk
- West Sussex
- Isle of Wight
- Thurrock
Which areas will be electing mayors on 1 May 2025?
Alongside elections to local councils, there will be six mayoral elections taking place on 1 May. Four of the six mayors are currently Labour. The other two mayors are newly created and therefore will be being elected for the first time.
The six mayoral elections taking place this year are as follows:
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (Currently Labour)
- Doncaster (Currently Labour)
- West of England (Currently Labour)
- Greater Lincolnshire (New role)
- Hull and East Yorkshire (New role)
- North Tyneside (Labour)
Runcorn and Helsby by-election
Finally, there is a by-election taking place on 1 May to replace Mike Amesbury as the MP for Runcorn and Helsby. Amesbury resigned his seat following his conviction for assault.
A full list of candidates has yet to be announced, but the following have so far confirmed their intention to stand:
- Danny Clarke – Liberal
- Chris Copeman – Green
- Paul Duffy – Liberal Democrats
- Peter Ford – Workers Party
- Sean Houlston – Conservative
- Sarah Pochin – Reform UK
- Karen Shore – Labour
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Oatsy40 – Creative Commons
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