Local elections 2023
Elections will take place in district councils, metropolitan boroughs and unitary authorities across England on 4 May.
Our analysis
Local elections: four things we learned
Peter Hourston looks beyond the headlines to identify four key takeaways from the 2023 local elections in England.
Sunak's little local difficulties and Starmer's big local victories
The Guardian’s Rafael Behr joins the podcast team to crunch the numbers and examine what the local election results mean for Sunak and Starmer.
Key explainers
Local government
The local government system varies in many ways between the four nations of the UK. We explain the structure and political balance in each nation.
English devolution
What is the history of English devolution? How much of England has devolution? Which powers are devolved?
Electoral systems across the UK
The devolved legislatures are elected using different voting systems to the first-past-the-post system. How do they work?
Local government unitarisation
Unitarisation is a type of local government reorganisation that replaces county and district councils in ‘two-tier’ areas with a single tier.
Our experts
Akash Paun
Programme Director
Peter Hourston
Former Research Assistant
Duncan Henderson
Former Research Assistant