Future Local Lab
Local Government Explained
Local Elections England: 2026
State of the locals 2025
Rewatch the session:
To help make sense of these upcoming local elections on 1 May – the LGIU and Ipsos hosted a virtual panel discussion bringing together political and local government experts to share their predictions and insights on the contests to watch, public attitudes to local democracy, and the future of local democracy in the UK.
The discussion also reflected on new and exclusive polling from Ipsos/LGIU to examine why this year’s elections really matter.
Speakers
- Keiran Pedley, Director of Politics, Ipsos UK
- Jonathan Carr-West, Chief Executive, LGIU
- Dr Hannah Bunting, University of Exeter
- Peter Stanyon, Association of Electoral Administrators
See more about our speakers below.
Event Survey
Resource pack: State of the locals 2025
State of the Locals 2025 Publication
Each year, in the lead-up to local elections, LGIU commissions Ipsos to carry out polling on public attitudes towards local government in England. Based on conversations with our members, the questions in this survey reflect what we at LGIU believe to be the most important issues facing local democracy today. Read more…
Speaker session slides - Keiran Pedley - Director of Politics - Ipsos UK
View Keiran Pedley’s session slides here.
Speaker session slides - Dr Hannah Bunting, University of Exeter
View Dr Hannah Bunting’s session slides here.
Local Elections England: 2025
Your one-stop shop for the most pertinent local elections resources for you and your teams. View here
Ones to Watch 2025: your guide to the local elections
The 2025 local elections in England may be small in quantity but don’t let that deceive you. They are still set to be crucial and interesting when mapped against a backdrop of reorganisation, devolution, and political shifts. Read our highly-regarded and anticipated Ones to Watch guide for all the contests you need to keep on… View here
Local elections England: update 17 April 2025
We’ve teamed up with Vuelio to bring LGIU members a weekly round-up of the latest local election news and commentary. View here
LGIU guide for new councillors
Firstly, congratulations on your election. Becoming a councillor is an exciting time but can also be daunting – so this briefing is to help in those first days and weeks. Read more here…
Resources for new councillors
Councillors who are newly elected in May will be eager to get stuck into the day-to-day business of being a councillor. But local government is complex, so LGIU has support and information and training for new councillors across a wide range of unfamiliar policy areas to help develop the skills that will boost their effectiveness. See more here
Devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR): the essentials
This collection of LGIU resources provides you and your teams with all of the devolution and LGR essentials that you need right now. Our team is working around the clock on these issues and this page will be updated regularly. View here
What does ‘No Overall Control’ mean?
Only 1 of the 24 local authorities where residents will go to the polls this May is Labour-run, while 15 are Conservative-run, and the Isles of Scilly has an independent administration. The remaining councils are governed by what is described as ‘No Overall Control’; where a coalition between parties exists, or the council is run by a minority administration (mostly by the party with the most seats). Read more…
Electoral administration at the 2024 UK general election
Following our 2023 study into the administration of voter identification, we once again surveyed electoral administrators in 2024 after the general election in July. Both studies asked electoral administrators to rate how much of a problem for electoral integrity a series of different features of the electoral process are. View more here.
Nominate Now
Nominate a councillor today for the 2025 LGIU & CCLA Cllr Awards
About our speakers
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Keiran Pedley – Director of Politics – Ipsos UK
Keiran is an expert on elections, political polling and public opinion research and leads on several aspects of Ipsos’s political research and commentary. With more than 16 years experience in the research industry, Keiran specialises in providing data driven insights to clients across a range of disciplines and sectors.
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Jonathan Carr-West, Chief Executive, LGIU
Dr Jonathan Carr-West has been Chief Executive of LGIU (Local Government Information Unit) since February 2013 where he leads on all aspects of the think tank’s policy, membership and influencing work.
Jonathan is a leading national expert on local government transformation, local democracy and public services. Some of his particular interests are in participative democracy, the evolving nature of public services and devolution. With an extensive media profile and sector credibility, he has published on topics as diverse as localism and public service transformation, cognitive and behavioural science, and the politics of cultural memory.
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Dr Hannah Bunting, University of Exeter
Dr Hannah Bunting is Senior Lecturer in Quantitative British Politics at the Centre for Computational Social Science (C2S2). Hannah’s expertise spans electoral politics, party competition, voting behaviour and political trust.
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Peter Stanyon, Association of Electoral Administrators
