As featured in the Municipal Journal | 04 March 2026
The preparation for elections is already well advanced for many authorities. Administrative arrangements are in hand and candidates will be door-knocking and leafletting – while senior officers will be readying themselves for how events on 7 May reshape their councils.
It is a cliché to call this political moment ‘febrile’ – local elections since the pandemic have all demonstrated this state, with unexpected swings and high councillor turnover.
Nonetheless, polling, plus the odd council by-election, suggests we may see some big swings in political makeup across English local authorities in May. This may be particularly true for areas that have remained untouched by the shifts we have seen in recent years.
Writing in The MJ (29 January), Nick Bowes pointed out: ‘London has little experience in the past 15 years of councils where no party wins an outright majority – 2006-10 when there were eight no overall control [NOC] councils was the last significant period. So, there will be many a council chief executive blowing the dust off the NOC manual.’
As luck would have it, at CfGS we have been busy contributing to that manual.
Through our support work, our recent learning events on governance for change and NOC and a practice guide we will be publishing soon, we have been thinking hard about how councils can prepare. Along with the Local Government Association’s own guidance on the same subject, it adds up to a serious canon for those wondering what this moment might mean for them.
If we were making a list – and shoving it under the noses of senior officers – it would run a little like this…
First, we would argue scenario planning can be useful – even now, just a few weeks out. Some of this will be informed by local intelligence – councils will know how many existing councillors are standing down, for example. And it is sensible to have a mental picture of different possibilities – from high turnover of members but a continuation of overall balance, a shift to a minority administration, to fragmentation or a new majority.
That said, scenario planning should not focus on mapping every eventuality, but on testing senior officers’ creativity and dynamism in supporting councillors to lead in a very different post-election reality.
Particularly in a NOC context, senior officers will need to be aware of the possible dynamics so they can act with confidence. A corporate leadership team (CLT) working through scenarios can improve its resilience and ability to deal with different outcomes, even if they are unexpected.
Second, there is still just about time for a stress-test of your constitution.
In places where one party dominates – or that have seen political stability for many years – constitutions can ossify into a comfortable, settled familiarity. A cohort of new members may upend things. Rules that were uncontroversial can be questioned and challenged. New councillors may chafe against processes that seem baffling or arcane.
Council standing orders, especially rules of debate, committee procedure rules and access to information rules can all be lightning rods for these kinds of problems. It is time well spent working through the rules and thinking about possible alternatives.
Third, initial senior officer support will need to be focused on the clear articulation of new political priorities. If there is a new administration, but particularly if that new administration is a multi-party one, getting those initial political priorities agreed – translating political manifestos into a programme for action – is critically important.
In a multi-party situation, however, what may have been two parties’ internally consistent sets of objectives can combine to produce something messy. This is where senior officers should be ready to step in to support the necessary decisions to secure clear political direction, laying the groundwork for a strong corporate plan.
Fourth, effective member induction is an important part of the story. The quality of induction has improved in many places in recent years, with programmes for new members that are fuller, more engaging and more holistic.
But we still expect new councillors to learn a lot in their first few months. In an environment of NOC, induction may take place in an atmosphere of uncertainty, where some new members find themselves in positions of authority, while others – recently in cabinet – are on the backbenches.
For this reason, induction should be treated as an all-councillor affair – not just for new members, but for returning councillors who may now find themselves in very different roles. Induction with on-the-job training weaves development opportunities into committee work. Scrutiny work can be especially useful for this, blending into initial CLT/cabinet conversations and so forth.
CfGS’s practice guide on no overall control and scrutiny is now live.
It can be found at https://www.cfgs.org.uk/resources/
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