What's up for election in 2024?

On Thursday 2 May, local elections will take place everywhere in England and Wales. Council seats, mayoral positions, the London Assembly and Police and Crime Commissioners will all be contested.

To provide an overview, you can expect to see the following up for election:

• 2636 seats across 107 local council authorities
• 37 Police and Crime Commissioners
• 11 Mayors, including eight Combined Authority Mayors
• The London Assembly

These are scheduled to be the last set of local elections before the next General Election. The last time most of these seats were contested was in 2021; however, this is in fact the 2020 cycle which was postponed due to the pandemic.

2 May will also see the introduction of new boundaries for local councils, and a change of electoral system for Mayors and Police and Crime and Commissioners. To find the latest boundaries for each council area, you can visit our new Electoral Changes Order Tracker.

This blog provides a summary of the key dates and information about the upcoming elections, as well as how you can get involved with Democracy Club’s work!

So, what can we expect from the Local elections taking place in 2024?

Council Elections

The 107 councils holding Council Elections this year are broken down as follows:

• 58 District Councils, of which 20 are electing all their councillors - with 18 elected on new boundary changes, four electing one half of their councils, 34 electing one third of councillors.

• 31 Metropolitan District Councils, of which three are electing all their councillors - including two elected on new boundary changes and 28 electing one third of councillors.

• 18 Unitary Authorities, of which four are electing all their councillors - including one elected on a new boundary change and 14 electing one third of councillors

Of the councils, 21 are holding the election on new boundary changes. A total of 27 councils will be elected fully, four to be elected by half and 76 by one third.

Police and Crime Commissioner Elections

There will be a total of 37 Police and Crime Commissioner elections across all areas of England and Wales. It will be the first time the first-past-the-post electoral system will be employed for Police and Crime Commissioner Elections, since the Elections Act 2022 implemented the change from Supplementary Vote (SV).

Mayoral Elections

A total of 11 Mayoral elections will be taking place in England on 2 May. New Mayoral elections will take place in the East Midlands, York and North Yorkshire, and North East Combined Authority. It is to be noted that 11 is a provisional number, with the assumption the legislation concerning South Yorkshire passes. This will also be the first time any of the 11 Mayors will be elected using the first-past-the-post electoral system.

Of the Mayoral elections, eight are Combined Authorities. Mayoral elections in Salford, the East Midlands and London differ. Salford has a Local Authority Mayor, the East Midlands is a new County Combined Authority (CCA). Each of these will comprise one ballot for voters, except for the Mayor of London & London Assembly Election.

The Mayor of London and London Assembly Election will comprise of three ballots for voters:

1. The Mayor of London
2. The 14 Members of the London Assembly, which represent London’s 14 Constituencies
3. The 11 London-wide Assembly Members.

Get involved!

We will be working with local authorities and a strong community of volunteers to collect polling station details for WhereDoIVote.co.uk and candidate lists.
This enables every voter to find the key information relevant to them with as little hassle as possible.

We are always looking for volunteers to assist, if you are interested in volunteering in any way, you can read more about volunteering on Democracy Club Candidates.

We welcome anyone to join in on 5-8 April, when Statement(s) of Persons Nominated (SoPNs) are released. You can visit the front page of Democracy Club Candidates to see what tasks need doing. We do this in order to gather as much information as we can about candidates, allowing voters to find out more about their local candidates on WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk.