The 2025 parish and town elections
Parish and town councils (‘local’ councils) cover around 35% of England. Democracy Club has collected data on the councils up for election in 2025. This is the second time we’ve done this - you can learn more about local councils and see the results of last year’s elections in the 2024 election blog.
This year, local councils are up for election in 12 local authorities.
Summary
- 1,274 local councils are up for election: three city councils, 133 town councils, and 1,138 parish councils.
- Between them these councils raised £158 million in tax last financial year.
- 7,796 council seats (65.7%) have been filled without a poll.
- Only 356 wards (18.1%) will see a poll on 1 May.
- Due to a lack of candidates in some areas, 21.5% of seats will still be vacant after 1 May.
- 70 wards have no candidates at all, and 31 councils are inquorate.
- Political party representatives make up only 17.4% of all candidates.
The 2025 elections
1,274 local councils are up for election this year, across 12 local authorities. Ten of these local authorities also have principal council elections on 1 May. Of the remaining two, the Isle of Wight has had its elections postponed but will still be holding parish and town elections. North Yorkshire does not have any scheduled elections, but two new large town councils - Scarborough and Harrogate - are holding their inaugural elections. Fylde also has two new parishes holding their first elections, which are taking place alongside the Lancashire County Council polls.
| Local Authority | Parish councils | Parish wards | Parish seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buckinghamshire | 142 | 219 | 1,242 |
| Cornwall | 196 | 287 | 2,051 |
| County Durham | 104 | 197 | 1,120 |
| Doncaster | 37 | 55 | 304 |
| Fylde | 2 | 4 | 20 |
| Isle of Wight | 33 | 66 | 299 |
| North Northamptonshire | 89 | 125 | 804 |
| North Yorkshire | 2 | 24 | 34 |
| Northumberland | 155 | 230 | 1,239 |
| Shropshire | 152 | 277 | 1,410 |
| West Northamptonshire | 131 | 170 | 1,222 |
| Wiltshire | 231 | 308 | 2,118 |
| Total | 1,274 | 1,962 | 11,863 |
The candidates
10,205 candidates have been nominated to stand in these elections. Of these, 1,773 (17.4%) are standing for a registered political party. 8,432 do not have a party affiliation: of these, 769 describe themselves as Independent; 546 have used an alternative non-party description, and 7,117 have not used a description at all.
The majority of seats - 65.7% - have been filled without the need for a poll. This is almost exactly the same proportion as were won uncontested last year.
| Party | Seats won uncontested | Candidates in contested wards | Total candidates |
|---|---|---|---|
| No party affiliation | 7,307 | 1,125 | 8,432 |
| Labour Party | 186 | 382 | 568 |
| Conservative Party | 125 | 365 | 490 |
| Liberal Democrats | 86 | 245 | 331 |
| Green Party | 37 | 118 | 155 |
| Reform UK | 20 | 102 | 122 |
| Other registered parties | 35 | 72 | 107 |
| Total | 7,796 | 3,534 | 10,205 |
Unlike other UK elections, candidates for parish councils can use anything they like on the ballot paper, up to a maximum of six words. 546 have done so, of which 123 have described themselves as some variety of ‘retired’ - one more than there are Reform UK candidates. Other common terms include resident (71), community (51) farmer (58) working (24) and teacher (20).
One of the joys of parish elections for the observer are the more idiosyncratic descriptions. This year’s examples include “Born in Duston, Love Duston”; “An Independent Hard Working Civil Servant”; “20mph Is Plenty For Mears Ashby”; “I want roads fit for purpose”; “Non-Extremist Independent”; and the unimprovable “Big Bloke Big Smile”.
The polls
The eagle-eyed will note that there are far fewer candidates than the number of seats available. When we take into account that the candidates are not spread evenly across the country, we find that 2,549 (21.5%) seats will be left unfilled after 1 May. 70 wards have no candidates at all, and there are 31 inquorate councils.
356 (18%) parish wards will see a poll this year. However, even this overstates the amount of voter choice. Only 42% of polls have 2 or more candidates per seat, and 33% of polls have only one more candidate standing than there are seats available. The good electors of Finedon Town (North Northants) for example, will each have 13 votes to distribute among 14 candidates. The longest ballot paper is Millbrook Parish council, in Cornwall, where 21 candidates are vying for 13 seats.
| Local authority | Wards with a poll | % wards with a poll | Seats contested | Seats won uncontested | Seats unfilled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buckinghamshire | 53 | 24% | 201 | 819 | 222 |
| Cornwall | 28 | 10% | 222 | 1,419 | 410 |
| County Durham | 39 | 20% | 171 | 667 | 282 |
| Doncaster | 8 | 15% | 49 | 199 | 56 |
| Fylde | 4 | 100% | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| Isle of Wight | 16 | 24% | 64 | 184 | 51 |
| North Northants | 29 | 23% | 162 | 501 | 141 |
| North Yorkshire | 24 | 100% | 34 | 0 | 0 |
| Northumberland | 48 | 21% | 169 | 768 | 302 |
| Shropshire | 37 | 13% | 101 | 1,026 | 283 |
| West Northants | 23 | 14% | 94 | 873 | 255 |
| Wiltshire | 47 | 15% | 231 | 1,340 | 547 |
| Totals | 356 | 18% | 1,518 | 7,796 | 2,549 |
One important factor determining whether a ward is contested is political party involvement. Although candidates from registered political parties make up only 17.4% of all candidates, they feature in 75.6% of polls.
Cities, towns, and taxes
Calling these ‘parish’ councils can be a bit misleading. Of the councils up for election this year, 133 (10.4%) are town councils and three - Durham, Salisbury, and Truro - are cities. Segmenting the councils in this way shows that the majority of polls are occurring in town and city councils.
| Council type | Councils | Wards | Wards with poll | % wards with poll |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City councils | 3 | 15 | 12 | 80.00% |
| Town councils | 133 | 455 | 248 | 54.51% |
| Parish councils | 1,138 | 1,492 | 96 | 6.43% |
Finally, we can segment these councils by council tax (precept) they raise. Between them, the councils holding elections this year raised more than £158 million in tax in the 2024-2025 financial year. Pushing these into somewhat arbitrary tax bands shows that 39.9% of all polls are happening in councils which raise over a million pounds in tax each year.
| Precept | Wards | Polls | % with poll | % all polls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Over £1m | 212 | 142 | 66.98% | 39.89% |
| £500k to £999k | 131 | 57 | 43.51% | 16.01% |
| £100k to £499k | 323 | 63 | 19.50% | 17.70% |
| £50k to £99k | 166 | 17 | 10.24% | 4.78% |
| £20k to £49k | 372 | 20 | 5.38% | 5.62% |
| £10k to £49k | 315 | 15 | 4.76% | 4.21% |
| Under £10k | 396 | 14 | 3.54% | 3.93% |
| Nothing | 8 | 0 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| New council | 31 | 28 | 90.32% | 7.87% |
| Dormant council | 8 | 0 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
Yet city status and a high income is still not a guarantee of high interest. Truro City Council, with an annual tax income of over £3 million, will only see a poll in one of its four wards, and of the other three one will have an unfilled seat.
Some councils are blighted by a perennial lack of interest. Eight Northumberland councils have been described as ‘dormant’: they have had no candidates in any recent local election, and this remains the case this year.
Want to know more?
This work has been supported by the National Association of Local Councils. If you’re interested in learning more about England’s town and parish councils, NALC’s website includes a wealth of information, including details on becoming a councillor or setting up a new council if your area currently lacks one.
Additional data collection and analysis by Stuart Orford.
Header image: Durham.