Council Control and Majorities

Who runs every council, by how much, and how close each majority is to falling. Provisional figures for the end of 2025 across 386 councils: No Overall Control 166, Labour 107, Liberal Democrats 41, Conservative 36, Other 17.

Find who holds each seat: For each ward, take the winners of the most recent elections within the last four years. After an all-out election, only the wards fought at that election count, so old wards drop out after a boundary change.

Apply by-elections: A by-election winner takes a seat in their ward, replacing the longest-serving holder.

Decide control: A party with more than half the seats controls the council; otherwise it is in No Overall Control. Seats to lose control = party seats minus half the council, rounded down.

Look ahead: Seats elected four years earlier are the seats up next year. We count how many of those the controlling party is defending.

Council control at the end of 2025 (provisional, derived from ward results)
Council	Control	Majority	Seats
Aberdeen	No Overall Control	—	45
Aberdeen City	No Overall Control	—	45
Aberdeenshire	No Overall Control	—	70
Adur	Labour	3	29
Amber Valley	Labour	4	42
Angus	No Overall Control	—	28
Antrim and Newtownabbey	No Overall Control	—	40
Ards and North Down	No Overall Control	—	40
Argyll and Bute	No Overall Control	—	36
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon	No Overall Control	—	41
Arun	No Overall Control	—	54
Ashfield	Other	27	35
Ashford	No Overall Control	—	47
Babergh	No Overall Control	—	32
Barking and Dagenham	Labour	47	51
Barnet	Labour	15	63
Barnsley	Labour	33	63
Basildon	No Overall Control	—	42
Basingstoke and Deane	No Overall Control	—	54
Bassetlaw	Labour	24	48
Bath & North East Somerset	Liberal Democrats	21	59
Bedford	No Overall Control	—	46
Belfast	No Overall Control	—	60
Bexley	Conservative	15	45
Birmingham	Labour	23	101
Blaby	Conservative	2	36
Blackburn with Darwen	Labour	7	51
Blackpool	Labour	14	42
Blaenau Gwent	Labour	9	33
Bolsover	Labour	19	37
Bolton	No Overall Control	—	60
Boston	Other	16	30
Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole	No Overall Control	—	76
Bracknell Forest	Labour	3	41
Bradford	Labour	4	90
Braintree	Conservative	1	49
Breckland	Conservative	9	49
Brent	Labour	41	57
Brentwood	No Overall Control	—	39
Bridgend	Labour	1	51
Brighton & Hove	Labour	18	54
Bristol, City of	No Overall Control	—	70
Broadland	No Overall Control	—	47
Bromley	Conservative	12	58
Bromsgrove	No Overall Control	—	31
Broxbourne	Conservative	20	30
Broxtowe	Other	2	44
Buckinghamshire	No Overall Control	—	97
Burnley	No Overall Control	—	45
Bury	Labour	13	51
Caerphilly	Labour	21	69
Calderdale	Labour	3	51
Cambridge	Labour	6	42
Cambridgeshire	Liberal Democrats	1	61
Camden	Labour	35	55
Cannock Chase	Labour	4	36
Canterbury	No Overall Control	—	39
Cardiff	Labour	31	79
Carmarthenshire	No Overall Control	—	75
Castle Point	Other	39	39
Causeway Coast and Glens	No Overall Control	—	37
Central Bedfordshire	No Overall Control	—	63
Ceredigion	Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales	4	38
Charnwood	No Overall Control	—	52
Chelmsford	Liberal Democrats	9	57
Cheltenham	Liberal Democrats	32	40
Cherwell	No Overall Control	—	48
Cheshire East	No Overall Control	—	82
Cheshire West & Chester	Labour	4	70
Chesterfield	Labour	16	40
Chichester	Liberal Democrats	14	36
Chorley	Labour	34	42
City Of London	Other	117	125
Clackmannanshire	No Overall Control	—	18
Colchester	No Overall Control	—	51
Conwy	No Overall Control	—	55
Cornwall	No Overall Control	—	87
Cotswold	Liberal Democrats	8	34
County Durham	Reform UK	32	98
Coventry	Labour	26	54
Crawley	Labour	14	36
Croydon	No Overall Control	—	70
Cumberland	Labour	8	46
Dacorum	No Overall Control	—	51
Darlington	No Overall Control	—	50
Dartford	Conservative	16	42
Denbighshire	No Overall Control	—	48
Derby	No Overall Control	—	51
Derbyshire	Reform UK	20	64
Derbyshire Dales	No Overall Control	—	34
Derry City and Strabane	No Overall Control	—	37
Devon	No Overall Control	—	60
Doncaster	Reform UK	19	55
Dorset	Liberal Democrats	2	82
Dover	No Overall Control	—	32
Dudley	No Overall Control	—	72
Dumfries and Galloway	No Overall Control	—	43
Dundee	SNP	3	31
Dundee City	SNP	3	29
Ealing	Labour	48	70
East Ayrshire	No Overall Control	—	32
East Cambridgeshire	No Overall Control	—	28
East Devon	No Overall Control	—	60
East Dunbartonshire	No Overall Control	—	22
East Hampshire	No Overall Control	—	43
East Hertfordshire	No Overall Control	—	50
East Lindsey	No Overall Control	—	55
East Lothian	No Overall Control	—	22
East Renfrewshire	No Overall Control	—	18
East Riding Of Yorkshire	No Overall Control	—	67
East Staffordshire	Labour	5	37
East Suffolk	No Overall Control	—	55
East Sussex	No Overall Control	—	50
Eastbourne	Liberal Democrats	11	27
Eastleigh	Liberal Democrats	27	39
Edinburgh	No Overall Control	—	63
Elmbridge	No Overall Control	—	48
Enfield	Labour	11	63
Epping Forest	Conservative	2	54
Epsom And Ewell	Other	19	35
Erewash	Labour	5	47
Essex	Conservative	25	75
Exeter	Labour	5	39
Falkirk	No Overall Control	—	30
Fareham	Conservative	16	32
Fenland	Conservative	27	43
Fife	No Overall Control	—	75
Flintshire	Other	1	67
Folkestone And Hythe	No Overall Control	—	30
Forest Of Dean	No Overall Control	—	38
Fylde	Conservative	5	37
Gateshead	Labour	28	66
Gedling	Labour	11	41
Glasgow	No Overall Control	—	86
Glasgow City	No Overall Control	—	85
Gloucester	No Overall Control	—	39
Gloucestershire	No Overall Control	—	55
Gosport	Liberal Democrats	2	28
Gravesham	Labour	5	39
Great Yarmouth	No Overall Control	—	39
Greenwich	Labour	45	55
Guildford	Liberal Democrats	2	48
Gwynedd	Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales	23	69
Hackney	Labour	31	57
Halton	Labour	46	54
Hammersmith and Fulham	Labour	28	50
Hampshire	Conservative	22	78
Harborough	No Overall Control	—	34
Haringey	Labour	33	57
Harlow	Conservative	1	33
Harrow	Conservative	7	55
Hart	No Overall Control	—	33
Hartlepool	Labour	10	36
Hastings	No Overall Control	—	32
Havant	No Overall Control	—	36
Havering	Other	5	55
Herefordshire	No Overall Control	—	53
Hertfordshire	No Overall Control	—	78
Hertsmere	No Overall Control	—	39
High Peak	Labour	15	43
Highland	No Overall Control	—	74
Hillingdon	Conservative	7	53
Hinckley And Bosworth	Liberal Democrats	12	34
Horsham	Liberal Democrats	6	48
Hounslow	Labour	38	62
Huntingdonshire	No Overall Control	—	52
Hyndburn	Labour	7	35
Inverclyde	No Overall Control	—	22
Ipswich	Labour	28	48
Isle of Anglesey	Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales	5	35
Isle Of Wight	No Overall Control	—	39
Isles of Scilly	Other	16	16
Islington	Labour	37	51
Kensington and Chelsea	Conservative	22	50
Kent	Reform UK	31	81
King's Lynn And West Norfolk	No Overall Control	—	55
Kingston Upon Hull	Liberal Democrats	2	60
Kingston Upon Hull, City of	Liberal Democrats	1	57
Kingston upon Thames	Liberal Democrats	36	48
Kirklees	No Overall Control	—	69
Knowsley	Labour	17	45
Lambeth	Labour	51	63
Lancashire	Reform UK	20	84
Lancaster	No Overall Control	—	61
Leeds	Labour	21	99
Leicester	Labour	8	54
Leicestershire	No Overall Control	—	55
Lewes	No Overall Control	—	41
Lewisham	Labour	52	54
Lichfield	No Overall Control	—	47
Lincoln	Labour	11	33
Lincolnshire	Reform UK	18	70
Lisburn and Castlereagh	No Overall Control	—	40
Liverpool	Labour	37	85
Luton	Labour	10	48
Maidstone	No Overall Control	—	49
Maldon	No Overall Control	—	31
Malvern Hills	No Overall Control	—	31
Manchester	Labour	78	96
Mansfield	Labour	16	36
Medway	No Overall Control	—	59
Melton	No Overall Control	—	28
Merthyr Tydfil	Other	2	30
Merton	Labour	3	57
Mid and East Antrim	No Overall Control	—	32
Mid Devon	Liberal Democrats	26	42
Mid Suffolk	Green	10	34
Mid Sussex	No Overall Control	—	48
Mid Ulster	Sinn Féin	2	16
Middlesbrough	Labour	2	46
Midlothian	No Overall Control	—	18
Milton Keynes	Labour	3	57
Mole Valley	Liberal Democrats	21	39
Monmouthshire	No Overall Control	—	46
Moray	No Overall Control	—	26
Na h-Eileanan an Iar	Other	15	29
Neath Port Talbot	No Overall Control	—	60
New Forest	Conservative	4	48
Newark And Sherwood	No Overall Control	—	39
Newcastle Upon Tyne	No Overall Control	—	78
Newcastle-under-Lyme	Conservative	6	44
Newham	Labour	52	66
Newport	Labour	15	51
Norfolk	Conservative	22	84
North Ayrshire	No Overall Control	—	33
North Devon	Liberal Democrats	6	42
North East Derbyshire	Labour	1	53
North East Lincolnshire	No Overall Control	—	42
North Hertfordshire	No Overall Control	—	51
North Kesteven	Conservative	5	43
North Lanarkshire	No Overall Control	—	77
North Lincolnshire	Conservative	11	43
North Norfolk	Liberal Democrats	12	40
North Northamptonshire	Reform UK	10	68
North Somerset	No Overall Control	—	50
North Tyneside	Labour	42	60
North Warwickshire	No Overall Control	—	35
North West Leicestershire	No Overall Control	—	38
North Yorkshire	No Overall Control	—	90
Northumberland	No Overall Control	—	69
Norwich	No Overall Control	—	39
Nottingham	Labour	39	55
Nottinghamshire	Reform UK	14	66
Nuneaton and Bedworth	No Overall Control	—	38
Oadby And Wigston	Liberal Democrats	10	26
Oldham	No Overall Control	—	60
Orkney Islands	Other	21	21
Oxford	No Overall Control	—	48
Oxfordshire	Liberal Democrats	3	69
Pembrokeshire	Other	10	60
Pendle	No Overall Control	—	33
Perth and Kinross	No Overall Control	—	40
Peterborough	No Overall Control	—	60
Plymouth	Labour	27	57
Portsmouth	No Overall Control	—	42
Powys	No Overall Control	—	68
Preston	Labour	8	48
Reading	Labour	16	48
Redbridge	Labour	45	63
Redcar & Cleveland	No Overall Control	—	59
Redditch	Labour	11	27
Reigate & Banstead	No Overall Control	—	45
Renfrewshire	No Overall Control	—	43
Rhondda Cynon Taf	Labour	41	75
Ribble Valley	No Overall Control	—	40
Richmond upon Thames	Liberal Democrats	44	54
Rochdale	Labour	26	60
Rochford	No Overall Control	—	39
Rossendale	Labour	10	30
Rother	No Overall Control	—	38
Rotherham	Labour	5	59
Rugby	No Overall Control	—	42
Runnymede	No Overall Control	—	41
Rushcliffe	Conservative	4	44
Rushmoor	Labour	3	39
Rutland	No Overall Control	—	27
Salford	Labour	38	60
Sandwell	Labour	58	72
Scottish Borders	No Overall Control	—	34
Sefton	Labour	34	66
Sevenoaks	Conservative	12	54
Sheffield	No Overall Control	—	84
Shetland	Independent	16	22
Shetland Islands	Other	21	23
Shropshire	Liberal Democrats	10	74
Slough	No Overall Control	—	42
Solihull	Conservative	11	51
Somerset	Liberal Democrats	12	110
South Ayrshire	No Overall Control	—	28
South Cambridgeshire	Liberal Democrats	25	45
South Derbyshire	Labour	8	36
South Gloucestershire	No Overall Control	—	61
South Hams	Liberal Democrats	7	31
South Holland	Conservative	1	37
South Kesteven	No Overall Control	—	56
South Lanarkshire	No Overall Control	—	64
South Norfolk	No Overall Control	—	46
South Oxfordshire	Liberal Democrats	6	36
South Ribble	Labour	6	50
South Staffordshire	Conservative	14	42
South Tyneside	Labour	2	54
Southampton	Labour	17	51
Southend-On-Sea	No Overall Control	—	51
Southwark	Labour	41	63
Spelthorne	No Overall Control	—	39
St Albans	Liberal Democrats	36	56
St. Helens	Labour	8	48
Stafford	No Overall Control	—	40
Staffordshire	Reform UK	36	62
Staffordshire Moorlands	No Overall Control	—	56
Stevenage	Labour	23	39
Stirling	No Overall Control	—	23
Stockport	No Overall Control	—	63
Stockton-on-Tees	No Overall Control	—	56
Stoke On Trent	Labour	12	44
Stratford-On-Avon	Liberal Democrats	9	41
Stroud	No Overall Control	—	51
Suffolk	Conservative	25	75
Sunderland	Labour	29	75
Surrey	Conservative	7	81
Surrey Heath	Liberal Democrats	13	35
Sutton	Liberal Democrats	1	55
Swale	No Overall Control	—	47
Swansea	Labour	15	75
Swindon	Labour	21	57
Tameside	Labour	15	57
Tamworth	Labour	6	30
Tandridge	Other	7	43
Teignbridge	Liberal Democrats	3	47
Telford & Wrekin	Labour	22	54
Tendring	No Overall Control	—	48
Test Valley	Conservative	9	43
Tewkesbury	No Overall Control	—	38
Thanet	Labour	4	56
Three Rivers	No Overall Control	—	39
Thurrock	Labour	3	49
Tonbridge And Malling	No Overall Control	—	44
Torbay	No Overall Control	—	36
Torfaen	Labour	16	40
Torridge	No Overall Control	—	36
Tower Hamlets	Other	7	45
Trafford	Labour	23	63
Tunbridge Wells	Liberal Democrats	5	39
Uttlesford	Other	7	39
Vale of Glamorgan	No Overall Control	—	54
Vale Of White Horse	Liberal Democrats	26	38
Wakefield	Labour	45	63
Walsall	Conservative	14	60
Waltham Forest	Labour	30	60
Wandsworth	Labour	10	58
Warrington	Labour	24	58
Warwick	No Overall Control	—	44
Warwickshire	Conservative	25	57
Watford	Liberal Democrats	24	36
Waverley	No Overall Control	—	50
Wealden	No Overall Control	—	45
Welwyn Hatfield	No Overall Control	—	48
West Berkshire	Liberal Democrats	13	43
West Devon	No Overall Control	—	31
West Dunbartonshire	No Overall Control	—	22
West Lancashire	Labour	1	45
West Lindsey	No Overall Control	—	36
West Lothian	No Overall Control	—	33
West Northamptonshire	Reform UK	8	76
West Oxfordshire	No Overall Control	—	49
West Suffolk	No Overall Control	—	64
West Sussex	Conservative	12	70
Western Isles	Independent	13	27
Westminster	Labour	2	54
Westmorland and Furness	Liberal Democrats	7	65
Wigan	Labour	51	75
Wiltshire	No Overall Control	—	98
Winchester	Liberal Democrats	19	45
Windsor & Maidenhead	Liberal Democrats	1	41
Wirral	No Overall Control	—	66
Woking	Liberal Democrats	18	30
Wokingham	No Overall Control	—	54
Wolverhampton	Labour	30	60
Worcester	No Overall Control	—	35
Worcestershire	No Overall Control	—	57
Worthing	Labour	5	37
Wrexham	No Overall Control	—	56
Wychavon	Conservative	13	43
Wyre	Conservative	4	50
Wyre Forest	Conservative	7	33
York	Labour	1	47

All insights

Insight 9

Council Control and Majorities

Who runs every council, by how much, and how close each majority is to falling.

Provisional, 1991 onwards

For every council and every year from 1991: seats by party, which party holds a majority or whether it is in No Overall Control, the size of the majority, and how many seats the controlling party defends at the next election.

Sources. Council make-up comes from Elections Centre's published compositions up to 2017 and Open Council Data from 2018. Councils neither source covers are estimated from our own ward results, which miss defections between elections and may show too few seats where results are incomplete.

Year

Every council, 2025

Click a council to see its history.

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How to read this

The coloured strip shows each party's share of the seats; the thin line marks half. A party past the line controls the council.

Majority is the controlling party's seats minus everyone else's. Seats to lose control is how many seats it could lose and still keep more than half.

What the report does

A year-by-year record of council control built from ward results, with a seat ribbon per council, a control timeline, and a list of majorities that the next election could overturn.

How it's built

1
Find who holds each seat
For each ward, take the winners of the most recent elections within the last four years. After an all-out election, only the wards fought at that election count, so old wards drop out after a boundary change.
2
Apply by-elections
A by-election winner takes a seat in their ward, replacing the longest-serving holder.
3
Decide control
A party with more than half the seats controls the council; otherwise it is in No Overall Control. Seats to lose control = party seats minus half the council, rounded down.
4
Look ahead
Seats elected four years earlier are the seats up next year. We count how many of those the controlling party is defending.

How to read it (and how not to)

• Provisional: derived from election results, not from councils' own published compositions.
• Party defections between elections are not in election results and are not reflected.
• Where our results for a council are incomplete, its seat total will be too low; those councils are flagged.
• Whether the controlling party also runs the council's executive is not yet known for most councils.

What it reads

• Every local election and by-election winner from 1989 onwards
• Which wards belong to which council
• Party groupings (for example, Labour Co-op counted with Labour)

What you get back

• Who controls each council in any year from 1991
• A seat ribbon per council
• A control timeline per council
• Councils controlled per party, and councils in No Overall Control, each year
• Majorities at risk at the next election

Readiness

Local election results
Used directly.
Elections Centre compositions 1964–2015
Needed to check our figures and extend back to 1964.

Live figures are held back until these are in place; no estimated numbers are shown in the meantime.