Council control and No Overall Control (NOC)
Whether one party holds more than half the seats on a council.
How it's calculated
A party controls the council with more than half the seats; otherwise the council is in No Overall Control. Seats to lose control = party seats − floor(total seats ÷ 2).
Worked example
City of York at the end of 2023 (provisional, from our ward results): Labour 25 of 48 seats. 25 is more than half of 48, so Labour controls the council.
Seats to lose control = 25 − floor(48 ÷ 2) = 1. Lose one seat and Labour is down to exactly half, which is not a majority.
Source: Heworth ward, City of York — by-election of 15 January 2026 and May 2023.
Caveats
- Our figures are derived from election results and do not reflect councillors who change party between elections.
- Who runs the executive is shown where known, and stated as unknown otherwise.
Where it's used
Other definitions
Vote shareChange in shareSwing (two-party, Butler)MajoritySwing needed to gainUncontested seatCandidates per seat / per wardContestation rateWinner's shareEffective number of partiesWinner's bonus (seats vs votes)Incumbency and re-election rateWomen candidates and councillorsTurnout (three methods)Majority at riskPsephology National Share EstimateBy-election vote trackerNotional resultIndex of changeSplit-ticket indicatorNational Equivalent Vote