It has been confirmed that elections will be going ahead for Oxford City Council, Cherwell District Council, and West Oxfordshire District Council in May.
This comes after some confusion about Oxford City Council’s stance on the postponement of local elections from May this year to May 2027, which was debated by local councillors in a meeting on 14 January.
In her letter to Alison McGovern (Minister of State for Local Government and Homelessness), Susan Brown, the Leader of Oxford City Council, stressed the Council’s key concerns about the feasibility of local elections in May. She stated that it would be “an additional burden on already stretched resources”, and that it would “cost the Council £250k – funds that might better be used to manage the transition to a new unitary authority”.
However, Brown also stressed the belief of multiple councillors that “postponing elections could negatively impact on residents’ confidence and trust in democracy and local government and accountability of decision making”.
According to Brown, many councillors were sceptical of the idea that the Council lacked the “capacity” to run elections – given that it is “proposing a budget allocation of £2 million in 2026/27 to this work”. She also said that many councillors were concerned that if the reorganisation of local government were to take longer than expected – beyond the projected date of May 2027 – elections would be postponed further still.
Brown concluded in her letter that “the majority of councillors felt that elections should take place even if postponement would have a positive impact on the council’s capacity to deliver Local Government Reorganisation”.
On 19 January, Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, sought clarification about the Council’s stance on postponing elections.
In a letter to the Council, Reed stressed that “this Government is taking a locally-led approach” to local government reorganisation. He continued by saying, “In the absence of a clear request on whether your election should be postponed, I will assume that your council’s view is that your election should go ahead”.
Following support from the majority of councillors, Oxford City Council has confirmed that the local elections will go ahead this May. This was also confirmed by Reed on 22 January.