The political landscape of the East of England for the local elections in May

• ITV Anglia Political Producer David Hughes looks at the political landscape of the Anglia region ahead of the local elections on Thursday 4 May 2023

As far as annual local councils elections go they don't come much bigger than those being held on Thursday 4 May 2023. Local elections are run every year on the first Thursday in May and in 2023 it will be the largest set of the four-year election cycle.

All the parties are steeling themselves for the biggest test of political opinion ahead of a General Election expected in the spring or, more likely, in the autumn of 2024.

In the Anglia region more than 1,400 local councillors are after your vote to be elected to 44 councils which look after local schools, planning issues, highways and bin collections among other things. But given it is a once-a-year opportunity to vent against the politicians, local elections are usually impacted by the wider political landscape at a national level. Since the last local elections in May 2022, there have been three Prime Ministers and four Chancellors of the Exchequer.

The interactive map below shows the political composition of the local councils in the Anglia region ahead of the May 2023 local elections. If you cannot see the map on your mobile device click here.

Local elections in some form are held in May every year in the United Kingdom but not every area gets to vote every year. It works on a four-year election cycle with different councils in the East of England having elections at different times. Some areas elect the whole council at once and in other places only one-third of the council seats are up for election. There are no widespread elections being held in May 2023 in Northamptonshire or in Huntingdonshire or South Cambridgeshire.

• Conservative councils

Half of the councils facing elections on 4 May in the Anglia region are currently run by the Conservatives.

In places likes East Cambridgeshire, King's Lynn & West Norfolk, Great Yarmouth and Welwyn Hatfield in Hertfordshire, the Tories' overall majority is five seats or less. That means a small swing could see the party losing power.

In Great Yarmouth, it is Labour who are the main challengers but they would need to make at least six net gains to take over control of the council they last ran between 2012 and 2014.

In East Cambridgeshire, the Liberal Democrats are challenging to take over control as they have done in neighbouring South Cambridgeshire, which has no elections this time around. The Lib Dems would also need to make six net gains for an overall majority; in the last election in 2019, the party made 10 gains.

• Hung councils with no overall control

On around a dozen councils in the Anglia region no one party has enough council seats to out-vote all the others - it has no overall majority or is hung.

Sometimes the largest party still effectively runs the councils as a minority administration with support from councillors in other groups. That is the case in Peterborough where the Conservatives are three seats short of an overall majority. In Rochford and Maldon in Essex, the Conservatives are two short of a majority. In the Tendring area of north east Essex, the Tories need four gains to take back power.

On other hung councils like in Milton Keynes, North Hertfordshire, Colchester, Southend and Babergh in Suffolk, councillors from Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, Independents and others form an administration together in a formal or informal coalition arrangement.

• Labour councils

There are five Labour councils in the Anglia region with elections in May - they tend to be in the larger towns and cities.

Stevenage in the only council in the region which has had a Labour majority since it was formed in 1973 although the party came close to losing it in 2021.

The other Labour councils are in Cambridge, Ipswich, Luton and Norwich. They currently have overall majorities of between eight and 16 seats. The Conservatives are the main opposition in Ipswich, it is the Liberal Democrats in Cambridge and Luton while in Norwich, the Greens have been the long-standing opposition party.

• Liberal Democrat councils

There are three councils run by the Liberal Democrats in the Anglia region.

The Lib Dem spectacularly swept to power in St Albans in Hertfordshire in 2021 and currently hold 50 of the 56 seats. Only one-third of the seats are being contested in 2023.

The Lib Dem majorities are much smaller on Chelmsford City Council and North Norfolk District Council where there are challenged by the Conservatives. Both areas have Conservative MPs.

The Liberal Democrats tend to perform more strongly in local elections and especially local council by-elections.

• Independent councils

Uttlesford in the Saffron Walden area of Essex elected a majority of councillors from a new group in 2019 called Residents for Uttlesford and they currently run the council and are defending their majority at this election.

Castle Point Council in Essex has a joint majority of Canvey Island Independent councillors and People's Independent Party councillors. Those two groups currently outnumber the Conservative councillors by 26 seats to 10. Only one-third of the seats in Castle Point are being contested in 2023.

This particular set of council wards up for election in May 2023 was last contested in 2019 when Theresa May was still the Conservative Prime Minister still struggling with Brexit. The Tories was punished in those local elections before Mrs May was ousted by her party in July and Boris Johnson called a General Election for December.

In the local elections in May 2019, the Conservatives lost 287 seats and had a total of 731 councillors in the Anglia region.

The Liberal Democrats made 131 gains with 244 councillors and Labour were up 16 to 212 councillors. Independents and other parties won 223 seats.

The Green Party had its best-ever result in local elections taking 49 council seats in 2019, an increase of 33. They were already the main opposition on Norwich City Council but also became the second biggest party on Mid Suffolk Council and became part of the ruling Cabinet on Babergh Council in Suffolk.

In terms of the share of the vote in 2019, the Conservatives were on 35% in the Anglia region, Labour on 20%, the Liberal Democrats on 19% with the Greens on 9%.

The remaining 17% went to UKIP, Independents and other parties.

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