Over a third of councils offered local elections delay have requested one - is yours on the list?

Local elections 2026: Over a third of councils offered a delay have requested one - is yours on the list? Eighteen of the 24 councils that have confirmed to Sky News that they will be seeking a delay to their May elections are led by Labour. Opposition parties are furious at the potential delays. Image:Pic: PA Friday 16 January 2026 01:41, UK Over a third of the local councils offered a delay to their elections in May have requested one, Sky News analysis shows. Twenty-four councils have confirmed to Sky News they have written to the government asking their local elections be postponed by a year, citing the resources needed to deliver the local government reorganisation (LGR) programme, and the cost of holding elections. Eighteen of those councils are led by Labour - either in majority, or leading a coalition administration. Two are Conservative, two are Liberal Democrat, one is Green, and one is independent. Six councils have yet to publicly confirm their positions, although the deadline to request a delay passed at midnight on Thursday. Has your council requested a delay? Use our search tool below. On the Thursday before Christmas, the government unexpectedly announced it would consider delaying 63 local council elections next year due to challenges around their LGR plans. Local Government Secretary Steve Reed argued on Sky's Politics Hub on Thursday: "The vast majority of elections are going ahead on schedule. Where we have asked councils to let us know if there needs to be a delay or a postponement is where we're going through the biggest reorganisation of councils in decades." He explained that a third of the country has two councils, rather than one, which is money that could be spent on local services, and so they are offering to postpone elections this year if holding them could mean a delay to elections next year. Sky News has contacted all of the 63 councils offered a delay, and a total of 24 have said they will be requesting one, 31 have said they will not, two could not agree internally whether to ask for a delay, and six had not responded at the time of writing. All the councils that have requested a delay cited the resources needed to deliver the government's LGR programme, and many said it would not make sense to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds to hold an election for councillor positions that would only exist for one year. The final decision on whether an election will be delayed rests with the government, and opposition parties are furious. Be the first to get Breaking News Install the Sky News app for free At his news conference on Thursday, at which he announced Robert Jenrick's defection from the Tories, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: "I had the full intention today to tell you how absolutely monstrous it is that elections for millions of people all over this country are being cancelled, in some cases for the second year in a...

Preview: ~500 words