English local government English Local Elections Report 5 May 2011 | Foreword by Prof Vernon Bogdanor and Analysis English Local Elections Report 5 May 2011 and Analysis Acknowledgements The primary author of this report is Andy White, Former Senior Research Officer to the Electoral Reform Society. Special thanks go to Professor Vernon Bogdanor who kindly contributed the introduction to the report. Thanks also goes to Magnus Smidak, the Society’s Research and Information Officer, who provided the analysis of gender representation, and Christopher Terry, Daniel Hardwick, Joe Sturge, Alistair Cairns and Shaughan Dolan who provided the data analysis and number crunching. Finally thanks to Katie Ghose and Ashley De for their comments and advice and to Eleni Simeou, Freelance Project Manager, for coordinating the report. Contents 4 Introduction Professor Vernon Bogdanor 6 Part 1 Snapshot of Key Facts and Figures 14 Part 2 What do the results tell us? 22 Part 3 The Case for Change English Local Elections 4 5 May 2011 Introduction Professor Vernon Bogdanor Localism has become today’s catchword. two-thirds of the vote, a two-to-one plurality Politicians compete with each other to in votes leading to a nine-to-one majority in proclaim their belief in the dispersal of power seats. However, in local government, such and strengthening of local government. results are commonplace. That cannot be However, not much has been done to secure good for democracy. To be effective, local this aim, and local democracy remains in a authorities, like governments, need a lively distinctly unhealthy state. opposition to keep them on their toes and scrutinise what they are doing. A permanent Turnout in local elections is generally between one-party local authority is almost as offensive 30% and 40% – the lowest by far in Western as a permanent one-party state. Europe; and, of those who do vote, many support the same party locally as they do The anomalies, moreover, are not random. in national elections, treating local elections, They tend to benefit the Conservatives not as a means of passing a verdict on in rural areas and Labour in the cities, so their local council, but as a plebiscite on exaggerating, rather than mitigating, social the government’s record. That indeed is and geographical divisions. They make Britain how the results are presented in the media, appear a more divided country than in fact where national, not local, politicians are it is, because the electoral system deprives asked to comment on the outcome. Local the Labour minority in the countryside and elections have become miniature general the Conservative minority in the cities of an elections. In consequence, many voters regard effective political voice. local councillors as party emissaries, and independent-minded people are deterred from In many local authorities, there may seem little seeking election. Local councillors are seen as point in voting, since the outcome, under First representing not `us’ but `them’. Past the Post, is a pre-ordained clean sweep. That is one main reason why so many local It is because local government seems so government wards are uncontested. Where little valued that national governments of a ward is safe, opposition parties sometimes both political parties have been able to feel that it is a waste of time putting up a take its powers away with so little protest. candidate; but the consequence is that many In consequence, Britain has become a voters come to be disenfranchised. profoundly centralised society. In national elections, the ‘wrong’ side won in While centralisation is a product of many three of the 26 general elections in the 20th complex cultural as well as institutional century – those of 1929, 1951 and February factors, there is little doubt that the First 1974. In the 2011 English local elections, the Past the Post system undermines local wrong side won in 15 local authorities, so that, democracy. For, under First Past the Post, in these authorities, voters were not given the many local government wards and many local outcome for which they asked. councils are permanently safe for one party. There was only one Parliament in the 20th The First Past the Post system is currently century in which the opposition was almost used for local government elections only totally obliterated – that of 1931 when the in England and Wales. In Northern Ireland, government held 554 of the 615 seats on just the single transferable vote has been used Introduction English Local Elections 5 May 2011 5 since 1973, while, in Scotland, the single solely because the party to which they belong transferable vote was adopted for local is unpopular at national level. government elections in 2007. The outcome showed a striking contrast to results in It is perhaps not for the government to decide England, and to results in the 2003 elections upon the best system for each local authority, in Scotland conducted by First Past the but for local voters themselves. Under the Post. In 2003, Labour had won 71 of the 79 Localism Bill, soon to be on the statute seats in Glasgow on just 48% of the vote, book, 5% of registered electors in every local and had won Edinburgh despite winning less authority area will have the right to secure than 28% of the vote, while in Renfrewshire, a referendum on any matter within the legal the SNP had won control of the council powers of their authority. It would be natural despite being outpolled by Labour. No such to extend this principle by allowing for 5% of anomalies occurred in 2007, and there were registered electors to secure a referendum no uncontested seats, by contrast with 2003 on the electoral system for their authority. when there had been 61. There was also What is clear is that electoral reform is an a 9.5% increase in valid votes cast, and essential precondition for localism and for councils hitherto thought to be no-go areas making local government a more effective for particular parties were opened up. The part of the constitution. Scottish local elections, therefore, yielded much more genuinely representative local Vernon Bogdanor, government than local elections in England. Research Professor, Institute of Contemporary British History, Under the single transferable vote, the voter, King’s College, London. instead of casting her vote with an X, votes preferentially – 1, 2, 3 etc. The system thus combines a primary and an election, and the primary is one in which every voter automatically takes part. There is no need for a separate primary in which fewer are likely to participate than in a general election, with participation in primaries sometimes being restricted to party members. Multi- member wards enable voters to distribute preferences across parties if they so wish, and to discriminate amongst members of their favoured party. A voter can therefore choose between various candidates from her favoured party, or across parties, on the basis of who has been, or might prove, the more effective councillor. In single-member wards, by contrast, there is no way in which the elector can distinguish between effective and less effective councillors. Effective councillors are doomed to defeat along with the less effective Part 1 English Local Elections 6 5 May 2011 Snapshot of Key Facts and Figures by their coalition partners. The Lib Dems were Background to the particularly vulnerable as they had fostered a large, anti-establishment ‘protest’ vote, 2011 English Local as well as drawing on support from a broad ideological spectrum. Entering government Elections wiped out their protest vote credentials in the space of a few months and tightened perceptions of the party’s ideological position. The 2011 English local elections were held on Thursday 5 May, a year after the pivotal The elections presented an additional risk for general election of 2010. Most local the Lib Dems in the form of a referendum on authorities held elections, although some a new voting system – the ‘alternative vote’ significant areas of the country (including (AV) – held on the same day. Offered to Nick London) did not. Seats were contested in Clegg and the Lib Dems as a concession 36 metropolitan boroughs, 49 unitary from the Conservatives, the referendum authorities and 194 non- metropolitan exposed tensions within the coalition, and districts. Although all councillors serve four- David Cameron publicly opposed Clegg’s year terms, the electoral cycle varies across calls for a ‘Yes’ vote. The potential double different authorities. There are three methods whammy of a resounding ‘No to AV’ vote of holding elections to local councils: by and a poor Lib Dem performance in the whole council, by thirds and by halves. local elections were regarded by some The 2011 elections were all by whole council commentators as a serious threat to the or by thirds.1 futures of both Clegg’s leadership and the 2 1. See Elections coalition itself. and Electoral Arrangements, Local elections are very much ‘second order’ http://www. communities.gov.uk/ elections in England and, in common with With the Lib Dems expected to lose seats localgovernment/local/ governanceelections/ elections to the European Parliament, suffer across the country, the Conservative and from both low turnout (typically 30-40%) and Labour parties were locked in a separate 2. See, for example, Cameron, Clegg May a tendency to be viewed through the prism of battle of their own. The elections presented Be Rattled by Local Votes, Referendum, national politics. The national political context the first opportunity for newly elected Labour Bloomberg Businessweek, meant that this round of local elections held leader, Ed Miliband, to recover ground lost http://www. businessweek.com/ particular significance for all three major during the Blair-Brown years.