Guide: What’s on offer for the arts in England’s local elections?
While Scotland and Wales elect representatives to their national parliaments, the upcoming 7 May elections will see millions of people in England take to the polls to vote for local councillors.
Around 5,000 council seats will be determined across 136 council races in total, including all of London’s 32 borough councils, six county councils in the South and Southeast of England, and 32 metropolitan boroughs across the Midlands and North of England. In London, six mayoral contests, in Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Watford, will also take place.
With recent research finding that 16% of the 136 councils up for election have cut their real arts funding by more than half since 2010, the vote comes at a pivotal time for the arts sector. Here, Arts Professional looks at some of the local-level commitments the UK’s main political parties are pledging to the arts.
Labour Party
Labour is defending just over half (2,569) of the council seats up for election in England. While the party’s top line has focused on cost of living, local-level Labour groups have promised targeted actions aimed at arts and culture in their area.
In Westminster, which voted in its first ever Labour administration in 2022, the local Labour Party says it wants to ensure all children in Westminster attend theatre before they leave school. Its manifesto also commits to enhancing its Culture Commissioning Grants programme and creating free and low-cost activities in partnerships with local cultural and community organisations.
Southwark Labour has made one of its promises a free culture pass. The local party plans to work with cultural institutions to establish a pass that includes access to theatres, galleries and nightclubs. “As the arts face ever increasing funding pressures it is more important than ever that we support local creatives whose work makes life worth living,” its plan says.
Outside of London, the local Labour party in Trafford says it wants to put heritage at the heart of the borough’s future by developing a heritage framework that unlocks funding to protect historic sites. Its manifesto also commits to keeping libraries open and supporting the local Waterside Arts Centre.
Conservatives
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch launched the party’s local elections campaign with a pledge to ‘get Britain working again’, indicating that Conservative-led councils would look to lower council tax and revitalise high streets while enforcing tighter spending.
Camden Conservatives say they will fight to keep libraries open as one of their ten key aims, while the Milton Keynes Conservative manifesto commits to working with arts groups and local businesses to create more places in skills and leadership programmes while removing cost barriers to participation.
Hounslow Conservatives’ manifesto commits to protecting and improving the borough’s cultural sites and keeping all existing libraries open, as well as making “real progress” to replace Watermans Arts Centre, which closed in 2024.
Green Party
The Green Party is running a local election campaign led by an affordable housing pledge. Local level manifestos from the party add that they will prioritise a push for stronger public services and oppose cuts to council funding.
The party has also said it wants to revive local high streets through a three-point plan that includes using powers such as compulsory purchase orders to bring long-term empty shops back into public use as art, leisure and music facilities.
Several local Green Party manifestos, including those in Newham and Sheffield, include supporting libraries and and preventing further cuts. The Birmingham Greens are calling for libraries to be refurbished within three years as part of their pledges, while also saying they would use council powers to both save and reopen other heritage assets.
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats will fix communities rather than divide them, party leader Ed Davey said while kicking off his party’s local election campaign.
In Sutton, where the Liberal Democrats currently have control over the council, the party is pledging to make the London borough a “real cultural powerhouse” by setting up a new Arts and Culture Future Forum made up of voices from the sector, businesses and residents, in order to inform a new culture plan. Additional plans in the manifesto include extending opening hours of libraries and creating a heritage route that connects celebrated heritage sites in the area.
Elsewhere in London, Hounslow’s Liberal Democrats say they will safeguard libraries and support cultural venues and local arts initiatives in their manifesto, while Camden’s Liberal Democrats commit to encouraging public art, liberalising the council’s approach to busking and working with partners to deliver local festivals and cultural events as part of a commitment to make arts and culture a key to revitalising the area’s high streets.
Reform UK
Reform is running a more centralised campaign in comparison to its competitors, with far fewer local-level commitments or manifestos published.
Party leader Nigel Farage opened up Reform’s campaign under the slogan ‘Reform will fix it’, with policies placing strong emphasis on immigration and ‘anti-woke’ policies at the local government level.
In an interview with the BBC in March, Farage said the party would “make cuts where needed” and consider the sale of council-owned buildings and assets in areas with cash-strapped councils.
“Economically we’re going down the drain, with local and national government,” Farage told the BBC. “We’ve got to get very tough.”
The party is defending just two of the council seats on offer in May, and is forecast to make the largest gains, with opinion polling anticipating it to perform best among the main parties next month.
