All you need to know about this year's local elections

Local elections are due to take place in Peterborough, Cambridge, South Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire on Thursday, 7 May.

Peterborough and Cambridge will elect roughly a third of their councillors, with all members up for election in South Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.

Councillors are elected for a four-year term, with the last routine elections for these seats back in 2022.

Routine elections are not due this year in East Cambridgeshire and Fenland - They elected full councils in 2023, so are due to hold elections in 2027.

However, due to local government re-organisation, it is likely that elections for new unitary authorities will take place instead.

• 9 April - Close of nominations
• 20 April - Deadline to register to vote
• 21 April - Deadline to apply for a postal vote
• 28 April - Deadline to apply for a proxy vote and a voter authority certificate. A voter authority certificate can be used as ID if a person doesn't have other identification, such as a passport or driving licence
• 30 April to 2 May - Cambridge City residents can vote in person at selected voting hubs
• 7 May - Polling Day

Eighteen out of 60 councillor seats will be contested this year. The council is currently run by a coalition of Labour, Liberal Democrats and the Peterborough First group. Labour is currently the largest group with 13 seats.

The 18 seats scheduled to be contested this year were last fought in 2022. Back then, Labour won six of them. Any loss in support could mean it will not be the largest party in May.

That year, the Conservatives took seven of the 19 city council seats contested and remained the largest party, with 28 seats. But, over the next year or so, a number of Tory councillors defected to a new group, called Peterborough First.

This will be the first time some of those councillors will be up for re-election. Can they win under the Peterborough First branding?

Something else to consider is that Reform UK did not feature in the 2022 elections. They currently have one councillor who was elected in a by-election earlier this year. Reform's efforts in the 2026 election campaign will be a new dimension to consider. The Greens are also campaigning hard.

Cambridge has been run by Labour since 2014. It currently has a majority, with 23 seats out of a possible 42.

In May, 14 seats will be up for election, including the Newnham seat of leader Cameron Holloway. Labour is defending 11 seats. If it loses a small number of those, it could lose control of the administration.

The Liberal Democrats did well in last year's county council elections, taking six out of 12 seats, the Greens took three and Labour four.

The Conservative Party currently has one city council seat, won in a 2023 by-election. Reform has traditionally struggled to make ground in the city.

Voters in Cambridge will also be able to vote in person up to seven days early this year. There will be polling booths at The Guildhall and two community centres.

The Liberal Democrats have dominated the politics of South Cambridgeshire in recent years.

It has run the district council since 2018 and strengthened its numbers on the authority in 2022 where it took 36 of the 45 available seats. The party's only political opponent on the council currently are the Conservatives, with nine seats.

The Liberal Democrats won all three Westminster seats that cover the district in the 2024 general election. They also won every seat in the South Cambridgeshire area in last year's county council election.

As well as the Conservatives, the Greens, Labour and Reform UK will also be trying to make their mark in many wards.

All 45 seats will be contested in this year's vote.

Huntingdonshire had been a true blue Conservative district for many years. That was until the 2022 election.

Despite winning the largest number of seats, they didn't secure a majority. A so-called "rainbow coalition" was formed, with the Liberal Democrats, Labour, Independents and Greens all coming together to form an administration.

If the Conservatives want to show they are winning back core voters then this is a district it needs to win. But the threat from Reform is very real in some wards.

In the 2025 county council elections it won 3 seats in the Ramsey, Yaxley and St Neots areas.

All 52 seats are being contested this year.

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