Local elections 2024: Is there an election in my area?
If you live in England or Wales then the answer to this question is "yes". On 2 May, every area in the two nations will have a vote in at least one election.
There is no general election but there are council and mayoral elections in some parts of England and Police and Crime Commissioner elections in most areas of England and Wales.
There are no scheduled elections in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
To see if there is an election in your area, which candidates you can vote for and where you can vote, use our lookup. Made in collaboration with the Electoral Commission.
Council elections
Around 2,600 seats are being contested across 107 council areas. Although this is one of the smaller rounds of council elections, the results will be heavily scrutinised to see what they can tell us about how people might vote in an upcoming general election.
Labour and the Conservatives are defending a similar number of seats.
The councils up for election are mainly in urban areas in the North of England, across parts of the Midlands, and in the commuter belt surrounding London.
Most of the seats were last contested in May 2021 - when Boris Johnson was the prime minister; the Covid vaccination programme was well under way; and partygate had yet to be reported.
It was a good election result for the Conservatives. They gained control of 13 more councils and added over 200 councillors - although not all these councils are up in 2024. Labour did not fare so well - losing 300 seats and control of eight councils.
The Green Party made almost 90 gains but the Liberal Democrats made almost no progress, adding just eight seats.
Mayoral elections
The single biggest election this year in terms of power and influence is the race for the Mayor of London.
They oversee almost £20bn of spending in a city of 8.8 million people.
Whoever wins will have responsibility for policy and spending on areas such as transport, housing, planning and the environment in Greater London. They also oversee the Metropolitan Police and have a role in appointing the Commissioner.
There are also nine regional mayors up for election. Almost all were last contested in 2021 (apart from South Yorkshire in 2022).
Labour won in Liverpool, Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. The Conservatives held on in the West Midlands and Tees Valley.
In 2024 there are three new regional mayors in the East Midlands, the North East, and York and North Yorkshire.
Regional mayors are responsible for planning and strategy for regional transport, skills training and local economic development across several local authorities.
In Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and York and North Yorkshire they also oversee the police force and hold the chief constable to account.
Mayors will be elected using the first-past-the-post system for the first time this year - meaning voters will get to vote for only one candidate. In previous years they were elected using the supplementary vote system, where voters could select their first and second preferences.
London Assembly
The 25 members of the London Assembly are being elected this year. London Assembly members scrutinise the mayor's plans and spending proposals.
They have the power to reject strategies and make changes to budgets when two-thirds of Assembly Members agree.
The assembly is elected using a form of proportional representation called the additional member system. This means Londoners get two votes, one for the member who represents their constituency who is elected on a first-past-the-post basis and one for a party or individual on a London-wide list where the number of members per party are allocated in proportion to the number of votes received.
Police and Crime Commissioners
There are 37 Police and Crime Commissioner elections across most of England and all of Wales. Last elected in 2021, more than two-thirds were won by the Conservatives, including eleven gains.
Police and Crime Commissioners oversee policing within their police force area and hold the Chief Constable to account. They aim to cut crime and deliver an ‘effective and efficient’ police service.
In Essex, Staffordshire, West Mercia and Northamptonshire, PCCs also oversee their local fire and rescue service.
In North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire, responsibility for overseeing the police has transferred to the regional mayor.
Like mayors, PCCs will be elected using first-past-the-post for the first time this year.
Lookup and maps created by: Wesley Stephenson, Callum Thomson, Steven Connor, Scott Jarvis, Marcos Gurgel, Alex Nicolaides, Matthew Taylor, Jana Tauschinski, Debie Loizou, Prina Shah, Holly Frampton, Adam Allen, Preeti Vaghela
