In 2019, the council district I grew up in was England’s most infamous ‘rotten borough’. One-third of Fenland District Council’s candidates were returned unopposed. The first I heard about this was when my mother mentioned having not received a poll card; she was confused why. That was because, as the Electoral Commission guidance starkly states, where valid nominations only equal the number of vacancies, or fall short of them, candidates are simply declared elected and ‘no poll is necessary’.

It may sound like some Victorian holdover, but it’s still a feature of local government under first-past-the-post. In the 2019 English local elections, the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) counted 148 councillors elected without any electoral challenge, spread across 47 councils throughout England. A further 152 seats were guaranteed to a particular party weeks ahead of the poll date, due to multi-member wards being under-contested – for example, where a two-person ward has two candidates from the same party, and only one extra candidate, at least one seat is guaranteed to the larger party.

This should be of particular concern to progressively-minded voters as the Conservatives were the main beneficiary, taking 137 of the uncontested seats and 130 of the under-contested seats.

Overall, this democratic deficit affected around 850,000 potential voters across 74 councils. In Fenland District Council, top of the ERS ‘rotten boroughs’ list, 12 of the district’s 39 seats were uncontested, and 15 guaranteed for one side before a vote was cast.

Forcing a vote

In the Fenland region, local resident Garry Monger belatedly became aware that seats were going uncontested: ‘In 2019 two well-known and hard-working councillors for this ward stood down. However, they didn’t make this fact known before the election. Unless candidates publicise themselves, no one knows.’

Monger had more reason than most to take an interest, having already been a town councillor from 1979 to 1983. He points out that since local government organisation in 1974, the District Council has always been Conservative-run apart from a brief Labour turnover in the early Blair years. This entrenchment may help to explain why ‘certain wards that were Labour strongholds now no longer return Labour representatives’.

In the 2023 local elections, a group of concerned Fenland residents stood as independents, ensuring every district seat was contested and sharing tasks like leaflet distribution. Monger was determined ‘to ensure a wider representation’ and contested wards at district and town level, losing the district narrowly but winning a town ward.

Of course, ‘independent’ is not a political programme in itself. In Fenland, as elsewhere, independents can range from civic-minded local campaigners to figures well to the right of the major parties.

Labour shortage

Nationally, in 2023, the problem shrank but did not disappear. The ERS said 46 councillors in England were elected without a single vote being cast across 34 wards. This denied around 90,000 voters any say in who would represent them.

Uncontested elections occur primarily in rural district councils; among the worst was East Lindsey in Lincolnshire, where 13 of 55 seats were unopposed.

One obvious reason for the lack of candidates is the labour involved in being a councillor. The Local Government Association found councillors spend an average of 22 hours a week on council duties, with nearly one in five doing 30 hours or more. 

So when parties struggle to fill slates, it is not just apathy. It is the difficulty of finding people with the time, money, transport and caring cover to do the role.

This can combine with shrinking activist bases for the main parties, and wider disillusionment about the possibility of effecting change from within town halls. It’s a shame, because local government can affect how austerity hits everyday life: it can cover planning, housing, roads, social care and public procurement, many of the things that matter most on people’s doorsteps.

Bare bones and old bones

Monger regularly walks around his ward to ensure any visible issues are reported – gas and water leaks, pavements, street lights, litter, fly tipping and graffiti: ‘It’s impossible nowadays to walk around town and not see an issue.’

He points out the gulf between town and parish council work, ‘done by unpaid volunteers with a town clerk and a couple of admin’, and district work, ‘done by councillors with allowances and a large body of professional staff.’ The workload can vary significantly: ‘A few councillors actively seek work by holding surgeries. Others don’t, and those not living in their wards are not so often seen, except at elections.’

There is also a demographic narrowness at work – the pale, stale, male effect. The LGA’s 2022 councillor census found the average councillor age was about 60; only 16 per cent were under 45, while 42 per cent were 65 or over. Councillors were 59 per cent male and 92 per cent white. This may help explain why local politics generally struggles to renew itself, or to look like the communities it governs.

A democratic choice

The evidence tells us not just that uncontested seats are undemocratic, but that weak electoral accountability is bad for government. An ERS report on one-party councils found that in such settings, there was a roughly 50 per cent higher corruption risk in procurement compared to more competitive councils, with an estimate of up to £2.6bn a year in lost savings. Entrenched non-competition weakens scrutiny, and raises risks.

Now that the UK government has withdrawn its original decision to postpone local elections in 30 areas, all scheduled local elections are set to go ahead in May 2026. The deeper question is whether all voters will get a real choice when they do.

In Fenland, the immediate victory was just to give voters that choice. Across the country, from Castle Point in Essex and Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, to the Flatpack Democracy-inspired groups in Frome and Torridge, organised independents and local campaigns have gone further and won real influence. But, even where they do not, forcing a contest is itself a democratic gain.