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NALC publishes its 2022 local council elections report
The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has published its report on the 2022 local (parish and town) council elections.
The purpose of this report was to gather insightful data to provide an overview of the 2022 local council elections. The data collected will help NALC's future campaigns and shape the resources available for local councils, local councillors and county associations (such as the Make A Change materials).
The research found that the number of councillors elected through contested elections has significantly decreased from 38% in May 2021 to 22% in May 2022. 57% of local councils reported vacancies after the elections, a slight decrease of 2% from 2021. The data suggests that many local councils still require further support from county associations and principal authorities.
To serve the community (85.80%) and to change things in their community (31.36%) were the top responses for why people stood to become councillors. Similarly, the statistics show that 94.71% would recommend becoming a councillor, compared to 5.29% who wouldn't. The overwhelmingly positive response indicates that most councillors are content with their community work.
Regarding methods of awareness-raising for the elections: the council website (65.27%), Facebook (47.60%), and word of mouth (37.13%) were the top three responses used by councils. In contrast, the principal methods to promote the local elections used by councillors themselves were word of mouth (31.95%) and creating a leaflet (17.75%). The data also suggest that councillors need to utilise NALC's Make A Change materials more extensively.
NALC collected qualitative and quantitative data from councillors, local councils and county associations across England between May and July 2022. The survey collectively received 462 responses.