NALC publishes its annual report highlighting a year of influence, growth and sector leadership
We have published our Annual Report 2025/26, showcasing a year of national influence, strengthened member support and continued investment in the future of parish and town councils.
The report highlights how we have championed the sector during a period of significant change, ensuring parish and town councils had a strong voice in discussions on devolution, local government reorganisation, planning reform and community empowerment.
The report showcases key achievements, including securing government support for the return of remote and hybrid council meetings, helping increase the audit threshold for smaller authorities and launching our Westminster Forum to strengthen the sector's influence in national politics.
Membership remained strong at 7,557 councils, representing 86.3% of all eligible parish and town councils. Our digital platform grew by 24% to almost 20,000 contacts. More than half a million user actions were recorded across the platform during the year, reflecting increasing engagement with our advice, resources and services.
Professional support also continued to expand, with more than 61,000 resource downloads and views, 370 new resources added to the library, 195 written legal advice documents delivered and 270 specialist communications, compliance and data protection advice sessions provided.
Our events programme continued to bring the sector together, attracting more than 2,700 attendees across conferences, study tours, online events and awards, creating opportunities for collaboration, learning and sharing best practice.
The report also highlights our commitment to strengthening governance and resilience across the sector. During the year, we continued to support accreditation programmes such as the Local Council Award Scheme, while helping more than 4,000 parish and town councils adopt .gov.uk domains and introducing new governance initiatives to improve accountability and transparency.
The report also confirms that we remain financially stable, with a balanced position that reflects targeted investment in advocacy, digital development and member services while maintaining prudent financial oversight.
As we look ahead, we will continue to champion parish and town councils, develop innovative digital services, strengthen partnerships across local government and ensure communities continue to benefit from effective, resilient and empowered parish and town councils.
