Making Local Politics Work After the 2026 Elections

On 7 May 2026, voters across England, Wales, and Scotland went to the polls for one of the most important local election cycles in recent memory. Over 5,000 council seats were up for election across 136 English local authorities, alongside votes for the Senedd and Scottish Parliament. The results will shape everyday life in communities across the country, from the state of local parks to the quality of schools and the cleanliness of streets. Yet for many voters, the distance between Westminster and their daily reality has never felt greater. Trust in national politics has been worn down by perceived failures that feel far removed from local concerns, and it is at the local level where the real work of rebuilding that trust must now take place.  

Local councils are the level of government with the most direct contact with the communities they serve, and in that sense, these local elections matter more than many people give it credit for. It is a real chance to put political power back where it belongs, in the hands of the communities that need it.  

Local authorities were already under serious pressure before this election cycle even began. Almost half of all local authorities drew down their reserves for the third or more consecutive year in 2024/25, compared to a pre-pandemic high of just 13.4% in 2016/17. The cost-of-living crisis has compounded this further. Prices across food, energy, and housing remain significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, and the communities hit hardest are the same ones relying most heavily on local services.  

Meanwhile, the Public Accounts Committee has warned that immediate financial pressures are actively preventing councils from investing in prevention, pushing them toward more expensive late intervention instead. The Local Government Association found that one in four councils in England expects to need emergency government bailouts just to stay solvent in 2025/26 and 2026/27. In London, the cumulative budget gap for boroughs is forecast to exceed £4.7 billion between 2025 and 2029, with half of London boroughs potentially requiring emergency support to avoid bankruptcy by 2028. Councils simply cannot address the scale of what communities are facing alone, but by working together with organisations attempting to fill the gap.  

Those organisations are already doing the work. The government’s own Common Ground Award allocated over £2 million to 211 grassroots groups across England, from Portsmouth to Newcastle, backing local organisations working to counter declining trust, social isolation, and the pressures of the rising cost of living. Groups like Vox Feminarum Women’s Voices in Derby, which brought nearly 3,000 women together across religious and cultural divides, and Muslim-led organisations featured in MCF’s annual magazine, The Forum, which demonstrates the breadth of community work being carried out by the sector across the country, are doing the kind of local relationship-building that no political party can manufacture from the top down. The decision to fund this programme is itself an acknowledgement that trusted community organisations reach people and places that formal politics simply cannot.  

The framework to formalise this already exists. The Civil Society Covenant, launched by the Government in July 2025, sets out how local authorities and civil society organisations should work together at both a national and local level. It recognises charities, faith organisations, and community groups as trusted partners in designing policy and delivering services. A £11.59 million Local Covenant Partnerships Fund has been set aside to help councils build those relationships in practice. 

The Government’s Pride in Place Programme provides a further opportunity to put this into action. Backed by up to £5 billion over ten years, with each of the 284 selected communities receiving up to £20 million in flexible funding, signals a meaningful reinvestment in local politics after more than a decade of austerity that eroded the civic infrastructure many communities depended on. The Covenant’s recognition of civil society organisations as partners, combined with Pride in Place’s participatory architecture, serves as the foundation for organisations to actively co-create local services. Therefore, the focus must now shift to implementation of the Covenant, offering a genuine opportunity to affirm meaningful collaboration between local authorities and voluntary organisations, with inclusion, transparency, and accountability embedded at the heart of this partnership.  

Communities are not waiting for an invitation. They are already doing the work, often without recognition or sustainable funding. The task for newly elected councils is to meet them there, invest seriously in those relationships, and use the Civil Society Covenant as a genuine foundation rather than a box-ticking exercise. MCF calls on these bodies to commit to meaningful, long-term engagement and partnership-building with local organisations to ensure communities remain at the heart of local politics.