The local elections are going ahead in Reading amid widespread uncertainty about scheduled elections elsewhere in the country.
Local government is currently undergoing an overhaul that is being driven by the Labour government, which will abolish the ‘two-tier’ local government system of county and district councils in favour of unitary authorities.
All six of the councils in Berkshire have been unitary authorities since Berkshire County Council was abolished in 1998.
Therefore, there will be no delays to any elections scheduled this year.
Councils hold elections in two ways: they either have all-out elections held every three years, or votes ‘by thirds’ where a third of the councillors are elected each year.
This cycle creates a ‘fallow year’ where there are no elections to allow councillors to serve their four-year terms.
Reading Borough Council and Wokingham Borough Council both have ‘by thirds’ electoral systems, with both having a ‘fallow year’ in 2025.
That meant that there were no elections in either place last year, with elections resuming this May.
The other four councils in Berkshire all have ‘all-out’ elections held every four years.
These are West Berkshire Council, Bracknell Forest Council, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and Slough Borough Council.
There have been concerns about the cancellation of local elections due to the reorganisation of local government that will see the abolition of county and district councils to unify powers within one authority.
Of the 63 councils that are undergoing reorganisation, 30 which were due to have elections were going to have them cancelled by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.
However, the political party Reform UK successfully legally challenged these cancellations, meaning the elections will go ahead on Thursday, May 7.
Nigel Farage, Reform UK MP for Clacton and the party leader, posted on X/Twitter: “We took this Labour government to court and won.”
Confirming the decision to go ahead with the elections, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Local Government said: “Following legal advice, the Government has withdrawn its original decision to postpone 30 local elections in May.
“Providing certainty to councils about their local elections is now the most crucial thing and all local elections will now go ahead in May 2026.”
Of all of the councils in the Royal County, only West Berkshire Council is potentially involved in the local government reorganisation proposals.
That is because its Liberal Democrat controlled council has offered to join forces with South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse district councils to create a Ridgeway Council unitary authority.
This is part of the reorganisation of Oxfordshire County Council. A public consultation into three options for Oxfordshire is currently live.
The last elections for Reading and Wokingham councils took place in 2024, with West Berkshire Council having its all-out election in 2023.
Buckinghamshire and Somerset councils were already turned into unitary councils in 2020 and 2023, respectively.
