"Last week, Unite's policy conference in Liverpool took a major step to
challenging pro-austerity councils and budgets. A motion proposed by the
union's local authority section leadership included:
"Conference is therefore extremely concerned, disappointed and our
members are angry that Labour Councils continue to make cuts and
privatise our services. We also note the negative role played by Labour
councillors on the boards of organisations which tender for services.
Conference agrees that Unite must now adopt a policy calling on Labour
Councils to set legal, balanced no cuts needs based budgets."
Unite throws down the gauntlet. And TUSC, which has led the way in
calling for no cuts, needs-based budgets, is now preparing the widest
challenge of anti-austerity candidates for May 2022.
Those local elections, scheduled to take place on Thursday, May 5th
2022, are for all 32 unitary councils in Scotland and the 22 single-tier
authorities in Wales. In England, there are scheduled elections for all
32 London borough councils, 34 Metropolitan district councils, and 82
district councils.
Also on the same day, there will be Mayoral elections in Watford and the
London boroughs of Hackney, Lewisham, Newham and Tower Hamlets. The
South Yorkshire Metro-Mayor position established in 2018 is also up for
election in May 2022.
The local elections in Scotland, Wales, London and Birmingham – and
Harrogate, Huntingdonshire, Newcastle-under-Lyme and South
Cambridgeshire – are ‘all-up’ contests, with every councillor up for
election, usually in multi-seat wards. Most other elections will be for
one-third of the councillors in single-seat contests but some may be
‘all-up’ elections following ward boundary changes or council
reorganisation.
Of the 202 councils holding elections next May, 88 are currently
Labour-led, with Labour holding an overall majority or are the largest
party in a coalition administration.
There are still ongoing boundary reviews and council re-organisations to
be factored in, but a current estimate is that May 2022 will see 6,751 councillors elected in 3,949 wards, a bigger electoral test in terms of local council seats to be contested than in 2021.
TUSC agents, and potential TUSC agents, are invited to this
important briefing meeting on Wednesday which will deal with some of the
practical organisational tasks needed for the People's Budget campaigns
and the preparation for the 2022 elections.
More information on People's Budgets and full listings of the 2022 elections are available at:
https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/450.pdf (Preparing a People's Budget)
https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/451.pdf (Campaign Pack)
https://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/448.pdf (Directory of Elections)."
