This year’s 2026 local and devolved elections have led to a huge change in the make-up of the political landscape across England, Scotland and Wales.  

As local councils and devolved governments make many of the decisions that directly affect budgets for youth services, mental health support, transport and communities as a whole, these changes will have an impact on young people and youth organisations.  

In this summary, UK Youth’s Head of Policy and Public Affairs Laura Cunliffe-Hall looks at the key changes and how they will impact youth work and young people across England, Scotland and Wales. 

England: a new era of multi-party representation  

Many councils in England have now changed hands and will be operating under new leadership. This can impact on the funding allocation and commitment to youth services local authorities provide for their communities. 

The fracturing of British politics moving from a two party into a multi-party system is evident in the election results, which saw the Green Party, the Liberal Democrats and Reform gain councillors, while Labour and the Conservatives both lost them. Multiple councils are now under no overall control, which complicates the landscape further, relying on parties working together and making it more challenging to pass policies. 

Whilst headlines focused on Reform council gains, with the right-wing party securing over 1,300 council seats and taking control of 14 councils, Labour and the Liberal Democrats now control the majority of councils across England. 

That being said, Reform made major inroads and even took a London council in Havering, which is a major development for the party. 

The Green Party made huge gains in former Labour strongholds in London, becoming the largest party in Lambeth, taking control of Lewisham, Hackney and Waltham Forest councils and winning their first-ever elected mayors in Hackney and Lewisham.  

For the first time, six political parties run councils in London, disrupting recent established Labour dominance.  

Government’s National Youth Strategy for England has outlined a shift from national to local decision-making and that aims to rebuild the role, capability and leadership of local authorities in the youth sector. With widespread political changes across England’s local government landscape, this place-based approach may become more challenging to implement as new administrations get up to speed on the infrastructure opportunities and challenges in their local areas. 

Wales: Plaid Cymru wins a historic victory for the first time 

A nationalist Plaid Cymru-led government in Wales is a dramatic change from Labour’s century-long dominance of Welsh politics. Plaid Leader Rhun ap Iowerth will become the First Minister of Wales.

Combined with the expansion of the Senedd (Welsh parliament) from 60 to 96 members, these results are the most significant shake-up of Welsh government since the establishment of devolution.

Reform also made big gains in Wales, becoming the second biggest party. Eluned Morgan, leader of the Welsh Labour Party, resigned after losing her own seat in the Senedd.

Concerns around employability support for young people was a prominent issue, with an appetite for more support and interventions for young people. The Youth Work Strategy for Wales is currently in place and a new national body and statutory framework for youth work taking shape will have an important role to play in connecting support to existing youth work infrastructure, led by organisations like our partners Youth Cymru.

Scotland: SNP and Green gains means a referendum is back on the table

The Scottish National Party remained the largest party in Scotland, with 58 seats, but fell short of a majority. Labour and Reform tied for second place on 17 seats each.

First Minister John Swinney has invited opposition leaders (except Reform) to join him to discuss joint working in an SNP-led government and will push forward the issue of an independence referendum.

The Scottish Greens were one of the biggest stories of the election, gaining their first ever constituencies in Edinburgh and Glasgow and winning regional seats in every corner of Scotland.

In Scotland, the youth sector is partly statutory supported and led by organisations like our partners YouthLink Scotland that play a key role in delivery, coordination, and advocacy for the sector. The lack of safe spaces for young people was an issue that came up in the elections, with the Scottish Government pointing to funding including the local authority block grant, which gives councils significant flexibility to allocate resources for youth work in their area, as evidence of its commitment to youth work.

What do the results mean?

Politics across the UK is becoming increasingly unpredictable as we enter this multi-party era.

Labour is getting attacked by Reform on the right and the Greens on the left, whilst the Conservatives continue to struggle and the Liberal Democrats are making incremental gains but struggling outside of their more affluent suburban heartlands.

The Prime Minister has come under huge pressure to resign from many Labour MPs as a result of the election result losses, but so far he has come out fighting. In a big speech this week the Prime Minister outlined that his party can’t win as a weaker version of Reform or the Greens but as a stronger version of Labour and that he will fight any leadership contest. However, many challengers are still waiting in the wings, including Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting, Ed Miliband and Angela Rayner, and the resignation of multiple MPs has added to the pressure.

Impact on UK Youth and our network

With many councils changing political control, priorities for spending may also change. Some councils may choose to:

• increase investment in youth centres and community spaces
• expand mental health and wellbeing programmes
• support employability and skills training
• protect services facing budget cuts

Others may continue reducing spending because of financial pressure and rising costs.

This could worsen the ‘postcode lottery’ impact on youth services across the UK, which many organisations in our network have highlighted as an issue.

Cost of living and lack of opportunities for the next generation has come up a lot for politicians in conversations with voters on the doorstep. This could impact on local council spending priorities, but also means more young people and youth workers will be dealing with financial insecurity and an uncertain future.

Political polarisation, with parties on the left and right gaining popularity, can also impact on social cohesion and generate further community unrest. In this environment, youth work becomes even more important by supporting young people to navigate economic uncertainty and ongoing political changes that can also impact on their mental health.

As the UK’s infrastructure body for youth work and outdoor learning, UK Youth is well aware of the large number of organisations doing exceptional work across the country to support young people.  We remain committed to bringing the voice of the youth sector to the heart of government, to ensure youth workers’ are heard and outcomes for young people are prioritised.

Youth work is essential social infrastructure. If a local council or a devolved administration enables youth work, they are enabling outcomes for employability, mental health, social cohesion and community safety.

We want to hear from you: We’re keen to hear from our network and the young people you work with on what you make of these Local Elections results. If you’d be interested in contributing to a blog or discussing it with us in more detail, please get in touch at policy@ukyouth.org

Further resources:

• Democracy Classroom has resources for young people and youth workers on elections and political participation.
• Send a letter to your new local or constituency representative asking for their ongoing commitment to supporting your organisation and youth work in your area.