The 2026 Epping Forest District Council election was held on Thursday 7 May 2026, as part of the 2026 United Kingdom local elections. Eighteen of Epping Forest District Council's 54 seats were contested.
The council was under no overall control prior to the election, being run by a Conservative minority administration, led by Chris Whitbread. Reform UK won 12 of the 18 seats contested at this election, but the council remained under no overall control and the Conservatives remained the largest party on the council. At the subsequent annual council meeting on 28 May 2026 there was a vote of no confidence in Chris Whitbread's leadership, but it was defeated. As such, the Conservative minority administration continued.
Background The 2026 Epping Forest District Council election was held on 7 May 2026, following a period of unprecedented turmoil that has shaken the foundations of local politics in the district.
In 2025, Epping saw protests and riots erupt over the Government’s use of the Bell Hotel to house asylum seekers. Demonstrations regularly descended into confrontation, as local residents, anti-fascist campaigners, and far-right activists clashed in scenes unseen in the town for generations. The unrest intensified after the sexual assault of a woman and a schoolgirl by a resident of the hotel, whose conviction and sentencing in September 2025 ignited further anger and polarised opinion across the district.
In response, the Conservative administration on the council took the unprecedented step of launching a legal challenge against the Home Office, securing a temporary High Court injunction in August 2025 to halt the placement of asylum seekers in the Bell Hotel. That victory proved fleeting: the ruling was overturned at the Court of Appeal, and the case now stands before the Supreme Court, due for a final judgment in October 2026.
The crisis has fractured the Conservatives themselves. After months of mounting criticism over their handling of the Bell Hotel unrest, the group lost its majority for the first time since 2006, when two councillors resigned to join the Independents. As a result, the Conservatives will enter the 2026 election defending a fragile minority administration, their dominance of the council for nearly two decades under unprecedented threat.
From December 2025 until mid-January, questions surrounded whether the 2026 district elections would proceed as scheduled. In December, the Government invited 63 councils, including Epping Forest, to request a one-year postponement of elections in light of ongoing plans for local government reorganisation, which would replace district, borough and county councils with larger unitary authorities. Following a meeting of the four political group leaders, Epping Forest District Council decided not to seek a delay. As a result, a proposed extraordinary council meeting—at which councillors could have voted on postponement—was cancelled, and the council formally confirmed that the elections would go ahead on 7 May 2026. Council leaders acknowledged concerns that holding elections could delay reorganisation but stated that maintaining democratic accountability took precedence. The decision was publicly welcomed by opposition councillors and the district’s Member of Parliament, Dr Neil Hudson, who argued that residents should retain the right to vote despite the wider structural uncertainty.
These local elections resulted in a historic realignment of Epping Forest District Council, as the incumbent Conservative administration officially lost overall control of the authority for the first time since 2006.
Reform UK emerged as the primary beneficiaries of the election, capturing 11 of the 18 seats contested on the night. This surged their total representation to 12 seats, positioning them as the joint official opposition alongside the Loughton Residents Association (LRA) immediately following the count. Concurrently, the Conservative Party suffered its worst electoral performance in the district for 27 years, seeing its total number of councillors reduced to 19. The election saw several high-profile defensive failures for the Conservatives, with multiple cabinet members losing their seats including Paul Keska and Tim Matthews, with a Planning Committee Chairman, Sue Jones, also unseated. Former Finance Cabinet Member John Philip also failed in his bid to re-enter the chamber, losing the Rural East ward to Reform UK's Karen McIvor. In one of the few prominent holds for the ruling party, Finance Cabinet Member Holly Whitbread retained her Epping West and Rural seat by a narrow margin of 32 votes in a very tight three-way vote in Epping West and Rural.
The district council results mirrored a widespread shift in the concurrent Essex County Council elections held on the same day. Within the Epping Forest district boundary, Reform UK won six of the seven county divisions. High-profile Conservative casualties at the county level included Council Leader Chris Whitbread, who lost his North Weald and Nazeing county seat to Reform UK, and Holly Whitbread, who lost her Epping and Theydon Bois county seat to Reform UK. Additionally, a boundary change in Loughton North saw veteran LRA county councillor Chris Pond lose to Reform UK. Conservative cabinet member Lee Scott was the sole survivor for his party, retaining Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill East.
Following the declaration of all 18 seats on 8 May 2026, no single political group held an absolute majority in the 54-seat chamber, plunging the council into No Overall Control.
The political composition of the council shifted further in the weeks immediately following the election. On 28 May 2026, LRA councillor Michael Owen resigned from the LRA district group to sit as an Independent. This reduction left the LRA with 11 seats, making Reform UK the sole second-largest political group and the official opposition ahead of the annual council meeting.
Council composition and changes 2024 election Before 2026 election After 2026 election Party Seats Party Seats Party Seats 29 26 19 13 13 12 0 1 12 7 7 6 Epping Forest Independents 2 Epping Forest Independents 2 Epping Forest Independents 3 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
Seats up for election
+ Council ward Incumbent partyCouncillor up for electionBuckhurst Hill East & Whitebridge Elizabeth GabbettBuckhurst Hill West Smruti PatelChigwell with Lambourne Darshan SungerEpping East Edward BarnardEpping West & Rural Holly WhitbreadGrange Hill Rashni Chahal Holden (Not running for re-election)Loughton Fairmead Arash Ardakani (Not running for re-election)Loughton Forest Ian Allgood (Not running for re-election)Loughton Roding Chidi NwekeLoughton St. John's Graham WiskinNorth Weald Bassett Les Burrows (Not running for re-election)Ongar Paul KeskaRoydon & Lower Nazeing Ronda PugsleyRural East Ian Hadley (Not running for re-election)Theydon Bois with Passingford Sue JonesWaltham Abbey North David Stocker (Not running for re-election)Waltham Abbey South & Rural Tim MatthewsWaltham Abbey West Shane Yerrell (Not running for re-election)
Summary
Election result
By ward
WardConservativeReform UKLiberal DemocratLRAIndependent inc. EFIGLabourGreenOther % %%%% %%% Buckhurst Hill East & Whitebridge19.738.08.8–––33.5– Buckhurst Hill West34.530.05.7–2.05.322.1–Chigwell with Lambourne51.038.5–––10.5––Epping East18.633.732.3–12.5 2.9––Epping West & Rural34.333.232.5–– –––Grange Hill32.526.06.2–24.311.0––Loughton Fairmead6.140.2–34.6– 7.112.0–Loughton Forest15.825.62.344.0– 4.07.70.0Loughton Roding8.835.02.835.8–5.612.0–Loughton St. John's12.834.62.337.7– 8.28.2–North Weald Bassett30.049.413.0––7.7––Ongar22.357.35.6–9.0 5.9––Roydon & Lower Nazeing37.447.3––– 15.5––Rural East33.851.0––– 12.6–2.5Theydon Bois with Passingford30.744.819.6–2.2 2.7––Waltham Abbey North22.652.8––8.2 16.4––Waltham Abbey South & Rural29.450.210.5–– 9.7––Waltham Abbey West28.246.810.5–– 14.5––
Close seats Seats won with winning margins under 5.0%.
Loughton Roding, 0.8% (20 votes) Epping West & Rural, 1.1% (32 votes) Epping East, 1.4% (43 votes) Loughton St. John's, 3.1% (82 votes) Buckhurst Hill West, 4.4% (116 votes) Buckhurst Hill East & Whitebridge, 4.5% (128 votes)
Ward results
By-elections (district and parish) Below are by-elections that took place from the local elections in 2024 at both district level, and parish council level, including town councils.
Grange Hill Below is the breakdown of the results from the 2024 parish council election to the Grange Hill ward on Chigwell Parish Council - the boundaries of which mirror those at the district level. The below table is for comparison with the Grange Hill by-election result. 2024 parish election results - Grange Hill ward Party Vote %Seats beforeSeats after± Conservative 4,505 55.9532 EFIG 3,081 38.3044 Green4736.000Turnout1,85230.0Electorate6,142
Change in vote share is based on the ward-wide results achieved at the 2024 parish council election.
Buckhurst Hill West Below is the breakdown of the results from the 2024 parish council election to the Buckhurst Hill West ward - the boundaries of which mirror those at the district level. The below table is for comparison with the Buckhurst Hill West by-election result. 2024 parish election result - Buckhurst Hill West ward Party Vote %SeatsbeforeSeatsafter± Conservative 4,340 61.455 Green 1,657 23.511 EFIG 1,071 15.100Turnout1,75434.0Electorate5,198 2025 parish by-election result - Buckhurst Hill West ward Party Vote %±%SeatsbeforeSeatsafter± Reform UK97633.4N/A022 Conservative 768 26.2 25.0532 Green 682 23.3 0.211 EFIG / Independent 320 11.0N/A00 Liberal Democrat1806.2N/A00Turnout1,51629.0Electorate5,196
Shelley
Notes
References