The 2027 Bath and North East Somerset Council election is due to be held on 6 May 2027 to elect all 59 members of Bath and North East Somerset Council in Somerset, England. It will take place on the same day as the other local elections held across the United Kingdom.
The Liberal Democrats, led by council leader Kevin Guy, will be defending the majority they won at the 2023 election, when the party took 41 of the 59 seats.
Background
Electoral system Bath and North East Somerset Council is a unitary authority in the West of England, created in 1996 on the abolition of Avon County Council. The whole council is elected together every four years using the first-past-the-post system. The authority has 33 wards returning 59 councillors: 26 wards each return two councillors and seven wards each return one. These boundaries were introduced for the 2019 election following an electoral review by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, and the same boundaries apply for the 2027 election.
Local government reorganisation
The 2027 local elections coincide with the first elections held under the reorganisation of local government in England, under which two-tier areas of county and district councils are to be abolished and replaced by new single-tier unitary authorities. As Bath and North East Somerset has been a unitary authority since 1996, it is outside the scope of the reorganisation and continues unchanged, holding its ordinary scheduled whole-council election on 6 May 2027.
Council composition Following the 2023 election the composition of the council was: + ↓ 41 7 5 3 3
Prior to the 2027 election the composition of the council was: + ↓ 39 9 6 3 2
During the 2023–2027 term several councillors changed the party or group for which they had been elected. Ann Morgan, elected for High Littleton as a Liberal Democrat in 2023, subsequently sat as an Independent. By 2026 the council's non-aligned members sat in three strands: an Independents group, the Independents for B&NES group, and unaligned councillors.
Previous election The result of the 2023 election, at which the Liberal Democrats increased their majority and the Conservative group leader Vic Pritchard lost his seat, was as follows. + Result of the 2023 election Party Seats +/– Votes % Liberal Democrats 41 4 40,739 41.9 Labour 7 2 15,256 15.7 Independent 5 1 5,620 5.8 Conservative 3 8 23,121 23.8 Green 3 3 12,440 12.8 Total 59 97,176 100.0
By-elections Several by-elections were held between the 2023 and 2027 elections.
Saltford
Mendip
Widcombe & Lyncombe
Notes
References