Election Countdown
All the latest news, opinion and analysis in the run up to the election
Latest election news
Liverpool's new leader plans to halt homes demolition
Liverpool council to scrap plans to demolish homes as part of housing policy overhaul
Students unable to vote complain of 'discrimination'
Students unable to vote in Sheffield are campaigning to encourage others turned away to complain
Key localists: the winners and losers
How did the eight localist candidates highlighted by LGC before the election get on?
At the count - a personal view
LGC’s Allister Hayman was at the counts at Barking & Dagenham throughout the night - read his diary…
Tories' £6bn savings a 'doable nightmare'
Whitehall mandarins have set out “radical” options for spending cuts including freezing benefit payments
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Survey says Lab-Lib Dem pact ‘least worst’
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Business leaders oppose scrapping RDAs
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Brown battles for seaside town votes
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LGA told to rethink pay freeze
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Electoral fraud arrest for Tories
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Manifestos put forward rival localism agendas
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Labour to move on mayors and finance system
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Labour launches manifesto, Lib Dems in tax pledge
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Labour unveils 'mutual manifesto'
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Public interest in local democracy slumps
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Overnight poll count proposals eased
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'CSR by October' if Labour wins election
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Local democracy online
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Commission unhappy at voter registration
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Tories pledge to form public sector co-ops
Latest opinion
LGC View - Local elections
These elections are about finding the best people to take decisions about the issues closest to people’s lives. That message in not widely enough understood
LGC View - Local elections
Now the bar has been set for Labour in this year’s vote - 500 seats should be the least of their expectations. Failure to achieve that will represent another seriously poor showing at the polls
Commitment to 'radical devolution of power' welcome
A clear commitment in the Coalition Agreement to ‘the radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups’ could indicate a positive future for central-local relations
Wipeout for the BNP in Barking
The overall UK election result may have been murky, but in East London Labour’s victory over the BNP was complete
An opportunity to change national policy
For Labour and the Conservatives the idea of a local income tax or sales tax is as remote as a distant planet
Forging a different quality of relationship with citizens
If local authorities are to improve or even maintain service outcomes in the coming period of austerity they will have to forge a different quality of relationship with citizens
Latest analysis
Will the Tory strongholds stand the strain?
Leading psephologists Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher analyse the field of battle ahead of next month’s local elections
Labour eyeing an open goal
In 2004 and 2008 Labour attract the support of no more than a quarter of the voters. They are therefore certain to bounce back now
Echoes of 1974 for Lib Dems?
The chances of a hung Parliament after 6 May are much higher than at any point for nearly four decades.
