Response to the Local Government and Housing Committee’s consultation on ‘Priorities for the Local Government and Housing Committee’

ERS Cymru

Background

The Electoral Reform Society Cymru welcomes this consultation and is pleased to see the Local Government and Housing Committee seeking the views of the wider Welsh public and civil society on its priorities for the sixth Senedd.

While much progress has been made on local government reform in the last few years there is still plenty of work to do to improve democracy and representation at this level of government.

Local Government Elections 2022

Next year will see the first local government elections since the passing of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021. There have been significant changes to the way these will work compared with the previous elections in 2017, which we believe would be fertile ground for the Committee to look into. This could include an assessment of measures undertaken to improve the following areas; 

Diversity

Local councillors are not currently representative of the communities they serve and are lagging behind other levels of government in Wales in terms of representation. This is especially true for gender representation where Members of the Senedd and Members of Parliament are far more representative of the electorate than councillors, while information on other protected characteristics is lacking completely.1 

This lack of representation hinders local government in two main ways. Firstly, the over-dominance of white older male councillors in Wales can serve to alienate voters who don’t see themselves reflected in their local council chambers. This detachment has direct effects on engagement including turnout at local elections.

Secondly, research shows that a diversity of political representatives leads to better outcomes through a more varied collection of ideas and opinions. A number of councillors told us that having a range of lived experiences within a political body leads to decisions and scrutiny that better represent the needs, views and experiences of the people they serve. At present this diversity of local councillors falls sadly short of effectively representing wider society; just 28% of councillors are women compared with 51% of the population and only around 1.8% of councillors are from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds compared with 4.7% for the Welsh population. In contrast 47% of councillors are over 60 years old and 31% are retired, higher proportions than in the wider Welsh population.2 

Since 2017 there have been a number of interventions made on diversity in local government. Welsh Government have undertaken a ‘Diversity in Democracy’ programme of work and the WLGA have coordinated some recruitment activity through their beacouncillor website. In March this year the WGLA held a special meeting with a number of senior councillors across Wales in attendance. This resulted in a number of specific recommendations being made to improve diversity in democracy.

We would welcome an assessment at next year’s local elections of the impact these measures have made and what other measures could be taken to boost diversity in the absence of significant progress. One thing currently missing which has hampered diversity appraisals in the past is good quality data. It is vital that equality and diversity monitoring data is collected for all councillors as well as candidates standing in the 2022 local elections and all future elections if we are to evaluate the impacts of diversity boosting measures in a meaningful way.

Engagement and turnout

The sad truth is that over 20 years after devolution the majority of people in Wales still don’t vote in Welsh elections, be that local or Senedd elections. While turnout for General Elections is comparatively high in Wales, there is a huge gap in those that vote in local and UK wide elections.

Turnout at local elections is notoriously low, just 42% of the electorate voted in 2017, and over the last three local government elections (2017, 2012/13 and 2008) turnout has never got close to 50% (42%, 39% and 44% respectively).3

ERS Cymru’s Missing Voices report highlighted three themes around how people feel about politics in Wales; confusion, frustration and hope. The survey highlighted that ‘confidence in going to a polling station’ was over 20% lower in non-voters compared to those who vote.4 This highlights the need for wide reaching engagement, especially with those less likely to vote to counteract this confusion and bridge the knowledge gap. A lack of knowledge about the role of local politics and understanding of the work that local councillors do are likely to play into this apathy around voting at local government elections. 

With the devolution of power over elections, Wales now has the ability to change how elections work. In the last few years we have seen progress being made in this area and the 2022 elections are the first test of these measures in respect to local elections. Turnout is an indicator of this success but there will be a complex picture, which deserves real scrutiny and solid recommendations for improvement.

One area that will be of particular interest in terms of engagement in the 2022 local elections will be the extension of the franchise to 16 and 17 year olds and all qualifying foreign nationals. The Senedd elections this year were an early test of how the extension has been delivered but we have not yet seen this played out for council elections.

Furthermore, other measures have been announced by the Welsh Government with the intention of encouraging newly enfranchised voters to register and vote. This could make up a significant area of work, particularly with regards to flexible voting pilots and an increased emphasis on registration.

Any assessment of the 2022 local elections should include analysis of the efficacy of these measures.

Additional thoughts

With the move of committees to meetings every two weeks rather than one we are concerned about the potential impact this may have on diversity. This clearly applies to all committees rather than this one particularly, but we would encourage the Local Government and Housing Committee to consider the diversity of witnesses and organisations giving evidence as part of any inquiry.

Notes

  1. Expert Group on Diversity in Local Government, 2014, Diversifying Democracy in Local Government in Wales https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-06/140305-expert-group-report-en.pdf
  2. WLGA Working Group on Diversity in Local Democracy, 2021, WLGA Council Special Meeting Report https://www.wlga.wales/SharedFiles/Download.aspx?pageid=62&mid=665&fileid=2966
  3. Electoral Commission, 2019, Results and turnout at the May 2017 Wales local elections https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/elections-and-referendums/past-elections-and-referendums/wales-local-council-elections/results-and-turnout-may-2017-wales-local-elections
  4. Jess Blair and Mat Mathais, 2017, ERS Missing Voices Report  https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/latest-news-and-research/publications/missing-voices/