Frequently Asked Questions

We have a legal duty to carry out an electoral review of each council in England if the wards have an unequal number of electors, or if it has been a long time since they were last reviewed. We do this to ensure that councillors represent a similar number of electors, as population changes over time can cause certain areas to be over or underrepresented.

Will an electoral review affect my council tax/council services?

No – our review only effects electoral wards, and we have no say or influence over council tax or council services.

Will an electoral review affect the polling station I can vote at?

It may do. Following the completion of our boundary review, your council will need to redefine its polling districts, then identify the most appropriate polling station for each polling district. Councils are already under a statutory obligation to review polling districts and places at regular intervals.

Will my postcode be affected?

No – local government wards are entirely separate from postcodes.

Will house prices be affected?

No – changes of local government ward names do not change the address of any properties and have not been found to affect prices. Estate agents do not market properties based on their local government ward.

Will the name of my village/neighbourhood be changed?

No – we may sometimes rename your ward, but we are not trying to change the way people refer to their local area. We will always try to make sure that ward names reflect local identity and historic usage – we need your help to make sure that we can do this.

Will local schools/services be renamed?

No – if we are changing the name of your ward that is the only thing that will change.

Will I be in a different county?

If two local authorities both ask that their mutual boundary be adjusted we are able to consider their request and carry out a ‘Principal Area Boundary Review’ (PABR). We are not able to instigate these reviews – they must be requested by the two authorities. None of our other reviews can review these boundaries.

Will I have a different MP?

We are not able to make changes to Parliamentary boundaries. These are reviewed by the Boundary Commission for England

How will local elections be affected?

The only effect will be that you will vote in a new ward. This ward may be unchanged from currently, slightly adjusted, or completely new.

We publicise our reviews on our website, on our social media pages, by contacting local organisations, and by providing the council with promotional media.

We do make all reasonable efforts to ensure that local people hear about our reviews – we need local voices and opinions to ensure that our recommendations are fit for purpose.

The cost of physically writing to every household is unfortunately beyond our budget, but we encourage you to register for updates on our website. If you navigate to the page for your local authority and click on ‘Register for Updates’, we will let you know when a review is planned for your area.

While we do try to reach as many local people and organisations as possible, we greatly appreciate the power of word-of-mouth. You can easily share the link to the review’s page on our website.

Why do you want to hear from the public?

We begin every review with an open mind, and we do not allow staff members with a personal connection to an area to be involved in reviews of that area. We need to know what local people think of their current arrangements, what they would like changed, and what they would like to keep. We have a statutory duty to take these views into account, and our Review Officers work to make sure that the final recommendations take into account the opinions of local people.

Do you really listen to what people say?

We really do. We carry out two periods of public consultation on each review and our recommendations often change considerably following the feedback we receive. For example, during the 2022 review of Derby City Council, our first recommendations proposed the removal of the ward of Alvaston Village. We received a number of responses against this proposal. We decided that an Alvaston North and Alvaston South ward  be created.  You can compare the map of our first proposal against our second proposal and see the effect that public input had.

Have you have already made up you minds? This seems to be just a box-ticking exercise.

We begin every review with an entirely open mind. We do not allow staff members with a personal connection to an area to be involved in reviews of that area. Occasionally we do commence a review of an authority and find that in some areas the current arrangements are fair, equal, and supported by local people – in which case we are very happy to leave things as they are.

Why wasn't my view taken into account?

In a typical review we will receive hundreds of responses from members of the public and local organisations. We will do all we can to ensure that everyone’s comments are considered in our final recommendations, but occasionally compromise is necessary. At the end of each review stage we will publish a report which details how we approached the comments we received. You can find this report on the page for your local authority.

Have you been asked to review our boundaries by the Labour/Conservative/Liberal Democrat/Green party?

We do not consider the party political effect of our proposals. However, councils can and do ask us to review their boundaries, for example if they want to change their governance in some way, perhaps to change the number of councillors or move to all-out elections. These reviews are carried out in the same way as any other, with an eye to ensuring that our new boundaries provide for equal representation. We also consider submissions from political groups within councils – these are considered purely on their merits and do not have any special weight for us.

Are you controlled by the government?

No. We are directly answerable to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, which also oversees the Electoral Commission. The membership of the committee is made up of:

• the Speaker of the House of Commons
• the Chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
• eight Members of Parliament appointed by the Speaker on a cross-party basis

The committee provides oversight of our work to ensure that we are honouring our statutory duties. It does not have any influence over our day-to-day work, or over the details of any of our reviews.

Do you always want to add more councillors?

No – recommendations on council size are taken in consultation with the council with a regard to the number required to fulfil the council’s responsibilities. We will seek additional justification from the council if they believe they should have a particularly high or low number of councillors.

We can't change the electoral system.

We are only able to review the boundaries of local government wards and the number of councillors in a council. Only Parliament is able to change the electoral system.

We can't change parliamentary boundaries.

We are not able to make changes to Parliamentary boundaries. These are reviewed by the Boundary Commission for England

We can change the boundary between two local authorities, but only in very specific situations.

If two local authorities both ask that their mutual boundary be adjusted we are able to consider their request and carry out a ‘Principal Area Boundary Review’ (PABR). We are not able to instigate these reviews – they must be requested by the two authorities. None of our other reviews can review these boundaries.

We can't influence council services.

We are only able to review the boundaries of local government wards and the number of councillors in a council. We have no influence over how the council delivers services.

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England was established in 2010 to replace the Boundary Committee for England. We are directly answerable to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission. We are led by a team of independent commissioners

How long will my council's review last for?

Reviews vary in length but are not usually longer than twelve months. All dates for your local area’s review can be found on our website’s page for your local authority.

When will changes come into force?

Changes will usually come into force at the next council election. The date will be stated on our website’s page for your local authority.

How do you decide the new borders and names?

We consider local history, local usage, and current ward names when deciding names for new wards. We try to ensure that the names make sense to local people and are easily identifiable. We are very keen to hear your opinions on our proposed names during our consultation periods.

Can I have access to your raw mapping data?

We can provide shapefiles of current and proposed boundaries for all ongoing reviews. For areas not currently under review, shapefiles can be downloaded from osdatahub.os.uk/downloads/open/BoundaryLine.