The clearest example of that drift is in their new policy to introduce a 100 per cent Council Tax Premium on second homes. Something we Conservatives refused to do.
We must protect rural communities from inappropriate, infrastructure-poor expansion. Planning is not merely about where we build—it is about who we are as a nation.
The Conservatives gained a seat from the Lib Dems in Harborough. Reform UK gained a seat from Labour in Blackpool and a seat from the Conservatives in Suffolk.
High parking charges are having a negative impact on the High Street. Encouraging more people to use public transport would be beneficial.
Secret rooms and tunnels had somehow been left off the planning application. Once again the government stonewalled parliamentary questions.
People are being broken, and the authorities, including some school leaders, are doing nothing about it.
Ultimately councils need to remember that it is they who serve local residents and taxpayers, not the other way around.
Reform UK gained a seat from Labour in Darlington, a seat from the SNP in West Lothian and seats in South Kesteven from the Conservatives and an independent. The Lib Dems gained a seat from the Conservatives in East Devon.
Heroic defeat is still a defeat despite the heroics. I came second to Reform by 23 votes, which is not good enough. Yet, my result bucked the national polls and the broader trends in recent by-elections, as we increased both our numerical vote and our vote share.
The people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and every region affected, deserve better.
Labour was already going to struggle to hold such councils as Westminster and Wandsworth. The Chancellor has made the reception its canvassers can expect even less warm.
Residents see local plans overturned, neighbourhood plans ignored, decisions made under duress, and appeals upheld in ways that feel opaque, unfair, and costly.
The Lb Dems gained a seat from the Conservative in Torridge. Reform UK gained a seat from the Lib Dems in Middlesbrough. Labour lost a seat to a residents group in Broxstowe.
As residents, we can face vastly different fees for essentially the same service, depending on our postcode.
It need not set a precedent for the general election and, rather than trading bruising blows against each other during the campaign, it would allow both parties to direct their fire at London’s real foe: Sadiq Khan.