Ioana Diac is a researcher focusing on social policy at Bright Blue, an independent think tank for liberal conservatism. She has written on topics such as women’s rights, immigration, and air pollution.
As of last year, one in seven people living in the UK were born abroad. Unless they are British, Irish, EU or eligible Commonwealth citizens, many of these foreign-born residents do not have the right to vote in local elections in England and Northern Ireland, despite paying council tax. In Scotland and Wales, on the other hand, every resident with lawful immigration status has the right to vote and stand in local and devolved national elections.
England and Northern Ireland should follow Scotland and Wales’ example and extend local election voting rights to all residents who have lawful permission to enter or stay in the UK, no matter where they are from or the length of their residence. This would help simplify an overly complex electoral system, encourage greater political participation and improve integration.
Local election voting rights differ across the UK’s nations. In England and Northern Ireland, local voting rights currently depend on citizenship. Solely British, Irish, eligible Commonwealth and EU citizens who arrived in the UK before the end of 2020 are able to vote in England and Northern Ireland’s local elections.
If an EU citizen entered the UK from 2021 onwards, they can only vote in England and Northern Ireland’s local elections if they meet one of two conditions. Either their country of origin has a bilateral voting rights agreement with the UK or they are citizens from Cyprus, Malta and Ireland as these countries have pre-existing voting rights through the Commonwealth. So far, only four EU countries (Poland, Luxembourg, Spain and Portugal) have secured bilateral voting rights agreements for local elections with the UK. This means that citizens from just seven out of a total of 27 EU countries can vote in England and Northern Ireland’s local elections if they arrived in the UK from 2021 onwards. It is a complex, confusing and technical voting eligibility system that discourages many eligible residents from registering to vote for local elections.
On the other hand, local voting rights in Scotland and Wales are based on residence, not citizenship. In these countries, every resident with lawful permission to enter or stay in the UK (including limited leave to remain) has voting and candidacy rights in local and devolved national elections for the Welsh (Senedd) and Scottish (Holyrood) Parliaments. This is a much simpler and more effective way to organise the local voting system as it does not arbitrarily exclude citizens from countries that do not have bilateral voting rights agreements with the UK.
For ease and clarity, voting rights for local elections in England and Northern Ireland should be extended to any resident with lawful immigration status in the UK. This would include limited and indefinite leave to remain and pre-settled and settled status for EU citizens. Such voting rights would cover local elections for local councillors, mayors and police and crime commissioners. Introducing residence-based voting rights for local elections would bring England and Northern Ireland in line with Scotland and Wales, ultimately making the UK’s unnecessarily complex local electoral system easier to manage, understand and participate in.
Despite living, working and paying taxes in the UK, close to 1.5 million residents in England and Northern Ireland are shut out from the local democratic process because they were born abroad in non-EU and non-Commonwealth countries. This is a huge number of people that are denied the right to have a say in how their money is spent on a local level just because of where they were born.
Council tax, after all, applies to everyone regardless of where they come from and how long they have lived in the UK. The services local councils offer are varied and impact all residents directly, from fixing potholes, organising bin collections to funding libraries, schools, nurseries, parks, community facilities and council housing. It’s only fair and democratic that people who pay council tax have a say on how their local services are run given the significant impact they have on residents’ everyday lives.
The benefits of simplifying our local voting system extend beyond the individual level. It would encourage greater political participation and interest in local community affairs. It would also increase voter turnout for local elections and encourage more people to get involved in the decisions that affect their local communities. This will, in turn, improve social integration for migrants since they would feel appreciated, valued and respected as members of the community who are able to have a say on how their services are run locally.
Giving all residents the right to vote in England and Northern Ireland’s local elections would not affect voter eligibility for UK general elections which would remain based on citizenship. For the UK’s Parliamentary elections and referendums, only British, Irish and qualifying Commonwealth citizens over the age of 18 on polling day can vote and this would rightly stay the same regardless of the extension of the franchise in local elections.
Following the UK’s decision to leave the EU, the country’s leaders promised that the UK would not become inward-looking. Introducing residence-based voting rights for local elections is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the UK’s commitment to ‘Global Britain’ by bringing in all its international residents to our local democratic process. Our local democratic systems should reflect the multicultural and diverse communities we live in. It is time for England and Northern Ireland to deliver a fairer local voting system that gives voice to all residents, strengthens local democracy, and improves people’s sense of belonging, attachment, and investment in their local community.