Talk About London Podcast: London’s looming local government earthquake

Professor Tony Travers CBE of the London School of Economics has been the number one authority on all matters of London government for many years. Doctor Nick Bowes, currently MD Insight and Public Affairs with LCA, was previously chief executive of Centre for London, Sir Sadiq Khan’s director of policy at City Hall and before all that a councillor in Wandsworth.

I and my co-host Leanne Tritton, chair of The London Society, were very pleased to welcome them as our latest Talk About London podcast guests. We explored lots of this year’s particularly treacherous borough elections landscape – how bad will it be for Labour, how high will the Green tide rise, how much territory will Reform UK invade?

We considered the possibility of novice politicians suddenly finding themselves in very senior positions in councils that serve populations larger than those of many entire English cities.

We anticipated perhaps as many as around a dozen boroughs ending up under No Overall Control after 7 May and what the implications of that could be for the efficient and effective running of council affairs.

And we reflected on the paradox that while voters in general have a better opinion of their local councillors than they do over other politicians on the whole, many will cast their votes according to how they feel about the national parties and the national government. Make yourself a nice relaxing drink, forget whatever else you are doing and watch it all.

You can listen to previous Talk About London podcasts here and watch them, along with my separate True London series, here.

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