What Reform UK councils might mean for climate action

Reform UK was the big winner of the May 2026 local elections, taking 1,453 council seats in England. Edward de Quay and Pallavi Sethi look at how councils the party won in 2025 have been acting, in order to consider what its new, expanded representation might mean for climate policy.

Reform UK made significant gains in the local elections on 7 May, winning more than 1,450 council seats in England, largely at Labour’s expense, though Conservative councils also took a hit. Suffolk County Council was among Reform’s gains, with the party increasing its seats from six to 41. June Mummery, a Suffolk Reform councillor since December 2025, has previously declared that “There is no climate crisis”. How representative is this view of the party’s stance on climate, and how have those councils won in 2025 with a majority acted on it?

In May 2025 Reform UK won majorities in 10 of 23 councils up for election in England. Among the party’s election promises were to “scrap net zero to cut your energy bills”. In the year since, seven of these councils have “scrapped” their climate targets, three have rescinded ‘Climate Emergency’ declarations, three have removed or restructured climate-related committees, and most have removed ‘climate’ and ‘carbon’-related language when updating documents.

Prior to the latest vote, various Reform candidates posted on X that they were “passionate about educating people about the climate scam” (Anika Sweetland; not elected), “calling out the climate change con” (Jeff Evans; not elected) and “climate scaremongering” (Kabeer Kher, elected), and stating that carbon dioxide “has zero impact on temperature” (Philip Crook, elected).

As in 2025, Reform UK local election leaflets for 2026 pledged to “scrap crazy Labour-Tory Net Zero targets and cut your energy bills” and to “use Britain’s oil and gas reserves to cut energy bills”. On this basis, we should expect further debates around the removal of Climate Emergency Declarations and backtracking on climate action.

Lessons from previous Reform wins

While Reform UK do not have an explicit position on climate change (statements disputing the existence of anthropogenic climate change were removed from its “Our Contract with You” document in 2024 when Nigel Farage became leader), our research indicates that the Party is returning to a stance that rejects the science on human-caused climate change.

Our recent policy brief examines the Reform UK party’s approach to climate change and net zero in local councils since 2025, focusing on council debates discussing removal of climate targets and commitments, as well as party literature, press and social media. Table 1 shows the approach of the 10 Reform-controlled councils won last year. We found evidence of language that could be categorised as “climate change denial” in five councils. Most striking was Kent County Council, which in September 2025 noted “the unproven view of anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change” in a motion to rescind the county’s Climate Emergency.

Table 1. Overview of approach to climate targets in the 10 Reform-controlled councils following the 2025 local elections (from de Quay and Sethi, 2026)

We found that eight councils have replaced mentions of climate change or decarbonisation in documents with euphemisms such as “the environment”, “sustainability” or “energy efficiency”. For example, Kent County Council has replaced its Net Zero Plan with an Energy Efficiency Plan and Staffordshire’s Climate Emergency Declaration has given way to an Environmental Strategy it describes as being “broader [and] more practical”.

These developments are significant as until now, most councils have been happy to progress and report on climate action voluntarily. By 2021, 75 per cent of local authorities in the UK had declared a “climate emergency” and 73 per cent of single and upper tier authorities in England had committed to carbon neutrality or net zero targets in the local authority area, of which 38 per cent set a deadline of 2030, 20 years earlier than the national target.

How to keep local government engaged in net zero

While the role of local government in delivering national net zero targets is recognised as essential, the previous Conservative Government reasoned that local statutory targets were unnecessary, given the high level of local commitment already being displayed. The lesson from a year of Reform UK-led councils is that national government should no longer assume there will be voluntary ambition on climate at the local level supporting progress on national legislative and policy goals.

Our research also identified inconsistencies in how Reform UK councils approach implementing their pledge to “scrap net zero”, suggesting that there are still opportunities to maintain progress despite the party’s national position. For example, while three Climate Emergency Declarations have been rescinded, three have not. North Northamptonshire council voted to remove the carbon-neutrality-by-2030 target but also says it will follow “the national legal requirement of Net Zero emissions by 2050, or sooner”. West Northamptonshire council removed net zero targets, but is nonetheless enthusiastic about £2.6 million it has been allocated by the Government’s ‘Warm Homes: Local Grant’ funding for energy-saving home improvements. The framing is energy efficiency rather than net zero, but the contribution will be to both.

To encourage local authorities to continue taking responsibility for emissions reductions, regardless of framing, we suggest priority should be given to standardising emissions monitoring and reporting guidance for local authority use. The experience of Kent County Council, which has retained emissions as a Key Performance Indicator, shows that this indicator can be welcome under the right circumstances. By contrast, Lancashire County Council resolved to ask its Cabinet to cease voluntary carbon reporting, highlighting the need for the Government to consider mandatory reporting.

Given the vital role local authorities need to play in helping the UK reach its statutory target of net zero emissions by 2050, we also recommend that the Government should consider strategic options including incentives to promote progress, rather than assuming voluntary action. This could include focusing on areas of policy overlap that deliver on emissions without relying on a net zero framing, such as through the Warm Homes: Local Grants.

A version of this commentary was first published by the LSE British Politics Blog on 11 May 2026.