In case you haven’t noticed the campaign leaflets slipping through your letterbox — or missed the hopeful campaigners knocking on your door — local elections are coming on 7 May.
1,817 council seats across all 32 London boroughs will be up for election.
Mayors, leaders, cabinet members, councillors: how to make sense of it?
In most London boroughs, residents elect councillors – usually a few per ward. The political party or coalition with a majority on the council usually chooses a Council Leader – a bit like a local version of the Prime Minister. That leader then appoints a cabinet, with each member responsible for a specific area such as climate, finance, housing, education or transport.
This is known as the leader and cabinet model. Alongside this, many boroughs also have a ceremonial mayor, chosen by councillors. That role is largely civic rather than political: attending events, welcoming guests, chairing certain meetings and representing the borough at ceremonies.
However, five London boroughs work differently: Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham, Newham and Tower Hamlets have a directly elected executive mayor, chosen by local voters. In those boroughs, the mayor is the main political leader and appoints the cabinet.
As for Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of Greater London: he leads the city-wide authority that brings together London’s 32 boroughs (and the City of London) and holds a different set of powers – including transport, policing, emergency planning and the London Plan. The last Greater London Authority (GLA) elections took place in 2024.
You may think that local elections are less consequential than national ones. After all, national climate targets are set in Westminster, and the GLA decides on London-wide strategies in City Hall.
When it comes to climate action, however, local councils are often the ones to turn ambitions into reality on the ground. Much of the carbon we emit daily – heating our homes, commuting to work, dealing with our bins, and so much more – is shaped by local authorities’ policymaking.
Who does what? Understanding how London’s climate action is governed
In a nutshell, London’s climate policy is determined at three levels:
National government
- Sets the UK’s climate targets
- Allocates national grant and funding schemes
- Establishes regulatory and legal standards
City level (GLA and Mayor of London)
- Sets London’s climate targets
- Influences public transport emissions by running Transport for London (TfL)
- Distributes grants and funding amongst boroughs
Local councils
- Set borough-level Climate Action Plans
- Deploy grants and funding – commissioning works, managing contracts, and delivering improvements on the ground
- Grant planning permission, deciding what gets built and to what standard
Put simply: Westminster sets the rules, City Hall decides the direction, and boroughs bring strategy to life.
Housing: tackling London’s largest source of emissions
Housings account for over one-third of London’s carbon emissions.
Half of our historic city’s homes were built before 1945, long before energy efficiency standards existed. Poorly insulated walls, single-glazed windows, and inefficient gas boilers make heating these buildings both carbon- and cash-intensive.
The government is tackling this through retrofit funding schemes, including those under The Warm Homes Plan, while the GLA helps to distribute these funds across London.
Borough councils are the ones to bring retrofit projects to life. They can:
- Upgrade council-owned housing
- Allocate grants to private homeowners for insulation or heat pumps
- Enforce minimum energy efficiency standards for private landlords
- Include energy efficiency requirements in planning rules for new buildings
For boroughs with large social housing portfolios, these decisions can affect tens of thousands of residents’ energy bills – potentially saving hundreds of pounds per year.
Streets and transport: greening your commute
Road transport accounts for the vast majority of London’s transport emissions.
While TfL oversees the tube, overground, buses, and major roads, councils are responsible for the vast majority of local streets.
Making walking and cycling more appealing is an effective way for councils to put these powers to good use.
To do this, they can:
- Build cycling lanes and cycle hangars
- Introduce Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and School Streets to reduce traffic and idling
- Expand pedestrian zones
- Set parking permits and charges
- Scale electric vehicle charging infrastructure
Waste: sorting out London’s recycling habits
Waste management in the UK is a highly decentralised process. While the government sets nationwide recycling targets and waste policies, boroughs are the ones to decide how household waste is collected.
Residents are often confused about which materials go in which bins – especially as the rules vary from borough to borough – increasing the risk of contaminated and ineffective recycling.
To tackle this confusion, councils can:
- Provide for food waste collection
- Coordinate with other boroughs to make rules more consistent
- Engage with residents to teach good recycling habits
London’s overall recycling rate has been stuck at around one-third for the last decade. However, large differences are observed between boroughs, showing how much local policy matters.
Climate resilience: weathering the storm
For many Londoners, the sweltering temperatures of the 2022 heatwave and the flash floods of 2021 are fresh memories.
The frequency of these extreme weather events will only increase as global temperatures continue to rise due to decades of locked-in warming.
Councils can help communities prepare for and adapt to these changes through measures such as:
- Flood risk planning
- Urban greening to reduce heat and improve drainage
- Supporting vulnerable residents during extreme weather events
- Improving home insulation (see Homes section)
Nature and biodiversity: greening the concrete jungle
If you thought London was bereft of nature and wildlife, just watch David Attenborough’s Wild London and you’ll think again.
Urban nature not only benefits residents’ mental health and wellbeing – it also helps to cool neighbourhoods, reduce flood risks, and capture carbon.
Local councils can increase green space and protect wildlife by:
- Planting trees and increasing canopy cover
- Protecting and restoring biodiversity sites and wildlife habitats
- Supporting pollinators
- Funding community green projects
Why your vote matters for London’s green transition
Councils across London are addressing the climate crisis with varying levels of urgency, and competing priorities are threatening to push climate action further aside from politicians’ agendas.
Local elections determine the political leadership of borough councils – the party or coalition that wins a majority tends to appoint a council leader and cabinet members responsible for areas such as housing, transport, and the environment. These are the people who lead decisions such as policy priorities, budgets, and ultimately, the pace of climate action.
Many Londoners will experience the green transition not as decisions made in Westminster, but on their own street.
Your vote on 7 May could play a pivotal role in shaping that future.
Article by Sophie Demaré, in collaboration with The Green Londoner
