Welcome to the July edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

Election law changes announced by government

Our thoughts on the election strategy

On 17 July the government published their ‘strategy for modern and secure elections’. This promises a wide range of measures, notably votes at 16, an expansion of voter ID to include bank cards, and investigations into automatic voter registration. If you want to read more about these changes and the reactions to them, the House of Commons Library has produced a good summary of the proposals.

Today we’ve published our own thoughts. We’ve focused on two proposals in the strategy: the creation of a voter information platform, and enhanced powers to allow the Electoral Commission to collect more information from councils. Taken together, we think these two suggestions could revolutionise how voter information is produced in the UK, allowing the government to build a real-time database of elections and candidates. Read the blog.

The next combined authority elections

On 10 July the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill​ was published, announcing the return of the supplementary vote electoral system for mayoral and police and crime commissioners.

A week later came clarification regarding next year’s combined authority elections. Elections in Cumbria and Cheshire and Warrington have been postponed to 2027, meaning that next year will see inaugural elections for four combined authorities: Norfolk and Suffolk, Greater Essex, Sussex and Brighton, and Hampshire and the Solent.

Politics Project launches votes at 16 roadmap

On 16 July Democracy Club attended the launch of the Democracy Classroom Roadmap to Votes at 16, ‘a shared, cross-sector vision for the successful implementation of Votes at 16 across the UK’. We helped create section 5 on improving information support to encourage youth engagement. This includes a recommendation for the government to explore setting up a Voting Advice Application, as is common in other European countries

Parish councils and political parties

Political parties won 12.9% of English town and parish council seats in 2024/2025. But party involvement at this level is controversial. We’ve taken a look at what the data can tell us about partisanship in England's first tier of local government, on our blog.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team