Covid: Councils warn of budget shortfall for May elections

Councils in England don't have "anywhere near enough" money to organise elections this May, according to the Local Government Association.

LGA chairman James Jamieson told MPs cash-strapped councils faced "substantially higher" costs to make polls Covid-secure.

Ministers have announced an extra £31m for things like plastic screens and hand sanitiser.

The government says "democracy should not be cancelled because of Covid".

Local and mayoral elections in England and police and crime commissioner elections in England and Wales were given the go-ahead last week for the 6 May.

They will include some ballots that were postponed in 2020 because of the pandemic.

In a break with tradition, the government has asked councils not to use schools as polling stations this year in a bid to minimise any further disruption to children's education.

Voters will also be asked to bring their own pens and pencils to polling stations.

And rules on proxy voting - where people designate someone else to vote on their behalf - will also be changed to allow people who need to self-isolate to request an emergency proxy vote up until 5pm on polling day.

However, ministers have decided against postal ballot-only elections "as this could increase fraud risk and reduce choice for voters".

Instead, the government has allocated an extra £15m for local councils in England and £16m for PCC elections.

James Jamieson is concerned that this will only cover a fraction of the true costs.

Giving evidence to MPs on the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, he warned that councils will need "a level of flexibility" because issues vary up and down the country in terms of complexity.

He said councils will need to provide marshals outside polling stations to ensure queues are socially distanced.

Extra cleaning facilities will also be needed for voting booths and personal protective equipment will need to be available, he told the committee.

"The resources issue is really important because we're not going to be a normal election and it won't be a village hall with two polling clerks in it," he said.

"What happens if somebody turns up to vote and they don't have a face mask, never mind a pencil?"

Mr Jamieson said there were a lot of issues that will require councils to have more resources on site, including larger venues and additional volunteers yet it is unclear what level the pandemic will be at in May.

The Local Government Association says it is currently doing an exercise to work out the extra cost of May's elections and will report back to the committee in the coming weeks.