Local Elections: Researching your Candidates' Positions on Climate

At VoteClimate, we can provide a personalised recommendation on the best vote for climate in your council ward. We base this on an analysis of party policies at a national level.

It’s not possible for us to analyse every local candidate and party’s record in office or local manifesto. Plus you may be faced with independent candidates which our analysis is unable to account for. So, to make the best choice for climate, it can be really valuable to supplement our voting recommendation with your own independent research.

This can be daunting – especially if you’re short on time – so we’ve put together some tips to help make sure you’re properly informed on the best vote for climate when elections come round.

Not a member yet? We use polling data to predict the best vote for climate – then share our recommendation for you to use when deciding how to vote. Sign up now.

Online research

Local party manifestos

Many parties have local manifestos. There are different tiers of local government – for example, many people live in an area with a county council and a district council, and there are other types and tiers too, which you can read about on the Local Government Association website. A single party may have different plans for each tier of local government in your area.

1. First, find out which tiers of government are up for election this year. For most areas, you can put your post code into our local election page to find out which elections are happening: https://voteclimate.uk/local-elections This information is also on your polling card. There may be more than one election happening!
2. Once you know which elections are happening, you can find out which parties and independent candidates are running on our local election hub: https://voteclimate.uk/local-elections If the information isn’t there, have a look at your council’s website.
3. When you know which parties are standing, search online to find each party’s manifesto for the election. You can do an online search – for example, you could search for “norfolk county council labour party local election manifesto” or “swindon borough council liberal democrats local election manifesto”.
4. You may not find a manifesto, as parties don’t always publish them. Or you may find a party’s manifesto for a different tier of government in your area. For example, imagine you have a district council election taking place. You may not be able to find (say) Labour’s manifesto for your district, but you may come across their policy programme for the county level. That’s ok, it’s still useful information – district and county parties probably work together closely!
5. While searching, you may come across websites or webpages for individual candidates in your area. Even if these are not the candidates in your exact ward (division where you’ll elect candidate/s), this still provides a clue as to where the local party stands on climate and nature. And that brings us to…

Individual candidates

As we wrote above, it’s really helpful to know where the individual candidates stand on climate. Candidates often have webpages where they provide a biography and an overview of their passions, even if they don’t have a point-by-point manifesto (some candidates may even say they’re passionate about the environment!) This can be particularly valuable if independent candidates, not linked to a political party, are standing in your ward.

If you already know who your candidates are, skip to step 2 below:

1. Find out who your candidates are by checking https://voteclimate.uk/local-elections and inputting your postcode. There are a few instances where we haven’t been able to get the data – in this case, go to your council’s website to find the candidate lists for your ward (type this into a search engine: “YOUR COUNCIL NAME may YEAR local elections candidates”).
2. When you have got a full list of candidate names, search online to see if you can find a candidate website or webpage e.g. “hamza ali manchester labour party policies”.

Outreach to parties and candidates

It can be really valuable to get in touch with parties and candidates directly to clarify their position on climate and what they will do if elected to office. This is particularly worthwhile if you can’t get much information online, or if you are torn between different candidates.

1. Search online for the local party and/or candidate contact details – ideally, you’re looking for an email address.
2. Compose an email outlining your concern about climate and asking where they stand. We have included an example below which you can copy and adapt.
3. Send the email to all local parties and candidates, depending on what contact details you have, and compare the answers.

Sample email text (feel free to copy and adapt):

Dear CANDIDATE NAME

I live in WARD NAME and will be voting in May’s elections.

I am deeply concerned about the climate emergency. I would like to know what steps you will take if elected to office to ensure progress is made on COUNCIL NAME to reduce emissions by the council and the area it is responsible for.

In particular, I would like to know:

• How you would advocate for climate and environment if elected
• What action your party would take should you form a majority administration

I am writing to all the candidates and will take into account each of your responses when deciding who to vote for.

Many thanks,

YOUR NAME

In person

You can go along to hustings events (debates between candidates, overseen by a chairperson) and hear from the candidates themselves. After completing the steps above, you should know what your ward is.

1. Search online for your ward and council area PLUS May YEAR elections PLUS hustings events e.g. “burnage manchester city council may 2026 elections hustings events”
2. A search along these lines should bring up any events which are taking place. Try variations if you don’t find anything at first. Hustings events don’t always take place, so if you can’t find anything after a few searches, there may not be any events in your area.
3. If you find out about an event, see if you can go along (or if you can’t make it, find a friend or family-member who can).
4. Find out if a question can be submitted to the chair and if so, put in a climate question. Usually the chair will work through a set of questions based on policy area.
5. After the chair’s questions, there may be an opportunity for questions from the audience. If climate hasn’t been covered, raise your hand and try to ask a question. If you’re not brave enough, take someone along who is!
6. It may also be possible to ask candidates questions one-on-one afterwards, which is an option if your question doesn’t get covered in the main event.

We hope our guide helps you supplement our voting recommendations with your own independent research.

Not a member yet? We use polling data to predict the best vote for climate – then share our recommendation for you to use when deciding how to vote. Sign up now.

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