Camden Council, whose responsibilities include roads, urban planning, housing, and parks, will hold an election on Thursday 7 May, with all 55 seats up for grabs.
Where can I vote?
Students are permitted to vote at both their term-time address and home address, provided you registered at both addresses before the 20 April deadline.
All London boroughs are holding elections on Thursday, as well as the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Sennedd, and some councils in other parts of England.
You can vote if you are British, Irish, a Commonwealth citizen, or a citizen of Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal or Spain.
If you are registered, you should have received a poll card informing you of your ward and your nearest polling station. If you have not received one, call Camden Council Electoral Services on 020 7974 4444.
When can I vote?
Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm, but if you are in the queue to vote at closing time you will still be permitted to cast your ballot.
Who can I vote for?
All of Camden’s wards have multiple councillors so you will have several votes — read your ballot paper carefully as your ward may have two or three councillors.
Bloomsbury, where most UCL halls are located, has three councillor positions up for election, with three candidates standing for each of the Green Party, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, the Conservative Party. Only two candidates are standing for Reform UK.
Neighbouring King’s Cross, which also has UCL halls, has three candidates each from Labour, the Lib Dems, the Tories, and a new left-wing grouping known as the Camden People’s Alliance (CPA), for whom the Greens have stood aside. The CPA are also standing in Somers Town. There are also two candidates from Reform UK and one from “National Housing Party No more Refugees”.
One of the Camden Green Party candidates in Haverstock ward, Aziz Hakimi, has been suspended from the party over allegations he used Facebook to share conspiracy theories about 9/11 and the recent Golders Green ambulance arson attack.
At the moment, the Labour group control Camden with a large majority, holding 45 of the 55 available seats, but polling shows it is likely that the council will go into No Overall Control (NOC), where no party holds the 28 seats required for a majority.
Representatives from all parties have avoided disclosing likely coalition partners if this happens, but it is unlikely Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens or the CPA will work with the Tories or Reform.
Camden Labour’s 44-page manifesto promises include stronger private landlord licensing, doubling the size of the council’s Community Safety team, ensuring that Camden is “the most AI-ready borough,” identifying locations for new parks, and building a joined-up cycle network.
The Camden Greens’ 14-page manifesto includes promises to “divest from companies profiting from genocide and other human rights abuses”, reduce the use of consultancy firms, support Camden’s markets, set up a climate, nature, and pollution task force, and build a joined-up cycle network.
The Camden Lib Dems’ 16-page manifesto says they will “fight cuts”, increase the size of the Community Safety team, simplify rules around Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), and expand bike lanes while being “robust” with dockless e-bike operators like Lime and Forest.
The Camden Conservatives’ 11-point manifesto proposes more police presence, opposing blanket late-night licensing hours for pubs, bars and clubs, and opposing tower blocks of flats.
The Camden People’s Alliance is mainly focused on improving conditions for residents of social housing, but they also want to “Divest from Complicity in Human Rights Abuses", oppose all council cuts, and “expand protections for marginalised groups and migrants”.
Reform UK have not put forward a manifesto for Camden.