It has been a little more than a year since Reform UK took control of 10 councils in 2025’s local elections. In Nottinghamshire, the group’s first term has seen ups and downs.
Reform stormed Nottinghamshire County Council last May, ending up with 41 out of 66 seats, ousting the Conservatives after nearly a decade in power.
Its momentum has continued locally since then, with former Conservative County Council leader Ben Bradley defecting to Nigel Farage’s party in December 2025, followed by former Tory Newark MP Robert Jenrick’s defection in January 2026 and Bassetlaw district councillor Simon Richardson’s defection in February.
The party also managed to nab 14 more councils in the wider May 2026 local elections, gaining an additional 1,453 seats.
With the Reform wave still going strong, how has one of its early councils performed in its first year?
The lowest council tax rise in a decade – but not a freeze as promised
Around the beginning of each year, residents anticipate what council tax hike their local authority will serve them with – and Nottinghamshire’s Reform took a modest approach when setting its first budget for 2026/27.
In February, the Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council approved one of the lowest council tax rises at the authority in the last decade at 3.99 per cent – lower than the Tories’ approved 4.84 per cent increase the year before.
The rise appeared respectable amongst other authorities led by the party, with neighbouring Derbyshire’s increase of 4.9 per cent, Kent’s increase by the same, Lincolnshire’s rise of 2.9 per cent and Worcestershire’s dramatic hike of nearly 9 per cent.
But the increase was met with criticism at the time from the Conservative opposition, who called it ‘broken promises’ on the back of previous Reform campaign leaflets promising a council tax freeze.
Finding millions in savings – but some say the plans are ‘built on sand’
Along with its approved council tax rise, Reform also passed its first budget at the authority for the 2026/27 financial year.
Its budget is £880 million for this year, which is an overall increase of £212 million in spending compared to the year before.
Shortly after winning the 2025 election, council leader Mick Barton, his cabinet, and the council’s officers began their own efficiency review to find cost savings amid continued budget pressures.
The group’s first budget included the ambitious plans to find and save £44.2 million of ‘efficiencies’ over the next three financial years, aiming to find £18 million of savings this year, £15 million the year after and another £10 million the year after that.
In terms of where the savings will come from, £21.3 million will come from the adult social care department over the three-year period, whilst £17 million will come from the children and families department, and £1 million will come from its contract with Via.
The authority already announced it saved around £1.6 million in agency staff reductions earlier this year.
Conservative opposition leader Councillor Sam Smith previously said the savings plan was “built on sand”, and that the authority had given away little detail on how it would achieve the plan or whether any of it had started to come to fruition.
In March, the authority’s leader Mick Barton maintained no “cost-cutting” was involved in the savings goal, saying his council had already identified a £2.3 million saving in post-16 school transport, £170,000 in cutting post-16 Catholic school transport and £208,000 in pre-16 school transport changes.
If Reform wishes to avoid hiking council tax up by the maximum in the coming years, it will be influenced by how successful this cash-saving plan is.
Thousands of pounds spent on new Union Flag banners – and little interest in sponsoring them
One of Nottinghamshire Reform’s more controversial decisions was its £75,000 spend on erecting 164 Union Flag banners across the county.
The announcement was made back in October 2025 and the total cost includes the banners, money for brackets, traffic management and cherry pickers.
Opposition members have called the venture a waste of taxpayer money, but council leader Mick Barton has maintained it is a “long-term” investment and has the chance to bring in money for the authority.
Reform’s aim is for some of the banners to be sponsored by businesses, who can use them to advertise their services, which could bring in a return for the authority.
So far, no sponsorships have been confirmed for the banners, with the council responding to an FOI submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service in April that it had a “small number of enquiries” from organisations.
A ‘record level’ of investment into the county’s deteriorating roads
Nottinghamshire Reform was clear leading up to the 2025 local elections that fixing the county’s crumbling, deteriorating roads was one of its top priorities.
It cemented this stance in early 2026 when it announced in March it would be pumping in a “game-changing” £122.5 million investment into fixing its highway network.
The following month, this pot climbed to £181.25 million for 2026/27, with an extra £58 million as part of its ‘second phase’ of investment – the most money the authority has ever invested into Nottinghamshire roads in a single year.
Both of these cash pots came after the council announced in February its £2 million emergency spend on fixing the county’s most dire roads.
At the end of April, the authority unveiled two of the JCB Pothole Pro machines that it was leasing in its plight to mend roads.
They are designed to carry out 200 to 250 metres worth of work each day and the machines have been trialled by neighbouring Reform-run authorities in Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, typically costing between £150,000 and £200,000.
Residents can expect to see the new machines on Nottinghamshire roads this May and, if feedback is strong, the authority will consider permanently buying two vehicles and possibly even more.
A difficult relationship with the local media that made global headlines
Reform UK has recently made headlines again regarding press freedom and scrutiny after the party’s Ipswich chairman, Shayne Pooley, stated its newly elected councillors in the area would not be speaking to the media, publicly writing “neither we or the voters need you”.
This is not the first press ban instigated by party members, where reporters at the Nottingham Post, and its online arm Nottinghamshire Live, dealt with similar circumstances in August 2025.
It followed unhappiness from Reform’s Nottinghamshire County Council leadership about an article on local government reorganisation, which contained a claim that those not voting for council leader Mick Barton’s preference on the issue could be suspended.
It meant reporters were removed from the council’s distribution list, were stopped from being invited to council events and were banned from speaking to Councillor Barton. This also affected speaking with other Reform members.
The ban was partially lifted for the publication’s three BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporters following a private meeting between two of the reporters and the authorities’ cabinet in September 2025, and then lifted in full for the entire publication in early October following a legal challenge.
