Parties standing candidates across Sheffield set out their election pledges ahead of the May 7 Sheffield City Council elections 2026
(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
It is exactly a week now until residents up and down the country head to the polls to have their say in their local elections.
L ocal election s are taking place across Yorkshire on May 7, and it’s no different for Sheffield. There are 84 seats up for election at Sheffield City Council this year, representing one third of the council.
One councillor will be appointed to most wards. However, a council spokesman said there will be two councillors elected to both Firth Park and Beighton wards “due to an additional seat becoming vacant in each ward”.
Political parties fielding multiple candidates in the Sheffield City Council elections have submitted 300-word statements explaining why residents should vote for them. Here is what each party had to say about their promises.
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Labour
On Thursday, 7 May, there is a clear choice about the direction of our city. With new funding and new powers Sheffield Labour is supporting families with the cost of living and investing in our neighbourhoods.
Labour will:
- End bus privatisation to bring our buses back under public control, and bring in free bus and tram travel for under 18s.
- Deliver more affordable homes – including 1,000 new council homes, and new powers to support renters
- Tackle litter and flytipping with more CCTV cameras and enforcement officers, hold Amey to account to get potholes fixed and use new powers to ban new vape shops and bookies
- Expand the tram network to connect it to more communities.
- Rebuild leisure centres at Springs and Concord
- Celebrate our city’s diversity and oppose all racism and hate.
Our city is moving forward but we risk going backwards. Reform UK wants to rip our communities apart. Their divisive right-wing politics only brings chaos and cuts.
And the other parties in Sheffield are all talk and have no plan to get anything done. Don’t risk letting Reform in by voting for them.
We love our city and want Sheffield to be the best place for all of us to grow up, get on and grow old. That’s what we fight for every day.
Labour is bringing NHS waiting lists down. Expanding free childcare and free school meals, and delivering the biggest expansion of workers rights in a generation.
We’re backing the home of football campaign, going for UK City of Culture and it was Labour that kept the snooker in Sheffield.
These elections aren’t about Westminster; they’re about our city, our neighbourhoods and our streets. On Thursday 7 May vote to reject hate and division. Vote for unity and a practical plan to get things done.
– Coun Tom Hunt, leader of Sheffield City Council.
LibDems
Sheffield is ready for change. The city has so much going for it: proud communities, a rich history, and brilliant people. But when money is tight, residents deserve a council that spends carefully and shows it is working.
The Lib Dems have eight priorities for Sheffield, all rooted in three simple principles: getting the basics right, taking genuine pride in every part of the city, and making sure that opportunity is available to everyone, not just those who happen to live in the right postcode.
A Safe and Proud City: Cleaner streets, action plans for every ward to tackle anti-social behaviour, and a city centre you feel safe in.
Getting Sheffield Moving: Buses you can count on. Repairs to roads that last, and actions to make roads safer.
Homes You Can Rely On: Be a landlord that residents can rely on, bring empty homes back to life, and stronger enforcement of rogue landlords.
Neighbourhoods You Love: Pride in Sheffield doesn’t start with big announcements. It starts with whether your street is clean, your park is looked after and your green space isn’t simply handed over to developers. Brownfield development first. Better recycling, and firmer action on fly-tipping.
Healthy Lives and Care You Can Count On: Health services that are closer to home, on high streets and in communities. Better public transport options to hospitals and health centres, and one point of contact for care enquiries.
Opportunity For Children and Young People: Better SEND support to make sure families are not fighting the system alone, and develop an improved youth offer.
A Thriving Economy With Good Jobs: The council should spend more money in Sheffield, with local procurement targets. It should also provide better support to local businesses with faster decisions and simpler processes.
A Council That Is Fit For Purpose: We want to give local communities greater power, with more spending power delegated to local areas.
Greens
Right across the country, the Green Party is more popular than ever before. For the first time in history, opinion polls have placed the Greens as the most popular party. And recently, our message of hope saw the Green Party win another MP in Gorton and Denton, an area of Manchester that had been taken for granted by the Labour Party for the best part of 100 years.
Zack Polanski, elected leader of the Green Party last year, uses his skills to communicate the joy and hope in politics – and to grab some of the media airtime previously given over to the likes of Nigel Farage. And here in Sheffield, Green Party campaigners and councillors have steadily been doing the work for 20 years that made this rise possible.
Jillian Creasy was the first Green councillor elected in 2004 and the numbers have grown to a group of 14. It’s often hard, continual and unglamorous work for councillors and our helpers all year round – but it matters. It matters because it’s about talking to people in communities about what matters to them. It’s about constantly getting litter and rubbish cleaned.
It’s about getting housing repairs done. It’s about making our streets safer and more accessible to everyone. It’s about making space for nature, even in the city.
It’s about finding the difficult balance between a vibrant, inclusive economy and everyone being able to get enough sleep.
Zack Polanski famously said the Greens are here to replace Labour. Sheffield used to have a Labour council; now it doesn’t. Being in no overall control means the parties have to work together.
Green councillors care about the areas they represent. More of them means making Sheffield a better place to live.
Reform UK
A Reform Sheffield spokesman said: “Probably the most common theme encountered on the doorstep is potholes. The roads in Sheffield are terrible, and any repairs are shoddy and temporary at best, and not fit for purpose.
“By our calculations, there are roughly seven potholes for every mile of road in Sheffield.
“Residents are worried about the constant rise in the cost of living, not helped by the fact that we have one the highest rates of council tax in the country.
“Council tax has increased by 25 per cent in the past five years. It’s not hard to see why. The council CEO earns over £218,000 a year – more than the Prime Minister – to oversee this mess. That’s along with another 12 members of staff on salaries of over £100,000.
“Thanks to years of maladministration by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, Sheffield has run up £745 million worth of debt. That’s costing over £27 million a year just in interest – the equivalent of £75,000 a day. But then are you surprised when the council is spending money on white elephant projects, such as the dutch roundabouts, which hardly sees any cyclists, rather than on important services.
“In the city centre businesses are collapsing due to the clean air zone charges, and lack of parking. Residents are also concerned about the council’s decision to build on the green belt. People ask why brownfield sites can’t be used, or indeed why we can’t renovate the large amount of empty properties in the city.
“Housing is another major issue. Concerns have been raised about dilapidated council properties, lack of social housing, and the fact that migrants are prioritised over young working class UK citizens.
“It is also unacceptable that HMOs are being used to place unvetted illegal migrants into local communities without proper checks or local consent, piling pressure on housing, schools, services and public safety.”
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), the anti-war, anti-austerity party are standing candidates in nearly every ward in the Sheffield council elections as a left-wing socialist alternative to the Labour/Liberal/Green Council coalition and to the ‘More Tory than the Tories’ Reform.
If elected, our main policies are:
Oppose all cuts in council jobs and services. Oppose 5% council tax rises. Propose a budget to meet the city’s needs and build a campaign to force this weak, divided, unpopular U-turning government to give back funding stolen from Sheffield over the last 15 years.
In order to help people with the Cost of Living – implement a £15/hour minimum wage across the council and contractors. Boost the Household Support Fund to help people with fuel, energy and food price hikes due to Trump’s war.
For a mass eco-friendly council house building programme on Brownfield sites. Cap and freeze rents. Extend landlord licensing
Oppose the Sheffield Plan to build on green belt land and support local campaigns.
Buses, trams & trains should all be brought into public ownership. Use council powers to bring in Fare Free bus travel.
Reverse privatisation of council services. As a first step, end the Veolia and Amey contracts and bring waste and recycling services and highways (potholes!) back in-house
Demand the government stop arms sales to Israel and deny Trump and the US military use of British bases.
Labour are not Labour any more. Reform are led by millionaires who want to slash welfare, cut workers and tenants’ rights, whilst blaming migrants for everything. And the Greens are not as radical as people think, having joined the establishment on Sheffield council by not voting against cuts and building on green belt land.
Vote TUSC for Jobs, Homes and Services, against austerity, war and division.
Conservatives
Sheffield deserves a council focused on protecting what makes this city special while delivering the basic services residents rely on. Too often people feel taken for granted while neighbourhood services decline and decisions are made without properly listening to communities.
Conservatives in Sheffield have consistently stood for practical local priorities – safer streets, better roads, support for local business and stronger communities – but also for something too often overlooked: conservation in the true sense of the word.
Whether it was opposing the mishandling of Sheffield’s street trees, where CONSERVATIVE central government intervention was ultimately needed to help bring an end to a damaging chapter for the city, or speaking up against unnecessary erosion of green belt and overdevelopment, we have argued that growth should never come at the expense of the environment or community character.
As Sean Bean famously said during the tree dispute, Sheffield people care deeply about their trees and green spaces because they are part of the city’s identity. So do we. Conservation is not a slogan – it means protecting heritage, landscapes, parks, mature trees and the places that make Sheffield Sheffield.
This election is about common sense, accountability and proper stewardship of the city – conserving what matters, improving what needs fixing, and ensuring Sheffield is cleaner, greener, safer and better run.
If voters want councillors focused on protecting communities as well as improving them, Sheffield Conservatives are asking for their support on May 7.
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