With more than 5,000 seats up for grabs across English councils in May, this episode of The Local Authority examines what the elections could mean for the major parties, the rise of Reform and the Greens, and what the results might tell us about the state of British democracy.

LGC news editor Kirsty Weakley is joined by elections expert Colin Rallings and Polly Curtis, chief executive of cross-party think tank Demos, to explore projections for Labour and Conservative seat losses, the growing role of independent candidates and residents' associations, and the extent to which fragmented multi-party politics has made traditional swing analysis obsolete. The panel also discusses whether these elections feel less like a verdict on the current government and more like a broader expression of public disillusionment with the political system as a whole.