Reform has run councils for a year. As local elections near, we ask: how has the party performed in power?
Broken promises, broken roads, and broken council leadership teams – that’s the outcome of Reform UK’s first year in power, an investigation by openDemocracy reveals.
[…] Reform raised taxes in every council where it holds or shares power. Potholes continue to cause accidents and damage, and councillors’ struggles over where to make promised savings have put much-loved local services at risk of closure.
Broken promises, rising taxes: Inside Reform UK’s first year in power, Sian Norris, Open Democracy
Tag: fantasy economics
Reform-led Lancashire county council could quit refugee resettlement scheme
Councillor announces plan to withdraw from government-funded programme on eve of local elections
The Reform-led Lancashire county council will withdraw from the government’s refugee resettlement scheme, one of its cabinet members has said.
Joshua Roberts announced plans for Lancashire to leave the scheme, which would make it the first local authority to do so. It would mean Lancashire would no longer participate in the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) and the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP).
The authority coordinates participation in these schemes on behalf of 14 unitary and district councils in Lancashire that have responsibilities for housing.
Reform-led Lancashire county council could quit refugee resettlement scheme, The Guardian
Analysis of Reform UK proposal for income tax cuts in Scotland
The biggest direct beneficiaries of such a change would be the high-income taxpayers who currently pay substantially more in income tax than in the rest of the UK
…
But this does not properly confront the challenges they would face in finding £2 billion or more of spending cuts in the coming parliament.
Analysis of Reform UK proposal for income tax cuts in Scotland, ifs.org.uk
Reform’s first crack at power is already in crisis
The party’s performance in Kent shows it is nowhere near ready for government
[…]
Antony Hook, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Kent, says Reform was convinced they could make large savings from cutting the county’s budget on asylum seekers.
“They were really fixated on it. Every question they’d ask would be about the cost of asylum. We kept explaining that KCC doesn’t have that large a role in that and how it’s mainly a Home Office expense.
“We tried to explain that the big problem is adult social care, but they would just say: ‘What about asylum?’
“This is where reality has now collided with ideology. They said they’d take their chainsaw to a forest of waste. But the chainsaw seems to have been made out of sponge, and rather than a forest they’ve found an open field where there’s nothing to use it on.”
Reform’s first crack at power is already in crisis, The Telegraph
Reform UK likely to raise council tax in Kent despite promise to cut costs
Kent becomes latest local authority controlled by Nigel Farage’s party to signal intention to raise council tax
A Reform UK-run council where the party sought to pilot drastic cost-cutting plans is going to have to raise council tax, a cabinet member has admitted.
Services at Kent county council were already “down to the bare bones”, said Reform’s cabinet member for adult social care, Diane Morton. It makes Kent the latest local authority controlled by Nigel Farage’s party to signal its intention to raise council tax.
Reform UK likely to raise council tax in Kent despite promise to cut costs, The Guardian
Reform UK leader defends £190k-per-year plan to bring in political assistants at Warwickshire County Council
The interim leader of Warwickshire County Council has defended plans to bring in political assistants costing up to £190,000 per year in the face of outrage from other parties.
Councillor George Finch (Reform UK, Bedworth Central) confirmed he had instigated the proposals that will be considered by all councillors next week.
They would see the biggest three parties at Shire Hall – Reform, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives – have a dedicated council officer to “undertake research and provide administrative support to members of political groups in the discharge of any of their (council) functions”, although the Lib Dems have spoken out to object to the idea.
National legislation allows councils to employ up to three people, one for each of the council’s three biggest groups provided they have at least 10 per cent of the seats available.
Reform UK leader defends £190k-per-year plan to bring in political assistants at Warwickshire County Council, Warwickshire World
Reform’s ‘Britannia cards’ will cost £34 billion
Speaking today at Church House in Westminster, Nigel Farage announced that Reform will introduce a ‘Britannia card’ that will let wealthy foreigners pay a £250,000 fee to move to the UK, and live here exempt from all tax on their foreign assets. The move is an attempt to win over ‘non-doms’ alienated by Labour and Conservative governments and bring their wealth back into the country.
The party says the policy will raise between £1.5 and £2.5 billion annually. Our analysis of the data suggests it is more likely to cost around £34 billion over five years.
Reform’s ‘Britannia cards’ will cost £34 billion, www.spectator.co.uk
Reform UK raised even less in new funding than headline figures suggest
Low donations reflect leader Nigel Farage’s difficulty in capitalising on party’s political momentum and polling lead
Reform UK secured less than £1mn in new funding in the first quarter of this year, a smaller figure than previously known, as the party struggles to expand its donor base beyond a handful of longtime backers.
Headline figures for political donations suggested Reform pulled in close to £1.5mn in the first three months of 2025, but £613,000 of that figure reflected the conversion of historic loans into donations, the party said.
The loans were from Tisun Investments Limited, a company owned by Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader and one of its five MPs, who has for years been a primary funding source for the rightwing populist party.
Reform UK raised even less in new funding than headline figures suggest, Anna Gross and Cynthia O’Murchu in London, ft.com
Fiscal recklessness aside, it’s the super-rich who’ll benefit from Reform UK policies
Nigel Farage claimed last week to speak for the working class but he is still firmly wedded to the rightwing playbook
For a politician who has done more than most to shape Britain’s current challenges, nothing seems to stick to Nigel Farage. Not the chaos of the post-Brexit referendum years; or the contradiction of his closed-border English nationalism combined with a fondness for courting nomad capitalists from Malaysia to Mar-a-Lago.
[…]
However, something is lost in the argument about Farageonomics. Not only are the party’s numbers hardly better than scribblings on the back of one of its leader’s umpteen fag packets, but there is a more fundamental problem: his plans would not help the communities that Reform claims to champion.
Fiscal recklessness aside, it’s the super-rich who’ll benefit from Reform UK policies, Richard Partington, The Guardian
Inferior pension schemes won’t create savings nor recruit vital staff
Commenting on remarks made by Richard Tice about preventing new recruits to Reform-controlled councils from joining the local government pension scheme alongside threats to cut the pay of existing employees, UNISON assistant general secretary Jon Richards said today (Thursday):
“This looks like another Reform UK policy scribbled on the back of a beer mat.
“Local authorities are obliged to offer access to the local government pension scheme to all new starters.
“The scheme is well-funded and affordable. Many council employees aren’t on final salary schemes anyway.
“Forcing council staff on to inferior pensions would leave retired workers much poorer and add to the already severe recruitment crisis in local government.
“Employees’ pensions aren’t the reason why many councils are on a financial precipice. It’s the decade and more of draconian budget cuts under Conservative governments.
“Reform claims to be on the side of workers. But declaring ‘war’ on low-paid staff won’t serve communities or cut budgets.”
Reform UK’s pension plan deserves early retirement, www.unison.org.uk
Reform’s Clean Energy Crackdown Would Cost 60,000 Jobs and Raise Bills, Says Study
Nigel Farage’s “economically illiterate” climate policies could wipe £92 billion off the UK economy, according to the New Economics Foundation.
Reform UK’s policies to “scrap net zero” would cost more than 60,000 jobs and wipe £92 billion off the UK economy, according to a new study.
Nigel Farage’s party — which took control of 10 councils in the recent local elections — this week claimed that the government could save £45 billion every year by ditching climate policies.
However, analysis by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) published today suggests that Reform’s policies would cost jobs and investment, and could raise household energy bills.
Reform’s Clean Energy Crackdown Would Cost 60,000 Jobs and Raise Bills, Says Study, desmog.com
Reform UK Campaigner Admits On BBC Question Time The Party’s Sums Don’t Add Up
A leading Reform UK campaigner has admitted that the party’s spending plans do not add up.
Tim Montgomerie, who left the Tories last December in a high-profile defection to Nigel Farage’s party, made the comment on BBC Question Time on Thursday night.
Reform UK Campaigner Admits On BBC Question Time The Party’s Sums Don’t Add Up, Yahoo News
Reform UK Chair Dismisses Worries About Cost of Tax, Spend Plans
The chair of Reform UK dismissed concerns that its plans to cut taxes and increase welfare benefits would rattle the bond market
Reform UK Chair Dismisses Worries About Cost of Tax, Spend Plans, Bloomberg (Paywall)
The cost of Reform UK’s anti-environmental policies
Reform UK has said it will scrap net zero and cut all renewable subsidies – the impact would be hugely damaging
[…]
Reform UK has said it will scrap net zero with various figures banded around by the party’s representatives for how much this will raise – anywhere from £225bn to £45bn. The Institute for Government, who’s analysis is used to calculate the larger of these two figures, has already said the Party has misrepresented its analysis and failed to acknowledge that most of this investment will come from the private sector – in other words, Reform UK’s policies would likely destroy much needed investment into the UK economy.
But what is the real cost of their anti-renewable and anti-net zero policies? It is important to ensure all political parties are accountable to the public and the impacts of their policies are estimated in a transparent and consistent manner.
The cost of Reform UK’s anti-environmental policies, New Economics Foundation
Farage’s numbers don’t add up
Stuart Adam, a senior economist at Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, said increasing the annual income tax allowance to £20,000 could cost between £50bn and £80bn a year, depending on the details.
“As it stands, I don’t think they’ve really set out how they would pay for such big giveaways,” he said.
“Of course they don’t have to do that yet – we’re not at a general election. But at some point, if they’re going to be a party of government, they would have to make those numbers add up.”
Stuart Adam (on Reform’s fantasy tax cuts) via BBC
Farage offers fantasy promises
Labour Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves accused Farage of “fantasy promises”, which “are exactly how Liz Truss crashed the economy”.
Ellie Reeves via BBC
The economic fantasies of Reform UK
Nigel Farage’s fiscal arithmetic is as eye-catching as it is unserious.
[…]
That reality is the sticking point. Raising the tax threshold to £20,000 is estimated to cost between £50bn and £80bn all on its own. Reform claims to have found a cool £225bn down the back of the Treasury sofa by scrapping net zero and insists it could save more still by cutting funding to quangos. Good luck, as they say, with that.
But how successful will Reform’s opponents be at pointing this out? Shadow chancellor Mel Stride has been out and about, calling Farage’s plans “fantasy economics”, while Labour has gone for “fantasy promises”. Farage’s answer to this charge was that all parties fudge the figures in their manifestos, suggesting Reform’s creative accounting was par for the course. Against the general backdrop of disillusionment with the political establishment, the narrative will be that Reform are no worse than the other parties – and that official estimates should be viewed sceptically anyway.
One attack line might get through. “Trussonomics on steroids” was how the Liberal Democrats responded to Tuesday’s proposals.
The economic fantasies of Reform UK, New Statesman