This week’s elections will see over 1,200 newly-elected councillors returned to council chambers across Wales, where they will make vital decisions about the communities we all live in. But how many of these hundreds of councillors will actually reflect the communities they serve?
It is a critical question, as those who hold power make better decisions for everyone when they understand the experiences and inequalities faced by those they represent. Yet, while data on the diversity of our local representatives has always been pretty limited, we do know that traditionally the majority of councillors have been white, male and more likely than not to be older.
Following the last elections in 2017 less than 2% of councillors identified as being Black, Asian or from an ethnic minority. In terms of candidates in that election only around 30% were female.
In the five years since then we’ve hoped for progress but as candidates’ lists have been revealed we’ve found limited improvement with around a third of candidates being female. In Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire less than a quarter of candidates are female. At this rate it will take until around 2050 to see gender balanced lists of candidates.
There are also limited signs that anything has improved in terms of the representation of Black and ethnic minority candidates, disabled candidates or candidates from younger ages groups or LGBTQ+ communities, although we lack the data on this to know for sure. It is clear that leaving parties to tackle issues around a lack of representation has not worked. Glacial progress will not address the inequalities in our society and decisions are being made around tables that do not reflect the diverse society we live in.
It is time we had a proper conversation about what positive action we can take to guarantee better representation in our council chambers. Wales has previously led the rest of the UK when it comes to achieving equal representation. The Senedd broke records back in 2003 becoming the first legislature to achieve a 50:50 gender balance. And that was primarily because some parties used things like All Women Shortlists, twinning and zipping of lists - all things to correct the historical imbalance we see in our day to day politics.
For the Senedd we are now seeing conversations around a legally binding gender quota taking place following the deal struck between Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru last autumn. A previous Senedd committee also recommended work take place looking into how quotas might be applied to other protected characteristics allowing for broader diversity quotas to be put in place.
Yet, progress has been slower when it comes to local authorities. Over the last few years a few programmes have been put in place to encourage more candidates to come forward, such as the Be A Councillor campaign. The WLGA also agreed to a string of action on diversity, allowing councils to set targets and voluntary quotas and publish diversity action plans ahead of these elections.
One authority , Monmouthshire, has really taken up this mantle putting in place targets at these elections to become the first gender balanced council in Wales. This has clearly had some effect as they by far have the highest percentage of female candidates of all councils at these elections and could still achieve that goal of gender parity depending on the results next week.
Yet, they alone appear to have taken such effective action and the reality is that voluntary measures will only go so far when it comes to diverse representation across Wales. While a blunt tool, quotas and strong positive action measures would be the only thing to drive better diversity in our local authorities. This needs to be coupled with better data provision by enacting section 106 of the Equality Act, which will allow us to have a clearer picture of representation of people with a wider range of protected characteristics and allow us to view diversity through an intersectional lens.
Having this data in place, alongside measures to guarantee progress on diversity, will be the only thing that can really ensure council chambers that reflect the population of Wales.
Jess Blair is director of Electoral Reform Society Cymru. To keep up to date with our politics coverage, subscribe to our Wales Matters newsletter here.
