UK ministers urged to scrap law requiring councillors to publish home address

A polling station in Tower Hamlets, east London, in May 2021. One councillor in the borough said female councillors were leaving because of abuse and threats. Photograph: Vickie Flores/EPA

Ministers are being urged to amend a law requiring councillors to publish their home addresses amid rising concerns about the scale of intimidation and abuse in local government, and the impact it is having on women in particular.

Ahead of elections to councils across England on 2 May, the Local Government Association (LGA) has argued that a 1972 law setting out that addresses are given by default is out of date, and has left councillors feeling under threat.