Polling* from The Common Sense and the Social Research Foundation shows that most of the voters likely to turn out on 4 November have given the local elections real thought. In July, 71% of likely voters said they had given the elections a lot or some thought. Only 25% said they had given them only a little thought. That is somewhat higher than in November last year, when 64% said so, though a change that small could be down to chance. The chart below shows how much thought likely voters had given the elections in November 2025 and in July 2026.

*The figures come from two Social Research Foundation Market Surveys of registered voters, each a national telephone poll with results weighted to the voting population. Figures in this piece are for likely voters, a subgroup of each round’s registered-voter sample; the margin for a subgroup is wider than the national margin. The rounds were: November 2025 (1 002 respondents, design effect 1.76; 551 likely voters) and July 2026 (2 214 respondents, design effect 3.79; 1 583 likely voters).