Ratepayers' Association in the United Kingdom and other countries is a name used by a political party or electoral alliance contesting a local election to represent the interests of those who pay rates to the municipal government. In Canada a ratepayers' association is the same thing as a neighbourhood association. [1]
Rates are a property tax which provides a main source of funding for some local governments; the amount paid is usually proportional to the value of the property, and commercial premises may have higher rates than residences. Therefore a Ratepayers' Association is typically supported by property owners rather than tenants, and by business owners in particular, and has a platform of value-for-money and avoiding wasteful municipal spending. In the United Kingdom, local elections were on a ratepayer franchise until the 1910s, and Ratepayers' Associations remained prominent until the 1930s, when they lost ground to the three national parties; since the 1960s they have retained a role in scattered urban and suburban areas.
Examples include:
Reigate and Banstead is a local government district with borough status in east Surrey, England. It includes the towns of Reigate, Redhill, Horley and Banstead. The borough borders the Borough of Crawley to the south, the Borough of Epsom and Ewell and District of Mole Valley to the west, Tandridge District to the east and the London Boroughs of Sutton and Croydon to the north.
Epsom and Ewell is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England, covering the towns of Epsom and Ewell. The borough was formed as an urban district in 1894, and was known as Epsom until 1934. It was made a municipal borough in 1937. The district was considered for inclusion in Greater London in 1965 but was left unaltered by the London Government Act 1963 and the Local Government Act 1972 in 1974. However, despite being outside modern Greater London the borough was in the Metropolitan Police District until it was transferred to Surrey Police in 2000. In the May 2019 elections, the borough was held by the Epsom and Ewell Residents Association with 32 seats, Labour with 3 seats, Liberal Democrats with 2 seats, and Conservatives with 1 seat.
Heald Green and Long Lane Ratepayers Association is a Ratepayers' Association in the Heald Green ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport.
Epsom and Ewell is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2001 by Chris Grayling, a Conservative.
The Residents Associations of Epsom and Ewell is a local political party in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. They have held majority control of Epsom and Ewell Borough Council since its formation in 1937. The party is sometimes recorded as Other in national results lists and otherwise recorded alongside residents associations with a single Articles of Association. It consists of ward or multiple ward based residents associations with their own candidate selection rules. These include Ewell Court Residents' Association, Epsom Town Residents' Association and West Ewell and Ruxley Residents’ Association.
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority for the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. The council is currently run by a Liberal Democrat minority administration. At the 2022 local elections, the Liberal Democrats gained two more seats, increasing their lead over the Labour Party to three seats, and took control of the council at the following full council meeting. The Liberal Democrats have 28 seats, Labour 25, Conservatives 5, Heald Green Ratepayers 3, and Greens 2.
Surrey County Council is the county council administering certain services in the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1965 the Conservative Party has held the majority. The leader of the council is Tim Oliver.
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council is elected every four years. It is notable for its long-standing control by a Residents' Association rather than one of the national political parties.
Surrey County Council is elected every four years and was made in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888. Since 1965 this council has had one of two statuses as to its body of councillors: no overall political control, or overall Conservative party control.
The Newtownabbey Ratepayers' Association was a minor political party operating in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland
The 1978 Wolverhampton Metropolitan Borough Council election for the City of Wolverhampton Council was held on Thursday 4 May.
Elections in 1979 were held on Thursday 5 May.
Heald Green is an electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It elects three Councillors to Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council using the first past the post electoral method, electing each Councillor for a three-year term with no election every fourth year.
Elections to Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council took place on 22 May 2014. They coincided with other local elections happening on this day across the UK, as well as the 2014 elections to the European Parliament.
The 2015 Epsom and Ewell Council election took place on 7 May 2015 to elect members of Epsom and Ewell Council in England as one of the 2015 United Kingdom local elections and coinciding with the general election leading to a higher turnout than when local elections are held in a non-general election year.
The West Ewell and Ruxley Residents Association (WERRA) was formed in 1956 to give local people an independent voice about their area. It is one of 11 independent Residents Associations (RAs) that form the Residents Associations of Epsom and Ewell.
The 2018 Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council election took place on 3 May 2018 to elect members of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections. Stockport Council is elected in thirds, which means that in each three member local ward, one councillor is elected every year, except every four years which is classed as a fallow year. The last fallow year was 2017, when no local government elections took place in the borough. Those councillors elected in 2018 will serve a four-year term, expiring in 2022. The election in Edgeley & Cheadle Heath was deferred, owing to the death of the Conservative candidate, until 24 May 2018.
The 2019 Epsom and Ewell Borough Council election took place on 2 May 2019 to elect members of Epsom and Ewell Borough Council. This was on the same day as other local elections. The entire council was up for election. The result was a gain for the incumbent Residents Associations of Epsom and Ewell, gaining 2 seats from the Conservatives but losing 1 to them as well. The Liberal Democrats regained representation on the council, gaining 2 seats from the Conservatives.
The Kingston Independent Residents Group (KIRG) is a political party in the United Kingdom. The party was launched in 2017 and formed from a number of residents groups in the area, following the defection of sitting Councillors Mary Clark and David Fraser from the Conservative Party. The party promotes a localist agenda that seeks to give residents, towns and parishes a greater say in the future of their town.
The 2022 Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council election took place 5 May 2022 to elect members of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. This was on the same day as other local elections. 21 of the 63 seats were up for election.