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Within the context of local councils of the United Kingdom, the term No Overall Control (abbreviated to NOC) refers to a situation in which no single party achieves a majority of seats and is analogous to a hung parliament. Of the 310 councils who had members up for election in the 2007 local elections, 85 (just over a quarter) resulted in a NOC administration.

Contents 1 Administration in NOC councils 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Administration in NOC councils

Typically, under the circumstances that no party achieves overall control of a council, the largest grouping will form alliances to create an ad hoc governing coalition. Due to local council elections tending to return larger numbers of smaller party and independent candidates than elections for higher bodies, this can allow these groups more influence than their numerical representation would otherwise allow.

Examples exist of alliances between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives (Birmingham City Council, Leeds City Council), Liberal Democrats and Labour (Southampton City Council - although this alliance was broken at the 2008 local elections when the Conservatives gained control of the council), Conservatives and Labour in Ashfield and between all major parties and independents or residents associations. Alliances between different parties in this context are often referred to as a "rainbow coalition".^[1]

[edit] See also

• Hung Parliament
• Coalition

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• No Overall Control? - Hansard weighs up a hung parliament Guy Aitchison, Our Kingdom