Nigel Farage may be hoping for a 'Reform-quake'. But what is life REALLY like in the areas already under its control? MILES DILWORTH heads to Kent, where locals are still giving the party benefit of the doubt, despite tax hikes

Published: 17:23, 7 May 2026 | Updated: 17:23, 7 May 2026 Nigel Farage called it a ‘Reform-quake’. Winning more than 650 seats and obliterating the Conservatives in local council elections last May, Reform swept to power promising to find huge savings, cut council tax, introduce better-run services and root out wokery once and for all. But a year on, it’s fair to say things haven’t gone entirely as billed. The party’s vaunted Elon Musk-style Department of Local Government Efficiency (or ‘Dolge’) teams have in fact struggled to slash the ‘wasteful spending’ that Farage and his allies claimed was rampant under Tory, Labour and Lib Dem administrations. As a result, all ten Reform councils have overseen tax hikes, with some luckless residents shouldering a whopping 9 per cent rise. Many councils, we will show, have been beset by infighting, resignations and scandals, with councillors being forced out amid racism accusations, and even alleged threats of domestic violence. So, with Reform forecast to make further gains in the upcoming local elections, will any of this make voters think twice today? Reform has described Kent County Council as its ‘shop window’, giving the electorate a taste of what Britain might look like under its rule. But while politicos and the media might be scrutinising its every move, it is unclear how many window-shoppers exist among Joe Public. When the Daily Mail visited Kent – home to Reform’s biggest council – we found that most residents and local businesses were still willing to give the party the benefit of the doubt. Such is the anger and disillusionment over what they regard as decades of Labour and Tory failure, the leeway they are prepared to grant the new party is considerable. Reform won more than 650 seats in local council elections last May, obliterating the Conservatives in what Nigel Farage called a ‘Reform-quake’ Robert Webster says he 'can’t vote for the Tories any more because they wasted 14 years' Robert Webster, 78, and his wife Pauline, 76, had been lifelong Conservative voters until they backed Reform in May. ‘I can’t vote for the Tories any more because they wasted 14 years messing around doing absolutely nothing,’ says Robert. The couple have come to Sittingbourne, a ten-mile drive from their home on the Isle of Sheppey, to visit their bank. Robert bemoans the numerous branch closures on the island, a common concern among Reform voters. But if the Tories wasted their time in power, are their upstart political rivals making the most of theirs? Reform chose Kent – which manages a hefty budget of £2.6billion – to launch their ‘Dolge’ initiative. At the time, Zia Yusuf, the party’s head of policy, claimed that councils across the country were plagued by fraud, insisting ‘a reckoning was coming’. Lately, however, the party has struck a different tone. In February, Matthew Fraser Moat, the head of Kent’s Dolge efforts, told a newspaper that the authority had ‘not actually made any cuts’. His fellow cabinet member, Paul Chamberlain, added: ‘We made some assumptions that we would come in here and find some of the craziness that [Elon Musk’s cost-cutting vehicle] Doge found in America... and that was wrong. We didn’t find any of that.’ Similarly, in Derbyshire, Reform had alleged rampant profligacy under their Tory predecessors. But a month after their election win, the party admitted there was ‘limited scope for savings’. Instead, the talk is now centred around ‘improving systems’ and making efficiencies in line with most other local authorities. This has come as little surprise to Tory councillors. Conservative opposition leader at Lincolnshire County Council, Richard Davies, regretfully told the Daily Mail: ‘The idea that there were hundreds of millions of pounds [to be saved] was just for the birds.’ Councils have a legal duty to provide key services, with local authorities spending on average around 70 per cent of their budgets on social care. Zia Yusuf, Reform’s head of policy, claimed councils across the country were plagued by fraud Paul Rodgers says there is ‘not much’ the council can do with the money it has, adding that he 'can understand the frustration' of not seeing improvement Reform claims its councils have still found a total of £300million in savings, including £100million in Kent, while protecting frontline services – although these boasts have been questioned by opponents. But the struggle to deliver major savings has left town halls unable to fulfil another headline pledge: slashing council tax. Kent County Council passed a council tax rise of 3.99 per cent in its first budget, despite promising to cut taxes during the election campaign. (Councillors then awarded themselves a 3.8 per cent wage boost, despite Reform pledging a 5 per cent cut upon election.) Reform defended the tax hike, insisting it is below the five per cent planned by the previous administration. Yet Kent is not alone: every one of Reform’s new councils has hiked taxes by varying degrees. Durham, (1.99 per cent), Lincolnshire (2.9 per cent) and Leicestershire (2.99 per cent) have brought in below-inflation rises, while Worcestershire has hiked council tax by a brutal 9 per cent to stave off effective bankruptcy. Reform says its councils have the lowest average council tax rises of any political party. But critics fear some budgets are ‘reckless’, leaving significant overspending without sufficient tax rises, while councils setting bigger hikes have been accused of a ‘total betrayal’ of voters. Whether voters themselves agree yet is moot. In Kent, many locals told the Daily Mail that they have become used to politicians not delivering on their promises. Many accept that council tax rises are inevitable. Paul Rodgers, 63, who is retired and a Tory voter, is reading a copy of the Daily Mail alongside a lunchtime pint at The Duke of Marlborough pub in Maidstone. He tells us there is ‘not much’ the council can do with the money it has. ‘I can understand the frustration,’ he says. ‘People are paying astronomical amounts, but they can’t see where the improvements are. ‘But it’s the same old. Where do they get this money from to lower taxes, if they also want to keep services running?’ Immigration is, of course, a hot topic in the coastal county, as locals feel they are bearing the brunt of a record number of arrivals into Britain. In March, the council declared an ‘illegal migration emergency’ calling on the government to stop the arrival of small boats ‘immediately’ and cover the costs to the council of dealing with the crisis. But it has made no tangible difference. Across the board, Reform also promised action would be taken to pursue its ‘anti-woke’ agenda. Kent council claimed it will save £32million over four years by scrapping Net Zero compliance on buildings, although critics say this is hardly game-changing. The council has also stopped displaying rainbow ‘Pride’ and Ukraine flags in County Hall and banned the display of trans literature in children’s areas of libraries. A common complaint in Maidstone, as it is elsewhere in the UK, is the decline of the high street Ulrich Allsebrook, who owns Frederic Bistro in Maidstone, says Reform 'overplayed their hand in terms of what they were going to achieve' However, it appeared to side with the health and safety brigade by announcing plans to rip out historic lampposts in Canterbury and replace them with modern alternatives, a move that sparked fury among heritage groups. When all is said and done, says Stuart Hoddinott, associate director at think-tank the Institute for Government, Reform is ‘not doing anything radically different’. ‘The institutional constraints in local government are so strong,’ he adds. ‘They have little control over how much money they can raise or spend. All you can really do is try to balance the books, although there are definitely better and worse ways to go about making those savings. ‘That’s not to say Reform is blameless. They either didn’t understand this before the May elections and were widely optimistic about what they could achieve, or made promises that they knew they would struggle to keep. Neither of those is great.’ One point of difference, critics add, is that Reform is not always ruling with consummate professionalism. Of the 677 councillors it gained in May, 74 have now left the party for reasons including expulsion, suspension and resignation. Kent alone has lost ten councillors, shaving its tally from 57 to 47 out of 81 council seats. Many of the expulsions came after a leaked recording of an internal meeting showed council leader Linden Kemkaran crudely ordering fellow councillors to ‘f****** suck it up’ if they did not agree with her. More shockingly, Cllr Daniel Taylor was suspended by his party in June after he was arrested over accusations he threatened to kill his wife. He was handed a 12-month prison sentence in February after he admitted to behaving in a controlling or coercive way towards her. The Green Party then caused an upset by winning his seat in a by-election. In December, the Reform leader of Staffordshire County Council, Ian Cooper, was removed from the party after he was accused of making racist comments on social media. Reform’s council leaders have taken a rather robust approach to media scrutiny. After The Times reported on the authority’s now-dropped proposal to introduce staff parking charges, Cllr Kemkaran, herself a former BBC journalist, accused the paper of publishing an ‘embarrassing and misleading’ article and claimed it had ‘fallen from serious journalism into sensationalised, agenda-driven gossip’. Cllr Fraser Moat separately claimed the Financial Times had ‘twisted’ his words when it reported he had said Reform had ‘not actually made any cuts’. He did, however, resign from the cabinet, citing a ‘lapse of judgment’. Cllr Kemkaran declined an interview with the Mail, but a council spokesman said its tax rise reflected ‘an exceptionally challenging financial environment’. ‘Like all local authorities, KCC must balance ambition with realism,’ he added. Recent research by the University of Southampton suggests the decay of town centres is a top issue among Reform voters – it is a key issue in Maidstone, the county town of Kent Clare Wigston works at the country's oldest independent shoe shop – The Golden Boot in Maidstone – and says that 'a lot of the town is not the right sort of shops' Ulrich Allsebrook, 49, the sharply dressed owner of Frederic Bistro in Maidstone, is strikingly well-informed on the recent machinations in County Hall. ‘They overplayed their hand in terms of what they were going to achieve, in finding spending cuts that would nullify the need for any council tax rises,’ he says. ‘But people will give them the benefit of the doubt, because they are clamouring for change. Come election time, they will say, “let’s give you a bigger cherry to bite and see how you get on”.’ But more often than not, punters have a looser grip on local politics. The issues they want to talk about – mainly immigration and urban decay – are largely the responsibility of Westminster. A common complaint in Maidstone, as it is elsewhere, is the decline of the high street. Clare Wigston, 58, works at The Golden Boot, the oldest independent shoe shop in the country, dating back to 1790. ‘A lot of the town is not the right sort of shops,’ she says. ‘It’s nail bars, vape shops and barbers. We’re the county town of Kent. We should be doing better.’ Wigston did not vote Reform, but her concerns chime with many of those that did. Recent research by the University of Southampton suggests the decay of town centres is a top issue among Reform voters. But business rates, often blamed for this decline, are set by the central government. So it is more likely to be Labour, not Reform, who will suffer the consequences if people don’t see signs of improvement. On the eve of his party’s barnstorming election wins last May, Farage declared that Reform was ‘ready to run things’. In a recent interview with the BBC, he had dialled that back to ‘half-way’ ready for power. Whether that can be considered progress will ultimately be up to voters to decide. Council tax: Up by 9 per cent, adding £145 a year to Band D bills, despite securing £59m from central government to stave off effective bankruptcy. Key issue: Vote on council tax sparked angry exchanges and walkouts, with Tories branding rise as ‘scandalous’. Council tax: Up by 4.9 per cent. Key issue: Reform had slammed wasteful spending by the previous Tory administration. It has since admitted there is ‘limited scope for savings’. Council tax: Up by 3.99 per cent. Key issue: Head of ‘Dolge’ resigned after the Financial Times reported he had said the council had ‘not actually made any cuts’, although later said his words had been ‘twisted’. Council tax: Up by 3.99 per cent. Previous rise was 4.84 per cent under the Tories. Key issue: Plans for record £44m in ‘cuts’ have sparked fears for key services including adult social care. Reform say they are making ‘efficiencies’ not cuts. Council tax: Up by 3.99 per cent. Key issue: The council has been criticised following a 15 per cent fall in the number of potholes repaired since Reform took over. Council tax: Up by 4.4 per cent. Key issue: Council leader George Finch, 19, survived a no confidence call by one vote after accusations that he had ‘abused the office of leader’ during rows over asylum seekers and Pride flags. Council tax: Up by 3.8 per cent, which the council says is the lowest for 12 years. Key issue: Hundreds marched against plans to close eight elderly care facilities. Council tax: Up by 1.99 per cent. Key issue: The council vowed to remove 100 per cent council tax reductions for low-earners, forcing 26,000 low-income working-age residents to start paying for the first time. Council tax: Set to rise by 2.99 per cent, also said to be lowest in 12 years. Key issue: Three councillors have left cabinet since May elections, with one accused of ‘whipping up hatred’ against the Muslim community, while the deputy leader was removed from his role after racist, homophobic and sexist social media posts came to light. Council tax: Set to rise by 2.9 per cent. Key issue: Council leader conceded Elon Musk-style audits of local councils to cut ‘wasteful spending’ had ‘proved to be far more complex legally’ than expected. Additional reporting: Sam Merriman No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. 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