Bedford Borough Council

Political Control & Leadership

Political control

No overall controlLargest party: Conservative, 14 of 46 seats

Run by

Conservative directly elected mayor

Seats

Conservative 14 · Liberal Democrats 13 · Labour 12 · Green 4 · Independents and others 3 (46 seats)As at May 2026. "Independents and others" includes local parties. Source: Open Council Data UK (public domain).

Leader

Tim Caswell

Chief executive

Laura Church

Overview

Population

185,225

Founded

2009

Website

bedford.gov.uk

Finance

Annual revenue budget

£383m

Council tax (Band D)

£2,011This is the council’s own share only. Police and fire precepts (and, in areas with two tiers of council, the county or district precept) are added separately for the final bill. See Council Spending by Service below for how this council itself spends.

Council Spending by Service

Total

£387m2025-26 · MHCLG (outturn) · May not match "Annual revenue budget" above. That figure is a different accounting measure (budgeted resource requirement) for a different year than this outturn total.

Education services

£157m

Adult Social Care

£93m

Children Social Care

£67m

Housing services (GFRA only)

£17m

Environmental and regulatory services

£16m

Public Health

£11m

Highways and transport services

£9m

Cultural and related services

£8m

Central services

£6m

Other services

£2m

Planning and development services

£2m

Claimant count

5,460 people claiming unemployment-related benefits, August 2026

4.5% of residents aged 16 to 64 · +235 on August 2025

The Claimant Count is people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance plus people on Universal Credit who are required to look for work. Before 2013 it counted only Unemployment Benefit or Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants, so earlier years are not strictly comparable. Universal Credit requires more people to search for work than Jobseeker’s Allowance did, so as it replaced older benefits from 2013, part of the rise in the count reflects that change rather than more unemployment. It is not the official unemployment rate, which comes from a survey. The latest month can be revised.

Source: Office for National Statistics, Claimant Count (via Nomis). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Welfare spending

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Child poverty

Children under 16 living in low-income families, 2024-25

A child is counted if their family’s income is below 60% of the UK median for that year and the family claimed Child Benefit plus at least one other benefit (Universal Credit, tax credits or Housing Benefit). The two measures can differ a lot: housing costs push the after-housing-costs figure far higher in expensive areas such as London. Figures are provisional and years before 2021-22 are not comparable, so the trend starts there.

Source: Department for Work and Pensions, Children in Low Income Families: local area statistics (FYE 2022 to 2025, published 26 March 2026).

Fuel poverty

7,303 households in fuel poverty, 2024

9.3% of 78,678 households · England 9.9%

A household is counted as fuel poor if its home has an energy efficiency rating of band D or below and, after paying for housing and the energy it needs, its income is below the poverty line (60% of the national median). These are modelled estimates: the government advises using them for broad comparisons and to spot areas of particularly high or low fuel poverty, not to track year-to-year changes, so only the latest year is shown. Neighbourhoods are small census areas (lower layer super output areas) of roughly 1,500 people, named after their council and a reference number; their estimates are less certain than the council figure.

Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Sub-regional fuel poverty data (2024 data). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

House prices

£333,824 average house price, July 2026

+3.9% over 12 months · +0.8% over 1 month · 133 sales in May 2026

Average prices are HM Land Registry’s estimates for the whole area, adjusted for the mix of homes sold, not the price of any one home. Figures for the latest months are provisional: sales can take weeks or months to be registered, so each month is revised for a year after it is first published. Sales counts are published about three months behind prices. In areas with fewer sales, figures can swing noticeably from month to month.

Source: HM Land Registry, UK House Price Index (July 2026 data). Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Homelessness

382 households were owed help by the council because they were homeless or at risk, January to March 2026

932 households in temporary accommodation on 31 March 2026

11.6 per 1,000 households · 424 with children · 857 children

28 households placed in temporary accommodation in another council's area · 0 owed temporary accommodation but none yet secured

Councils must help households threatened with homelessness within 56 days (prevention duty) and those already homeless (relief duty), and may house them in temporary accommodation while more settled housing is found. Figures for January to March 2026 are provisional and may be revised. “Not published” means the council did not submit figures or MHCLG suppressed small numbers to protect households. No temporary accommodation figure is available for: January to March 2024, April to June 2024.

Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Statutory homelessness: detailed local authority level tables (accredited official statistics). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Crime

18,621 crimes recorded in the 12 months to August 2026

100.5 per 1,000 residents · Up 4.6% on the previous 12 months

Source: data.police.uk, the official police crime data for England and Wales, summed to this council’s boundary from the small local area each crime is recorded in. Locations are approximate by design to protect privacy. Includes antisocial behaviour. Excludes fraud, which is recorded nationally, and the small number of crimes (about 1.4% in recent months) that police record with no location.

Crime figures last updated 13 October 2026.

Road casualties

People killed or injured on roads reported to the police, 2025

These are casualties in collisions reported to the police on all roads in the council’s area, including motorways and trunk roads it doesn’t manage. Police forces have moved to an injury-based recording system that classes more injuries as serious, so the Department for Transport publishes an adjusted “killed or seriously injured” estimate to allow fair comparison between years; the trend uses the adjusted figure, and the road-user table uses figures as recorded. Rates are per billion miles driven by motor vehicles in the area.

Source: Department for Transport, Reported road casualties Great Britain (RAS0403, first published 30 July 2026). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Public Health

Smoking (adults)

8.5%2025 · OHID Fingertips

Physically active (adults)

71.8%2024/25 · OHID Fingertips

Overweight or obese (adults)

72.9%2024/25 · OHID Fingertips

Life expectancy (male)

78.7 years2021 to 2023 · ONS

Life expectancy (female)

83.1 years2021 to 2023 · ONS

Schools

76 open state schools with 31,242 pupils, Ofsted snapshot as at 31 March 2026

Report cards (inspections since 10 November 2025)

7 schools have a report card. Safeguarding: 7 met.

Earlier inspections (schools without a report card yet)

3 schools have no inspection on record yet (for example, newly opened schools).

Since 10 November 2025 Ofsted inspects schools under a renewed framework and publishes a report card grading up to eight areas on a scale of five points, plus whether safeguarding standards are met. Ofsted says these grades cannot be compared with grades from the previous framework, so they are shown separately. Graded inspections between 1 September 2024 and 9 November 2025 gave no overall grade (“Not judged”). Ungraded inspections check whether a school is still at its previous grade; the “Earlier inspections” figures use the last graded inspection.

Source: Ofsted, State-funded schools inspections and outcomes as at 31 March 2026 (official statistics). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Broadband and mobile

85.4% of 85,658 homes and businesses can get gigabit-capable broadband, January 2026

65 premises can't get decent broadband · 35% of premises use full fibre

These figures show what is available, not what people buy. “Decent” broadband means 10 Mbit/s download and 1 Mbit/s upload, the standard set by the broadband Universal Service Obligation. Full-fibre use is the share of all premises with a full-fibre connection in use. Mobile figures count the four networks Ofcom reports (EE, O2, Three and Vodafone) and are modelled predictions of signal strength; 5G figures use Ofcom’s high-confidence measure.

Source: Ofcom, Connected Nations (January 2026 data). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Sewage spills

2,507 hours of sewage spills from 21 storm overflows in 2025

220 spills counted · 19 of 20 overflows with figures spilled at least once · 142nd most spill hours of 288 council areas in England with storm overflows

Storm overflows are run by water companies, not by the council. The company responsible here is Anglian Water.

The 15 overflows with the longest spills

A storm overflow releases diluted sewage into a river or the sea when sewers are overloaded, usually in heavy rain. Hours are the total time all spills lasted. Spills are counted the Environment Agency’s way: any discharge in the first 12 hours counts as one spill, and each further 24-hour block counts as another. 1 overflow has no figures for 2025, so the totals may be lower than the true amount. Compare every council, constituency and water company.

Source: Environment Agency, Event Duration Monitoring storm overflow annual return 2025. Locations placed in council areas using Office for National Statistics boundaries. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.