Directly elected local authority mayors

Directly elected local authority mayors are the leaders of the small number of the local authorities in England that have adopted mayor-and-cabinet executive arrangements. Elsewhere, council leaders who form the executive of local authorities are typically selected by indirect election from amongst councillors. The innovation of direct election of a council mayor was introduced by the Local Government Act 2000 and withdrawn by the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026.

The powers of directly elected local authority mayors are not equal and depend on the type of local authority they lead. As of 2026, there are thirteen directly elected local authority mayoralties and six former mayoralties in England.

Since 2026, no further mayoralties will be created and their number is expected to reduce in upcoming local government changes. Creating or removing a mayoralty could be done by referendum, and the 2012 English mayoral referendums were an unsuccessful attempt to reinvigorate urban governance by adopting the model. There was one unsuccessful referendum to create a mayoralty for a Welsh council and none were created.