Your council

Southend-on-Sea: what’s happening where you live

What the council itself has published on the five things it most shapes for a household: homes, getting about, the bill, the local environment and schools. Each line is quoted from the council’s own document, with the link. This page says what was decided or proposed; it never says whether it was right.

This page is built from official registers only; the council’s own publications have not been read yet, and every line below says so where that leaves a gap.

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council: Unitary authority (unitary), England, East of England. GOV.UK lists it as a unitary council. ONS code E06000033.

Council website

Do it online

The council’s own service pages as listed by GOV.UK’s Local Links Manager (Open Government Licence), refreshed weekly; the same list of everyday services, in the same order, for every council, in GOV.UK’s wording.

Housing

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Transport

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Council tax

Band D set by Southend-on-Sea for 2026–27: £1,888.47 of a £2,265.17 total bill in the area. MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027 (Open Government Licence).

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Environment

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Education

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Changes to schools in this area recorded by the Department for Education Updated automatically

No school here is currently recorded as proposed to open or close.

In the last twelve months: 2 opened (1 reason not recorded, 1 academy converter), 1 closed (1 academy converter)

Eastwood Primary School & Nursery (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 30 September 2025
1Up Collective CIC — open, 14 September 2026
Eastwood Primary School & Nursery (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 October 2025

Get Information about Schools, DfE’s register of every school in England, refreshed daily (Open Government Licence). The register’s own reason is shown: most closures and openings are a school becoming an academy, which changes who runs it, not whether it is there.

What the council plans to spend, 2026–27

The budget for each service, as Southend-on-Sea reported it to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The same headings, in the same order, for every council in England.

Southend-on-Sea: budget by service, 2026 to 2027
Service	Budget
Education services	£95.6 million
Highways and transport services	£3.9 million
Children's social care	£57.4 million
Adult social care	£79.5 million
Public health	£12.9 million
Housing services (general fund only)	£10.3 million
Cultural and related services	£10.9 million
Environmental and regulatory services	£27.1 million
Planning and development services	£2.1 million
Police services	none budgeted
Fire and rescue services	none budgeted
Central services	£9.8 million
Other services	£5.9 million
Total service expenditure	£315.4 million

Net current expenditure: net of sales, fees and charges; spending funded by the NHS, such as through the Better Care Fund, is excluded.A minus figure means the service’s income is budgeted to be more than its spending. “None budgeted” usually means another body runs that service here. Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Revenue Account Budget 2026 to 2027, individual local authority data (part 1), updated 11 June 2026 (Open Government Licence).

Southend-on-Sea in numbers

Official statistics for the whole council area. Each figure is the latest published, with the period it covers.

Total population: 185,256 people 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMid-year estimate of the total number of people
Median age: 41 years 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMedian age of people
Gross disposable household income per head: £26,130 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage income per person (£) after taxes and direct benefits
Gross median weekly pay: £667 30 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsGross median weekly pay based on where people live (£)
Children in relative poverty after housing costs: 29.0% April 2024 to March 2025 · Department for Work and PensionsPercentage of children aged under 16 living in relative low income families After Housing Costs (AHC)
Claimant Count: 4.3% 2025 · Office for National StatisticsPercentage of people aged 16 to 64 who are claiming unemployment-related benefits
Average house price: £328,383 July 2026 · HM Land RegistryAverage monthly price of a property (£)
Housing affordability ratio (residence-based): 8.2 affordability ratio 1 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsRatio of median house price to median gross annual residence-based earnings
Female healthy life expectancy: 61.4 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for females born in the given year
Male healthy life expectancy: 61.3 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for males born in the given year
Greenhouse gas emissions: 2.6 tCO2e per capita 2024 · Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroGreenhouse gas emissions (tCO2e) per capita
Gigabit capable broadband: 98.3% 1 January 2026 · OfcomPercentage of premises that have coverage from a gigabit-capable service (download speeds of 1,000 Mbps or more)
Public electric vehicle chargers: 51.3 per 100,000 population 1 July 2026 · Department for Transport, sourced from ZapmapPublicly available electric vehicle chargers at all speeds per 100,000 people
Active businesses: 7,695 number of enterprises 2024 · Office for National StatisticsBusinesses with turnover or employment in current year

Gathered by the Office for National Statistics in Explore Local Statistics (Open Government Licence), refreshed daily. Some figures aren’t published for every nation, so the list can be shorter outside England.

Who runs the council

51 seats in 2026. Run by: a coalition or arrangement of Labour, independents and Liberal Democrats. Open Council Data (public domain).

Councillors by party: Labour Party 17, Conservative and Unionist 11, Reform UK 11, Independent / Other 5, Green Party (E&W) 4, Liberal Democrats 3.

Next scheduled council election: 6 May 2027.

All 51 councillors, by ward

Jack Warren (Conservative and Unionist) — Belfairs
Oscar Wood (Reform UK) — Belfairs
Stephen Aylen (Independent / Other) — Belfairs
Craig Watt (Reform UK) — Blenheim Park
Donna Richardson (Labour Party) — Blenheim Park
Shahid Nadeem (Labour Party) — Blenheim Park
James Courtenay (Conservative and Unionist) — Chalkwell
Kay Mitchell (Green Party (E&W)) — Chalkwell
Stephen Habermel (Conservative and Unionist) — Chalkwell
Dave Poulton (Liberal Democrats) — Eastwood Park
Paul Collins (Liberal Democrats) — Eastwood Park
Robert McMullan (Liberal Democrats) — Eastwood Park
Chris Webster (Labour Party) — Kursaal
Irene Ferguson (Labour Party) — Kursaal
Matt Dent (Labour Party) — Kursaal
Anita Forde (Green Party (E&W)) — Leigh
Richard Longstaff (Green Party (E&W)) — Leigh
Stuart Allen (Green Party (E&W)) — Leigh
Cheryl Nevin (Labour Party) — Milton
Maxine Sadza (Labour Party) — Milton
Sam Allen (Labour Party) — Milton
David Garston (Conservative and Unionist) — Prittlewell
Meg Davidson (Conservative and Unionist) — Prittlewell
Michael Heaver (Reform UK) — Prittlewell
Alex Moyies (Reform UK) — Shoeburyness
Judith McMahon (Reform UK) — Shoeburyness
Steven Wakefield (Independent / Other) — Shoeburyness
Colin Campbell (Conservative and Unionist) — Southchurch
Darryl Jones (Reform UK) — Southchurch
Martin Bright (Conservative and Unionist) — Southchurch
Daniel Cowan (Labour Party) — St Laurence
Frankie Bird (Reform UK) — St Laurence
Madison Faulkner-Hatt (Labour Party) — St Laurence
James O'Rourke (Reform UK) — St. Luke's
Jane Norman (Labour Party) — St. Luke's
Martin Berry (Independent / Other) — St. Luke's
John Corrigan (Reform UK) — Thorpe
Ron Woodley (Independent / Other) — Thorpe
Susan Badger (Independent / Other) — Thorpe
Ian Gilbert (Labour Party) — Victoria
Mandy O'Connor (Labour Party) — Victoria
Margaret Borton (Labour Party) — Victoria
Alexander Shaw (Conservative and Unionist) — West Leigh
Lesley Salter (Conservative and Unionist) — West Leigh
Owen Cartey (Conservative and Unionist) — West Leigh
James Moyies (Conservative and Unionist) — West Shoebury
Stephen Harvey (Reform UK) — West Shoebury
Tony Cox (Reform UK) — West Shoebury
Anne Jones (Labour Party) — Westborough
Kevin Robinson (Labour Party) — Westborough
Pamela Kinsella (Labour Party) — Westborough

Each councillor’s register of interests is on the council’s own website; we have not yet located the page. Councillors from Open Council Data as recorded after the May 2026 elections; a by-election since then may have changed one seat. Attendance and allowances are not shown.

This council’s meeting papers are not yet read automatically, so decisions and motions are not listed here; they are on the council’s website.

Write to your councillors → WriteToThem (mySociety) finds them from your postcode; nothing is sent through this site.

Cite this page

Harvard style. Every figure on the page also names its original source, which is usually the better thing to cite.

Every council page has the same five headings in the same order. Sources are the council’s own publications and official statistics. Council list: mySociety, UK Local Authorities (CC BY 4.0) and WhatDoTheyKnow authorities (CC BY-SA 4.0); council websites, tiers and service links: GOV.UK (Open Government Licence); codes: ONS Code History Database (Open Government Licence). Corrections: hello@whatsittome.org.