Kent County Council


Kent County Council is a county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Kent in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes the unitary authority of Medway. Kent County Council is the upper tier of elected local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council has 81 elected councillors. It is one of the largest local authorities in England in terms of population served and the largest local authority of its type. The council is based at County Hall in Maidstone. It had been under Conservative majority control from 1997 to 2025 when Reform UK took control.

History

Elected county councils were created in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over many administrative functions that had previously been performed by unelected magistrates at the quarter sessions. The areas covered by the new county councils were termed administrative counties. In Kent the administrative county differed from the historic county in a few places:
After the first elections to the county council in January 1889 and after county aldermen had been appointed, the council formally came into being on 1 April 1889, on which day it held its first official meeting at the Sessions House in Maidstone. With Lord Brabourne in the chair, Sir John Farnaby Lennard, 1st Baronet, was elected as the first chairman of the council.
The county council's duties at first were few, but gradually it absorbed school boards, the rural highway boards and the boards of guardians. The county council adopted the Sessions House as its meeting place.

New boundaries

In 1965, the London Government Act 1963 abolished the existing county of London and replaced it with a larger administrative area called Greater London, which took over the Bexley and Bromley areas from the administrative county of Kent. In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 saw Kent re-classified as a non-metropolitan county and it gained the formerly independent county borough of Canterbury. Until 1974 the lower tier of local government had comprised numerous boroughs, urban districts and rural districts. As part of the 1974 reforms, the lower tier was reorganised into fourteen non-metropolitan districts.

Medway split

In 1998 the districts of Gillingham and Rochester-upon-Medway were removed from the non-metropolitan county of Kent to become a new unitary authority called Medway, whilst remaining part of the ceremonial county of Kent.

New arrangements with Medway

Kent County Council co-operates with the unitary Medway Council in many ways, for instance in the Kent and Medway Local Plan, and together they run joint agencies. Kent is combined with Medway for the purposes of representation in Parliament. The combined area elects 17 MPs, of whom 14 represent seats entirely within the Kent County Council area and another whose constituency is in both Kent and Medway.

Reform UK administration (2025/26)

In the 2025 Kent County Council election, Reform UK won outright control of the council and Linden Kemkaran was elected leader. After being elected she said “we will simply put the people of Kent at the heart of everything we do”.
One key policy is a new cabinet role, held by Gravesham Councillor Matthew Fraser Moat, inspired by the Department of Government Efficiency as promoted by Elon Musk.
The council will not fly the rainbow flag for Pride Month. She said she saw having a Ukrainian flag in the council chamber as a "distraction". Kemkaran also said she intends to reduce the impact of illegal migration on residents in Kent.
In July, Kemkaran shared a social media post claiming Reform had removed books containing transgender themes from the county's libraries with immediate effect. This was later found to be untrue with the challenged book simply moved from a display at the entrance to an adult section. Kent Libraries went on to post a statement that they would no longer allow displays of transgender books to be in areas accessible by children.

Suspensions and defections

In August, councillor Daniel Taylor was suspended from the party after threatening to kill his wife.
In September, councillor Amelia Randall defected from Reform UK to UKIP.
In October, councillor Robert Ford was suspended from Reform UK after allegations of misconduct from 'several women', when approached about this by the BBC, he claimed "There is not one shred of evidence against me," adding he now gets "filthy looks in the street". In the same month, the council faced scrutiny after leaked footage of an August meeting showed Kemkaran shouting down other councillors using profanities, apparently over disagreements regarding the council's response to national plans for local government reform, as well as threatening to mute another councillor.
Kemkaran later messaged her members, calling those who leaked the video "weak" and "foolish", and accusing them of "treachery". On Monday 20 October, Reform UK announced that four councillors were being suspended – Paul Thomas, Oliver Bradshaw, Bill Barrett and Maxine Fothergill – supporting the leader, Linden Kemkaran in her contention that "... we are the shop window in KCC. People are looking at us, they are judging us every single minute of every single day. Nigel knows that. He is super aware that we are the flagship council.”
On 27 October, Bill Barrett and Robert Ford were expelled from Reform UK for undermining the interests of the party, while Oliver Bradshaw, Brian Black, and Paul Thomas were expelled for "a pattern of dishonest and deceptive behaviour which will not tolerate".
On the 5 November, councillor Isabella Kemp was listed as an independent on the KCC website, as she had left the party 10 hours before KCC was to meet.

Independent Reformers

On the 29th of October 2025 expelled Ashford councillor Bill Barrett announced a new grouping to sit on KCC known as the Independent Reformers or Independent Reform Group, consisting of him and Robert Ford. He said his motivation in creating this group was, "It's basically for the people that we represent, to give them elected councillors with a democratic mandate and to carry on with the work of representing them in the best way possible".
KCC Leader Linden Kemkaran, after being asked if the move worried her, said "No, not really, because we are united and we are strong and we are determined to carry on. We are doing things for the people of Kent".
Councillors Oliver Bradshaw, Brian Black and Paul Thomas, who were part of the group expelled, pledged their support for Reform UK and stated they would not join the Independent Reformers Group.
On the 8th of January councillor Isabella Kemp announced that she had joined the Independent Reformers, after being in talks to join the Liberal Democrats, on her decision she said that, "After speaking to a few residents who voted for me, I’ve decided for this term I will be joining the Independent Reformers because the residents voted for under the Reform mandate.".

Council structure

The council is structured as follows:

Cabinet

The cabinet is made up of ten county councillors. The cabinet is responsible for the strategic thinking and decisions that steer how the council is run. The cabinet meets monthly and takes decisions collectively, its current composition is visible in the infobox.

County council

The County Council is made up of 81 elected county councillors. The full council meets seven times a year to agree the council's Constitution and amendments to it, appoint the Leader, and approve the policy framework and budget.

Local boards

Local boards are local community groups that hold regular public meetings across Kent, so that the people of Kent can voice issues that affect their community. They also allocate funding to local projects. There are 12 local boards in Kent, and every county councillor is required to be a member of one local board.

Governance

Kent County Council provides county-level services. District-level services are provided by the twelve district councils:
Much of the county is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.

Political control

The county council has been under Reform UK majority control since 2025.
Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:

Leadership

The leaders of the council since 1974 have been:

Composition

The current council was formed after the 2025 election. Since then, eight Reform UK councillors have been suspended and/or expelled from the party
another has defected to UKIP and one has resigned from Reform, two expelled councillors have formed the Independent Reformers and one has since then joined them.
3 independent councillors have pledged to vote with and support Reform UK.
The next election is due in 2029.

Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2019 the council has comprised 81 councillors representing 72 electoral divisions, with each division electing one or two councillors. Elections are held every four years.