The local government elections on 6 May eroded the Conservatives' dominance across the sector and provided the Labour Party with renewed confidence and momentum. Mark Conrad reports

While Gordon Brown resigned as prime minister in the aftermath of a torrid general election night for Labour on 6 May, grass-roots activists were celebrating the party's resurgence across local government.

As with the national elections – which contrived to produce Westminster's first hung parliament since 1974 – local government's political landscape changed significantly following the 164 town hall ballots last week.

Broadly speaking, the results were a negative of the general election outcome, with Labour the night's biggest local government victor and the sector's largest party, and the Conservatives, losing the most councils and seats.

Labour gained control of a total of 14 councils and now boasts 393 councillors more than it had before votes were cast. In contrast, the Conservatives lost control of eight councils and lamented a net loss of 123 councillors.

The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, mirrored their national failure to turn Nick Clegg's pre-election popularity into local votes. They lost control of four town halls and waved goodbye to a total of 144 councillors.

David Sparks, leader elect of the Local Government Association's Labour Group, told The MJ his party's resurgence locally should give the minority Labour Government in Westminster – as was still the case when The MJ went to press – pause for thought.

‘The days of central control are long gone in any approach to socialism or social justice,' he warned. ‘The local election results didn't surprise me because local councillors are more in touch with their local communities, and by fighting campaigns around community issues [Labour candidates] were able to make up for national reverses.

‘These results have profound implications for the future of Labour in the UK. There's no doubt that a local approach, focusing on real engagement with communities, should be at the core of any future Labour [national] campaigns.'

Labour's biggest victories included Liverpool, where the party regained control of its former flagship council from the Liberal Democrats, who had led the city since 1998.

Labour now holds a three-seat majority on Merseyside, and political leadership of Liverpool will pass to local group leader Joe Anderson. Cllr Anderson said his local party had shed the ‘arrogance' of its past and pledged to ‘fight for the people of this city'.  He also promised to make social housing Liverpool's priority. ‘We have a housing shortage list of 23,000, and we have 13,000 boarded-up properties which are not in use. We need to redevelop those as a priority,' he said.

Other notable Labour gains included Oxford City Council and the London boroughs of Brent, Camden, Ealing, Enfield, Harrow, Islington, Southwark and Waltham Forest. The party also made significant inroads back into its traditional, hinterlands of the North and the Midlands, gaining control of Coventry and becoming the largest party operating under directly-elected mayors in Doncaster and Hartlepool.

Labour's surge also wiped out the British National Party at Barking and Dagenham LBC.

The BNP lost all 12 of its local councillors in the borough, while Labour now controls all 51 seats on the council.

A bad night for the Conservatives was tempered by the realisation that the Tories remain, comfortably, local government's largest party.

The Conservatives lost control of several outer London boroughs to Labour, but managed to regain control of Richmond-upon-Thames RBC from the Liberal Democrats. Tory leaders will also be clearing their desks at Bury, Lincoln, North Tyneside, Nuneaton and Solihull. A senior Conservative source told The MJ: ‘There's no hiding it, this was a poor night for us, and we need to assess why this happened.

‘But, if you look at the councils which we lost, many were what you would consider to be traditionally ‘non-Tory', and it is a sign of our strength across local government that we controlled many of them to begin with. We remain the key party in local government.'

Indeed, while the LGA was still calculating its political composition following the votes, sources said Labour's strong polling on 6 May had merely ‘dented' the Tories' dominance inside Smith Square.

Bob Neill, Conservative shadow local government minister, said the high voter turnout last week helped the Labour Party, but warned his party's opponents ‘still remain an urban rump'.

The Liberal Democrats were, like their national peers, left scratching their heads at a failure to convert pre-general election popularity into local votes. The party lost control of two ‘flagship' councils – Liverpool and Sheffield – as well as Rochdale, but took Winchester from the Conservatives.

Warren Bradley, former Liberal Democrat leader of Liverpool, said he was unsure whether he would stay on to lead his party in opposition. ‘I will be speaking to the party about my future, but it's all about campaigning harder and taking seats back next year,' he said.