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Britain's "old parties" have "ruined" England's councils but Reform UK is eliminating waste and bringing "fresh air" to local democracy, Nigel Farage claimed. The Reform UK leader kicked off his campaign for May 7 elections with a brutal attack on his rivals. Reform boasts it has found more than £700million in savings in the councils it already leads, and now hopes to take the reins of more local authorities across the nation.

Mr Farage said: "Last year, Reform UK won hundreds of council seats, and voters are already seeing a difference on the ground. Our councillors are delivering a total culture shift in local government - sweeping away the establishment consensus and finally putting residents first, and people are better off as a result."

The party delivered a political earthquake last year when it won 677 seats in the local elections - 41% of those up for election - for 23 English councils. On May 7, around 5,000 seats across 136 councils will be up for election.

Mr Farage said: "Whilst we can't wave a magic wand, the progress we've made in less than a year is remarkable. We've kept bills down, eliminated hundreds of millions of wasteful spending without touching frontline services, and made huge strides in every area of local government. Reform's record going into May 7 is a strong one, and it proves that we can make real progress in fixing the broken way local government is done in this country. Where the old parties have failed and left behind a trail of ruined councils in their wake, Reform will deliver a breath of fresh air in English councils up and down the UK."

The party points to a £122.5million investment in Nottinghamshire roads, and the opening of a £30million school for children with special needs and disabilities in Mansfield, as examples of successes.

It says in North Northamptonshire it completed 13,039 highway defect works between May and January - a "28% increase on the same period the previous year", while in West Northamptonshire it is taking action against the use of three hotels as asylum accommodation. And in Worcestershire it trumpets a "20% increase in the number of mainstream foster carers".

Nearly 80,000 drains and gulleys have been cleared in Leicestershire to help with flooding and keeping roads clear. In Durham, Reform points to a £22.5million "investment in facilities to support disabled people living independently in their own homes". And in Lancashire it says it has developed 13 new children's homes and identified £20million of efficiency savings in adult care.

In Kent it is pushing to get the Eurostar service to stop at Ashford and Ebbsfleet, and in Staffordshire it boasts it has saved all 63 "county farms from being sold off" or being turned into solar and battery energy storage system sites.

Reform says it has awarded more than £800,000 in grants to Warwickshire businesses and in Lincolnshire it says it has "seized over 600,000 illegal cigarettes, 4,000 illegal vapes and 13,000 other illicit products as part of trading standards operations".