<p>The Government has not made an assessment of the effect on the public purse of holding combined elections every four years. Not all local authorities hold their council elections on a four-year cycle and new elected positions can be created, as we have seen for local authority and combined authority mayors in recent years.</p><p>Combined polls will often result in lower overall costs to public funds both in respect of the Consolidated Fund and the relevant devolved administration or local authority sources. Combination has also been shown to increase turnout in instances where a poll that traditionally experiences low turnout is combined with a poll where turnout is higher.</p><p> </p>