 The presence of Conservative aldermen deprived Labour of overall control in Cardiff, Huddersfield, Ipswich, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northampton, Oxford, Southampton, Wolverhampton and York.Since the 1971 local elections, the average swing from Labour to Conservative was 3.4%, which represented a recovery in votes of nearly a third of Conservative losses incurred between the 1970 and 1971 local elections.Their recovery was lower in areas that had been most badly affected by unemployment (1.4% in Wales, 0.7% in Scotland and 2.1% in England north of a line between Morecambe Bay and the river Wear).