Town Council (Singapore)

In Singapore, a Town Council (TC) is an administrative body led by one or more elected Members of Parliament (MPs) together with appointed residents. It is responsible for managing the common property and overseeing the day-to-day maintenance of public housing estates built by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) within a designated town. Established under the Town Councils Act 1988, town councils focus mainly on estate management and function as a limited form of local governance.

Unlike in many countries, there are no separate local elections for town councils; their composition is determined by the results of parliamentary general elections. Their leadership and structure are therefore tied to national political boundaries and depend entirely on which MPs are elected to represent their constituencies. Town councils have no independent legislative or executive powers apart from the national government and may be altered when electoral boundaries are revised, although they are allowed to enact by-laws. To streamline administration, TCs usually cover one or more constituencies for the management of estates and services. As of the 2025 Singaporean general election, 19 town councils were formed across Singapore, with 17 under the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) and 2 under the opposition Workers' Party (WP).

Town councils have received a range of responses. Supporters state that they link estate management to elected representatives, which can make services more responsive and locally focused. Others note that this arrangement ties municipal services to political representation, which may create variations across constituencies and limits direct resident participation since there are no separate local elections. Some have suggested alternative models such as a more depoliticised system of estate governance or holding local elections independently of national ones.