The 1996 Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council elections were held on Thursday, 2 May 1996, with one third of the council to be elected. The council remained under no overall control, with the Conservatives and Independent Ratepayer and Residents no longer holding enough seats to continue their coalition. Voter turnout was 35.4%.[1] [2]
|- style="background-color:#F9F9F9"! style="background-color: " || Independent Ratepayers & Residents | align="right" | 2| align="right" | 0| align="right" | 0| align="right" | 0| align="right" | 11.8| align="right" | 8.0| align="right" | 4,419| align="right" | +1.6|-
This result had the following consequences for the total number of seats on the council after the elections:
| valign=top colspan="2" style="width: 230px" | Party | valign=top style="width: 30px" | Previous council | valign=top style="width: 30px" | New council |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservatives | 21 | 17 | |||
| Labour | 15 | 16 | |||
| Liberal Democrat | 9 | 12 | |||
| Independent Ratepayers & Residents | 5 | 5 | |||
| Independent | 1 | 1 | |||
| Total | 51 | 51 | |||
| Working majority | |||||
|- style="background-color:#F6F6F6"! style="background-color: " || colspan="2" | Independent Ratepayers hold | align="right" | Swing| align="right" | +3.5|-
|- style="background-color:#F6F6F6"! style="background-color: " || colspan="2" | Independent Ratepayers hold | align="right" | Swing| align="right" | +11.0|-