In 1877 Mundella sponsored a Bill to abolish the property qualification for standing for local office, pointing out that 80 to 90 per cent of the voters in his constituency were disqualified from being councillors and yet were the first to be pressured by rises in rates. The bill found little traction in the House and each time it reappeared in the period from 1877 to 1879 it was defeated. Ironically, (as often happened with Mundella's defeated Bills) the Conservatives finally passed the measure in 1880.