Local government in England broadly consists of three layers: regional authorities, local authorities and parish councils. Legislation concerning English local government is passed by
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
, as
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
does not have a
devolved parliament
In the United Kingdom, devolution is the Parliament of the United Kingdom's statutory granting of a greater level of self-government to the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd (Welsh Parliament), the Northern Ireland Assembly and the London Asse ...
.
This article does not cover the 31
police and crime commissioners or the four
police, fire and crime commissioners of England.
Regional authorities
Greater London Authority
The
Greater London Authority Act 1999 established a
Mayor of London and 25-member
London Assembly
The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject ...
. The first
mayoral and
assembly elections took place in 2000.
The former
Leader of the Greater London Council,
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office ...
, served as the inaugural Mayor, until he was defeated by future
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as ...
in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
.
The incumbent,
Sadiq Khan, was first elected in
2016.
The Mayor's functions include chairing
Transport for London, holding the
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and
London Fire Commissioner
The London Fire Commissioner (LFC) is a functional body of the Greater London Authority, with responsibility for the governance of the London Fire Brigade. It is a corporation sole and is the fire authority of Greater London. It replaced the London ...
to account and keeping strategies up to date, including the
London Plan. Meanwhile, it is the Assembly's role to regularly hold the Mayor and their key advisers to account and it can also amend the budget or a strategy by a two-thirds majority, though this has not ever happened as of March 2022.
Combined authorities
Combined authorities can be created at the request of two or more local authorities.
Combined authorities don't replace the local authorities in question, but can receive separate functions and funding.
As of May 2022, there are 10 combined authorities covering some of England.
The
Secretary of State was first granted the power to create combined authorities by the
Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009.
The
Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016
The Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016 (c. 1) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom designed to introduce directly elected mayors to combined local authorities in England and Wales and to devolve housing, transport, pla ...
gave the Secretary of State the power to provide for a
directly-elected combined authority mayor. And, as of May 2022, nine out of the 10 combined authorities have mayors, including
Andy Burnham
Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 to 2008, Culture Secretary from 200 ...
in
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...
and
Andy Street in the
West Midlands.
Each combined authority's executive consists of a representative from each of its constituent local authorities, plus (if applicable) the mayor.
Functions can be devolved directly to the mayor, the combined authority as a whole or have a different decision-making requirement.
The budget and functions of each combined authority can be vastly different, but possible functions include responsibility for the relevant
police force
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...
and/or
fire brigade,
bus franchising and spatial strategy.
Combined county authorities
Combined county authorities are a new type of local government body included in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill.
They will only be made up of upper-tier local authorities; every type of local authority discussed below apart from district councils.
Local authorities
There are 333 local authorities covering the whole of England.
There are four main types of local authorities:
London borough councils, two-tier
county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
and
district councils,
metropolitan district councils and
unitary authorities.
Some local authorities have
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
,
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
or
royal borough status, but this is purely stylistic.
All local authorities are made up of
councillors
A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries.
Canada
Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
, who represent geographical
wards. There are 7,026 wards as of December 2021. Local authorities run on four year cycles and councillors may be elected all at once, by halves or by thirds.
Local authorities have a choice of
executive arrangements
In England, local authorities are required to adopt one of three types of executive arrangements, having either an "elected mayor and cabinet", a "leader and cabinet", or a "committee system". The type of arrangement used determines how decisions ...
under the
Local Government Act 2000
The Local Government Act 2000 (c.22) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales. Its principal purposes are:
* to give powers to local authorities to promote economic, social and envir ...
: mayor and cabinet executive, leader and cabinet executive, a committee system or bespoke arrangements approved by the Secretary of State.
As of May 2022, just 16 local authorities have
directly-elected mayors
Directly elected Mayors or Leaders in England, informally known as Metro Mayors or Leaders, are local government executive leaders who are directly elected by the residents of a local authority area (typically, but not always, a metropolitan ar ...
.
Some functions are just the responsibility of the executive of a local authority, but local authorities must also have at least one
overview and scrutiny committee to hold the executive to account.
The
London Government Act 1963 established 32 London borough councils. It also established the
Greater London Council
The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...
, covering the whole of
Greater London
Greater may refer to:
*Greatness
Greatness is a concept of a state of superiority affecting a person or object in a particular place or area. Greatness can also be attributed to individuals who possess a natural ability to be better than al ...
, but this was later abolished by the
Local Government Act 1985
The Local Government Act 1985 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Its main effect was to abolish the six county councils of the metropolitan counties that had been set up in 1974, 11 years earlier, by the Local Government Act 1972 ...
.
[Local Government Act 1985](_blank)
s 1(1). Greater London also includes the ''sui generis''
City of London Corporation.
The other ''sui generis'' local authorities are the
Council of the Isles of Scilly,
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's I ...
and
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...
.
Outside Greater London and the
Isles of Scilly, the
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...
divided England into
metropolitan
Metropolitan may refer to:
* Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories
* Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England
* Metropolitan county, a typ ...
and non-metropolitan counties, which would have one county council and multiple district councils each. That meant that each area would be covered by both a county council and a district council, which would share local authority functions; two tiers of local authorities.
In May 2022, 24 non-metropolitan county councils and 181 non-metropolitan district councils remain.
These are better known as simply county councils and district councils. The Local Government Act 1985 also abolished metropolitan county councils,
but there are still 36 metropolitan district councils as of May 2022.
There are also (as of May 2022) 58 unitary authorities.
These carry out the functions of both county and district councils and have replaced two-tier local government in some areas. The creation of these first became possible under the
Local Government Act 1992, but now takes place under the
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007.
Specific functions of local authorities include maintaining some
highways
A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...
, granting
planning permission
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building per ...
and acting as a billing authority for the purposes of
council tax. Separate to combined authorities, two or more local authorities can also work together through joint boards (for legally-required services: fire, public transport and waste disposal), joint committees (voluntarily) or through contracting out and agency arrangements. Notably,
Cornwall Council has been subject to a devolution deal, which are usually reserved to combined authorities for additional functions and funding. And, like some combined authorities and parish councils, they do have a
general power of competence.
Parish councils
Parish councils form the lowest tier of local government. They can also resolve to call themselves a community council, a neighbourhood council, a village council, a town council or (if city status is granted) a city council, but this is purely stylistic. Parish councillors sit on parish councils.
As of December 2021, there are 10,475 parishes in England, but they do not cover the whole of the country (notably including the vast majority of Greater London).
The only specific statutory function of parish councils, which they must do, is establishing
allotments. However, there are a number of other functions given by powers in the relevant legislation, which they can do, such as providing
litter bins and building
bus shelters. Their statutory functions are few, but they may provide other services with the agreement of the relevant local authorities,
and under the
Localism Act 2011 eligible parish councils can be granted a "
general power of competence" (GPC) which allows them within certain limits the freedom to do anything an individual can do provided it is not prohibited by other legislation, as opposed to being limited to the powers explicitly granted to them by law. To be eligible for this a parish council must meet certain conditions of quality.
Funding
Local councils are funded by a combination of
central government
A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or del ...
grants,
Council Tax (a locally set
tax based on house value),
Business Rates, and fees and charges from certain services including
decriminalised parking enforcement. Up to 15 English councils risk insolvency, the
National Audit Office maintains, and councils increasingly offer, "bare minimum" service. The
New Local Government Network maintains most local authorities will only be able to provide the bare minimum of services five years from 2018.
Many of these funding sources are hypothecated (''ring-fenced'') - meaning that they can only be spent in a very specific manner - in essence, they merely pass through a council's accounts on their way from the funding source to their intended destination. These include:
*
Dedicated Schools Grant - funds any schools that are still managed by the local authority, rather than being autonomously run (principally
academies, which are funded directly by central government); less than half of state-funded secondary schools are still reliant on this funding source. The Dedicated Schools Grant is often relatively large - and can typically be about 1/3 of all council funding. Hypothecation for this has been in place since 2006.
*Housing Benefit Grant - funds
housing benefit
Housing Benefit is a means-tested social security benefit in the United Kingdom that is intended to help meet housing costs for rented accommodation. It is the second biggest item in the Department for Work and Pensions' budget after the state ...
claims made in the council area, and related administration. Housing Benefit is being gradually replaced by an element within
Universal Credit, and
Pension Credit
Pension Credit is the principal element of the UK welfare system for people of pension age. It is intended to supplement the UK State Pension, or to replace it (for example, if the claimant did not meet the conditions to claim a State Pension). I ...
; these replacements will be administered centrally, and provided directly to claimants from central government.
*Health & Wellbeing grant. This is intended to be used for measures to improve public ''wellbeing''; the term has deliberately been left undefined, but is not intended to fund measures targeted at specific individuals (such as healthcare or social care), which are funded by other mechanisms. For example, this could be used to plant additional trees on streets, or to tidy the appearance of buildings.
*Rents from tenants of council-owned housing. By law, these must in fact be paid into a distinct
Housing Revenue Account, which can only be used for maintenance, management, and addition, of the council-owned housing stock, and cannot be used for funding any other council expenditure.
*Fines and charges related to vehicle parking, and local road restrictions. By law, these can only be used to fund parking services, road repairs, enforcement of road restrictions, etc.
The other main central government grant - the
Revenue Support Grant - is not hypothecated, and can be spent as the council wishes. For many decades, Business Rates were gathered locally, pooled together nationally, and then redistributed according to a complicated formula; these would be combined with the Revenue Support Grant to form a single ''Formula Grant'' to the council. Since 2013, a varyingly sized chunk of Business Rates is retained locally, and only the remainder is pooled and redistributed; the redistribution is according to a very basic formula, based mainly on the size of the 2013 Formula Grant to the relevant council, and is now provided to the council independently of the Revenue Support Grant.
Council Tax
Setting the rate
When determining their budget arrangements, councils make a distinction between hypothecated funding and non-hypothecated funding. Consideration of all funding in general is referred to as ''gross revenue streams'', while ''net revenue streams'' refers to funding from only non-hypothecated sources.
Historically, central government retained the right to ''cap'' an increase in Council Tax, if it deemed the council to be increasing it too severely. Under the
Cameron–Clegg coalition, this was changed. Councils can raise the level of council tax as they wish, but must hold a local referendum on the matter, if they wish to raise it above a certain threshold set by central government, currently 3%.
Billing authorities
Council Tax is collected by the principal council that has the functions of a district-level authority. It is identified in legislation as a billing authority, and was known as a rating authority. There are 314 billing authorities in England that collect council tax and business rates:
*188 non-metropolitan district councils
*56 unitary authority councils
*36 metropolitan borough councils
*32 London borough councils
*City of London Corporation
*Council of the Isles of Scilly
Precepting authorities
Precepting authorities do not collect Council Tax directly, but instruct a billing authority to do it on their behalf by setting a
precept
A precept (from the la, præcipere, to teach) is a commandment, instruction, or order intended as an authoritative rule of action.
Religious law
In religion, precepts are usually commands respecting moral conduct.
Christianity
The term is en ...
. Major precepting authorities such as the
Greater London Authority
The Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the metonym "City Hall", is the devolved regional governance body of Greater London. It consists of two political branches: the executive Mayoralty (currently led by Sadiq Khan) and t ...
and county councils cover areas that are larger than billing authorities. Local precepting authorities such as parish councils cover areas that are smaller than billing authorities.
The precept shows up as an independent element on official information sent to council tax payers, but the council bill will cover the combined amount (the precepts plus the core council tax). The billing authority collects the whole amount, and then detaches the precept and funnels it to the relevant precepting authority.
Levying bodies
Levying bodies are similar to precepting authorities, but instead of imposing a charge on billing authorities, the amount to be deducted is decided by negotiation. The
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority is an example of a levying body. Voluntary joint arrangements, such as waste authorities are also in this category.
Aggregate External Finance
Aggregate External Finance (AEF) refers to the total amount of money given by central government to local government. It consists of the
Revenue Support Grant (RSG), ringfenced and other specific grants, and redistributed business rates. A portion of the RSG money paid to each authority is diverted to fund organisations that provide improvement and research services to local government (this is referred to as the RSG top-slice), for example the
Local Government Association
The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national membership body for local authorities. Its core membership is made up of 339 English councils and the 22 Welsh councils through the Welsh Local Government Association.
The LGA is p ...
.
See also
*
List of local governments in the United Kingdom
*
Political make-up of local councils in the United Kingdom
This article documents the strengths of political parties in the 333 local authorities of England, 32 local authorities of Scotland, 22 principal councils of Wales and 11 local councils of Northern Ireland.
England's 333 local authorities are ...
*
Local government in Northern Ireland
*
Local government in Scotland
*
Local government in Wales
Reference
{{DEFAULTSORT:Local Government in England
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