Local government in England

At a time when most parish affairs were dealt with by vestries, the Vestries Act 1831 and the Metropolis Management Act 1855 sought to establish the principle of vestries being elected by ratepayers, both men and women. Before the Local Government Act 1888, most local government functions in England were carried out by parish vestries, Boards of Guardians, which operated workhouses and former poor law functions; elected school boards, created by the Elementary Education Act 1870, and the unelected county courts of quarter sessions. The Local Government Act 1888 created county councils, consisting of councillors, directly elected by electors, and aldermen, chosen by the councillors. There was to be one county alderman for every three councillors (but only one for every six in the new London County Council). The first elections to the councils were held in January 1889, and on 1 April they came into their powers, most of which were taken over from the quarter sessions. Elections of all councillors and half of the aldermen took place every three years thereafter. The councils' areas were designated as administrative counties. The county councils did not cover the whole country. The larger towns and some historic counties corporate were designated as county boroughs by the same act of 1888. The new system was a major modernisation, which reflected the increasing range of functions carried out by local government in late Victorian Britain. An accretion of powers took place when education was added to county council responsibilities in 1902. County councils were responsible for the more strategic services in a county or county borough. The Local Government Act 1894 created parish councils, which replaced the vestries, and also urban district councils and rural district councils, responsible mostly for sanitation and locally-maintained highways. The London Government Act 1899 created 28 metropolitan boroughs, replacing a larger number of vestries and district boards. The Local Government Act 1929 increased the powers of county councils, which took over from the boards of guardians, which were abolished. County councils also took charge of highways in rural districts. The London Government Act 1963 abolished, with effect from 1965, the London County Council and Middlesex County Council, creating the Greater London Council to replace them. The London Government Act 1963 also established 32 London borough councils. In 1964, as recommended by the Local Government Commission for England, two pairs of administrative counties were merged to become Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely and Huntingdon and Peterborough. The Local Government Act 1972 completely reorganised local authorities in England and Wales. In the six largest conurbations, metropolitan county councils, with increased powers, were created. Aldermen were abolished, and all councillors were to be elected every four years. Outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly, the Local Government Act 1972 divided England into metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties, which would have one county council and multiple district councils each. That meant that each area would be covered by two tiers of local authorities - both a county council and a district council, which would share local authority functions. In 1986 the six metropolitan county councils were abolished, with their functions transferred to the metropolitan boroughs and joint boards. The Local Government Act 1992 established a new Local Government Commission, to review of the structure of local administration, and the introduction of some unitary authorities. The number of county councils was reduced: The counties of Avon, Berkshire, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, and Humberside were abolished, while Worcestershire County Council was re-established. The Isle of Wight County Council became a unitary authority, renamed as the "Isle of Wight Council". In May 2022, 21 non-metropolitan county councils and 164 non-metropolitan district councils remain. These are better known as simply county councils and district councils. While the metropolitan county councils were abolished in 1985, 36 metropolitan district councils still survive. == Local authorities now==

there are 317 local authorities (not counting parish councils) covering the whole of England. There are five main types of local authorities: London borough councils, two-tier county and district councils, metropolitan district councils and unitary authorities. All local authorities are made up of councillors, who represent geographical wards and divisions. There are 7,026 wards 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 under the Local Government Act 2000: mayor and cabinet executive, leader and cabinet executive, a committee system or bespoke arrangements approved by the Secretary of State. 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. there are 62 unitary authorities. 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. 33% of budgeted service expenditure across local government as a whole was set to be on education, 19% on adult social care, 13% on police, 11% on children's social care and 24% on all other services. 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, local authorities do have a general power of competence. 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. Greater London includes the City of London Corporation The only other local authority in England is the Council of the Isles of Scilly. == Regional government ==

Greater London Authority The Greater London Authority Act 1999 established a Mayor of London and 25-member London Assembly. The first mayoral and assembly elections took place in 2000. The former Leader of the Greater London Council, Ken Livingstone, served as the inaugural Mayor, until he was defeated by future Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2008. holding the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Commissioner 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 do not replace the local authorities in question, but can receive separate functions and funding. The Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016 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 in Greater Manchester and Richard Parker in the West Midlands. In the 2024 local elections, new Combined Authorities were elected; they were the new York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, North East Mayoral Combined Authority, East Midlands Combined County Authority. They are all controlled by the Labour Party as of 2024 except for Tees Valley. Each combined authority's executive consists of a representative from each of its constituent local authorities, plus (if applicable) the mayor. == Parish councils ==

Parish councils form the lowest tier of local government and have some local functions in their civil parishes. They may also be called a 'community council', 'neighbourhood council', 'village council', 'town council' or (if the parish holds city status) 'city council', but these names are stylistic and do not change their responsibilities. As of December 2021 there are 10,475 parishes in England, but they do not cover the whole of the country as many urban parishes were abolished in 1974. 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, To be eligible for this a parish council must meet certain conditions of quality. Civil parishes developed in the nineteenth century, based on the Church of England's parishes, which had both ecclesiastical and local government functions; parish councils were created by the Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), replacing the previous vestries. The ecclesiastical parishes continue to exist, but neither they nor their parochial church councils now have any local government role. ==Table of authority types==

In England, local authorities have three main sources of funding: UK Government grants, council tax and business rates. In the financial year 2019/20, local authorities received 22% of their funding from grants, 52% from council tax and 27% from retained business rates. The Information Commissioner's Office has ruled that there is a public interest in disclosing information about local government investments which will generally outweigh any concerns about whether disclosure could affect an investment's performance or be protected by confidentiality requirements. Local authorities cannot borrow money to finance day-to-day spending and so must rely on yearly income or reserves for this type of expenditure, although they can borrow to fund capital expenditure. In every area, one local authority acts as the billing authority (the district council in two-tier areas), which prepares and collects council tax bills. Other parts of local government (like county councils in two-tier areas, police and crime commissioners, fire authorities, parish councils and combined authorities) act as precepting authorities, which notify the relevant billing authority of their decision on council tax and later receive this money from the billing authority. Between financial years 2009/10 and 2021/22, council tax rates increased by 30% in real terms, in light of reduced grants from the UK Government. Business rates Business rates is a tax on business premises. It is based on the rateable value of the premises (set by the Valuation Office Agency) and a business rate multiplier. It is set and collected by billing authorities. Reforms in 2013 now mean that local authorities keep 50% of business rate revenues raised locally. The UK Government then distributes the remaining 50% of business rate revenues according to its own judgement. It was initially planned to increase the proportion of business rates that local authorities retain to 100%, but this was indefinitely delayed in 2021. == Criticisms ==

In 2022, the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee said that it had "significant concerns about the current governance arrangements for England":If the people within government are unsure at times where powers and responsibility, and hence accountability, rest, this lack of clarity is magnified for individuals who have little knowledge or experience of the structures. This has the potential to leave individuals less likely to be able to access what they need from government, leaving them often unable to know who is responsible, and as a result are not properly able to hold their democratic representatives to account. The Committee also said that "[t]he evidence is clear both practically and democratically that the overly centralised arrangements of government in England are problematic" and that reform was also needed of funding structures. ==Administrative hierarchy==

As of March 2025, the various combined authorities, county, district, and sui generis councils formed an administrative hierarchy as shown in the table below. Unitary authorities are legally either district councils which also perform county functions or county councils which also perform district functions; they therefore straddle the county and district columns. Metropolitan districts and London boroughs are also shown straddling the county and district columns. In much of the country there is also a lower tier of civil parishes. This administrative hierarchy differs from the ceremonial hierarchy. == See also ==