The Structure of Local Government in Great Britain

Britain�s local government is a system of providing, operating and maintaining the majority of public services that people use in everyday life. It is not to be confused with the government or Civil Service but it is politically influenced; locally elected councilors develop the policy that is implemented by the staff. Local government in the UK is huge. It includes some 467 major councils and 9,000 town/parish councils. Local government has a multi-million-pound budget and employs one of the largest workforce in the UK either directly or through contracts. There are few activities in any locality in which the local authority (or council) does not have an interest, be it sport, industry, commerce, leisure or crime prevention. Local government provides vital local services, all of which affect everyone�s lives and benefit the local community. All local authorities derive their existence and their powers and functions from Parliament and the central government. Parliament can take powers away or add to them, and it can even abolish any particular authority. The Local Government Act of 1972 reorganized the whole system, bringing a new structure into effect in 1974. This was partly revised in 1986. Traditionally, the most important local area is the county. It is the largest local unit of government. England has been divided into counties for more than 1,000 years. Within the counties the oldest (and the smallest) units are the parishes. These are the local communities or villages which were originally centred on the churches. Although they still survive and have elected parish councils they now have almost no powers of their own. As they have very small budgets parish councils are only involved in small scale local activities. However all parish councils do have a significant role in representing the interests of their residents to the larger councils operating in their area. The districts are more recent creations. Some are the direct descendants of the self governing towns (called boroughs or cities) that grew up in medieval times. Most districts today, however, are modern amalgamations of parishes or groups of parishes. England (with the exception of Greater London) and Wales are divided into fifty-three counties, within which there are 369 districts. Forty-seven of these counties, which are �non-metropolitan�, and all districts, have independent and locally elected councils. In Greater London itself the local government authorities are the councils of thirty-two London boroughs and the Corporation of the City of London while the six metropolitan counties (Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire) are divided into thirty-six district councils. In mainland Scotland there are nine regions, divided into fifty-three districts, and there are three all-purpose authorities for the island groups, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. In Northern Ireland much is administered by twenty-six district councils.