LOCAL AND REGIONAL STRUCTURES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
The United Kingdom is a unitary state with certain characteristics of a more federal state, following the implementation from 1997 of the devolution agenda in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Local government
Local authorities
In general, councillors are elected for a 4 year term, on the “first past the post” system.
- England: 34 county councils, 238 non-metropolitan district councils in the "two-tier" areas; 36 metropolitan district councils, 46 "new unitaries", and 33 London local authorities (see below), which are unitary councils, in the "single-tier" areas.
From the mid-1970s the pattern outside of London was, for the more rural areas, a two-tier structure of county councils, and smaller district councils (or boroughs), and in the more urban areas metropolitan county councils and metropolitan district councils. In the 1980s and 1990s, the metropolitan county counties (e.g. West Midlands MCC) were abolished, leaving the metropolitan districts as unitary councils.
In London, there are 32 London Boroughs, plus the Corporation of the City of London (the financial centre of the capital). The Greater London Authority, set up in 2000, is seen as a regional authority.
- Wales: 22 Welsh unitary authorities
- Scotland: 32 Scottish unitary authorities
- Northern Ireland: There are 26 Northern Ireland district councils whose competences are more limited than elsewhere in the UK, mainly covering local services such as leisure and environmental health.
Note: In England and Wales, most councils now operate with a division between a small Executive and the remainder of the council, which performs a "scrutiny" function on the activities of the Executive. A dozen councils have adopted the system of a directly elected, executive Mayor. In many other councils, the office of Mayor is an honorific position, for one year, with the Mayor chairing the council meetings.
Competences
Counties: education, social services, highways and transport, strategic planning advice, fire, waste disposal, libraries.
Districts: local planning, housing, licensing, building control, environmental health, waste collection, park and leisure services.
Unitary authorities have the competences of both counties and districts.
The police service is based on separate Police Authorities, generally covering a number of local authority areas, with a majority of the members of the Police Authority being local councillors.
Local authorities do not have responsibility for medical health services or for water and sewerage services: the former are provided by the National Health Service, the latter by private companies.
Note: In addition to the local authorities referred to above, there are over 12,000 very local bodies (parishes, community councils, town councils). Most of these have small elected bodies to look after local interests.
Further information from:
Regional government
- Since 1999, the Scottish Parliament, with a Scottish Executive (government) has had legislative powers over a wide range of matters – effectively, all issues except those reserved to the UK Parliament. Its competences include education, health, environment, agriculture, justice, social work, planning and local government.
- The Welsh Assembly also came into existence in 1999. It has weaker legislative powers (mainly on secondary legislation, giving more detailed effect to UK Parliament measures). Its competences include policy development and implementation in agriculture, culture, economic development, education, environmental health, highways and transport, social services, housing, planning and local government.
- The Northern Ireland Assembly came fully into being in 1999. It has been suspended more than once due to difficulties arising from the complex political situation. Its main competences include education, health and agriculture, with the possibility of further powers being transferred to it at a later date.
- In England, the only directly elected regional authority is the Greater London Authority, which has an Assembly of 25 elected members, with a strong executive Mayor, directly elected. Its main competences include public transport, sustainable development planning, fire and emergency planning, and the Metropolitan Police.
In the rest of England, legislation now permits the setting up of elected regional assemblies, but only if there is a positive popular vote by referendum to do so. At present, no regional assembly has been set up. A referendum to decide whether to establish the first directly elected Assembly, in the North East of England, was held in November 2004, and by a large majority the proposal was rejected.
However, the eight regions outside of London do have indirectly-elected regional chambers (generally also called assemblies). These contain elected councilors representing the local authorities within that region, and they play an important coordinating and deliberative role in relation to local authority services, particularly land-use and transportation planning. They also have a statutory consultative relationship with their RDA (see below), and liaise closely with the Government Office for their region, which includes civil servants from a range of government ministries, and which represents a significant vehicle for administrative decentralisation.
70 per cent of the members of the chambers are elected councilors from the local authorities; the other 30 per cent are "social partners", including representatives from the business community, trade unions, environmental and other voluntary organisations.
The Government also established at the end of the 1990s Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in each of the English regions. These have a strong business presence, whose task is mainly strategic economic development, and the disbursement of significant central Government and EU grant-aid. The RDA Boards include four representatives appointed from local government in the region.
