Everything about 1990s Uk Local Government Reform totally explained
The structure of
local government in the United Kingdom underwent large changes in the
1990s. The system of two-tier local government introduced in the
1970s by the
Local Government Act 1972 and the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 was abolished in
Scotland and
Wales on
April 1,
1996, and replaced with
unitary authorities. In
England, some areas remained two-tier but many unitary authorities were created. No changes were made to local government in
Northern Ireland.
Background
Prior to the 1970s, the UK had had a mixed system of local government, with some
areas being covered by a
county council and a more local district council, while large towns had only a single tier of authority (in
England and Wales these were termed
county boroughs, and in
Scotland 'counties of cities'). The Acts abolished the existing county boroughs or counties of cities, and created a uniform two-tier system of government with regions or counties, and districts.
In
1986,
Margaret Thatcher's government abolished the county councils of the six
metropolitan counties that had been created in 1974, along with the
Greater London Council, effectively creating 68 new 'county boroughs', or
unitary authorities.
In
1990, Thatcher's government introduced the Community Charge, popularly known as the
Poll Tax, a new way of funding local councils based on a fixed per-head fee. This proved very unpopular, and led to
riots. Eventually, Thatcher was ousted by her own party, and the new
Conservative leader and
Prime Minister,
John Major, was pledged to abolish the Community Charge.
Legislation for the
Council Tax was introduced and passed in the
1991/
1992 session. Also at this time (opponents have said that it was as a cover), the government took the opportunity to review the structure of local government throughout
Great Britain.
England
The Local Government Commission for England was established under the
Local Government Act 1992, allowing the
Secretary of State to order the Commission to undertake 'structural reviews' in specified areas, to create
unitary authorities in the two-tier
shire counties. After much political debate, the Commission's proposals resulted in the abolition of the counties of
Avon,
Cleveland,
Hereford and Worcester and
Humberside, created in 1974, the county council of
Berkshire, and the creation of unitary authorities covering many of the larger urban districts of England.
Scotland
The previous system in
Scotland had been the
regions and districts. These were quite unbalanced in terms of population — the
Strathclyde region had nineteen districts and over two million people, whereas the
Borders region had four districts and only 100,000 people.
The Act established 29 new '
council areas', and retained the three
Island Councils. Variance in population was much less in the council areas, with just over half a million in the largest authority,
City of Glasgow, compared to 50,000 in the smallest on the mainland,
Clackmannanshire. These are however outliers, and only six are outside the range 75,000 to 250,000.
In some cases the names of
traditional counties were revived as administrative areas, although often with vastly different borders.
Wales
In
Wales the existing system was replaced with a new unitary system, of
counties and county boroughs, the only difference between them now being the name (and the councils of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport are styled as cities).
The
1974 reform in Wales had abandoned use of the names of the
historic counties of Wales as local government areas. This was partially reversed in
1996, with
Anglesey,
Carmarthenshire,
Cardiganshire,
Denbighshire,
Flintshire,
Monmouthshire and
Pembrokeshire all reappearing as local government areas, although not necessarily with their traditional borders.
The names and areas of the administrative counties abolished in 1996 remained in use (with modifications) as the
preserved counties of Wales for purposes such as
Lieutenancy.
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