1990s UK local government reform
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 authories were created. No changes were made to local government in
Northern Ireland.
Prior to the 1970s, the UK had had a mixed system of local government, with someareas 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.
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Counties and unitary authorities of England from 1986 to 1995. |
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.
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
Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 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,
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.
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
traditional 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.
The process of reform in
England was greatly different to those in
Scotland or
Wales.
Parliament passed the
Local Government Act in
1992, allowing the
Secretary of State to order the
Local Government Commission for England to undertake 'structural reviews' in specified areas. Initially the Secretary of State was
Michael Heseltine, who had been a junior local government minister during the passage of the
Local Government Act 1972, and expressed enthusiasm for unitary local government. Heseltine was replaced by
Michael Howard in April 1992, after the
1992 general election.
The Commission, chaired by
John Banham, started the reviews in July
1992. The process was originally supposed to be take some years, with the shire counties being considered in five waves, or 'tranches', and it was hoped that the reforms would come into effect from
1994 (the first batch) to
1998 (the fifth batch). However, the process took longer than expected. The first tranche of reviews, covering
Avon,
Cleveland,
County Durham,
Gloucestershire, the
Isle of Wight,
Humberside,
Lincolnshire,
North Yorkshire and
Somerset was nearly done by the end of
1993. Banham had said that the Commission was expecting 'early wins' in Cleveland, Humberside and Avon.
In November 1993, a new Secretary of State,
John Gummer (who had taken over in May) greatly accelerated the program of work. He directed the Commission to start reviews of all remaining shire counties the next month, and that they should be finished by the end of
1994. He also revised the guidance given, making it clear that wholly unitary solutions should be preferred, particularly ones smaller than existing counties but larger than existing districts.
Lancashire and
Derbyshire County Councils had taken the revised guidance to the
High Court, seeking a
judicial review that it was illegal. On
January 28, the High Court ruled in their favour, implying that the Commission should consider retaining the status quo, either in part or wholly, as an option as well.
The first proposal was the quite uncontroversial one to make
Isle of Wight a single unitary authority. The island had been split quite artificially between
South Wight and
Medina boroughs, with a Wight County Council, since
1974.
From the first tranche, the commission recommended that
Avon,
Cleveland and
Humberside should be abolished and broken up into four unitary authorities each. It also recommended that the rump
Somerset be broken up into three unitary authorities. It suggested that North Yorkshire be split into three unitary authorities - one for
York, and two others to be called 'West Riding of Yorkshire' and 'North Riding of Yorkshire' (the proposed West Riding would have taken in only a small part of the historic
West Riding of Yorkshire, whilst the proposed North Riding would have included most of the historic
North Riding of Yorkshire). It recommended no change in
Lincolnshire and
Gloucestershire. The government accepted most of these recommendations, but also kept the status quo in Somerset, and in North Yorkshire retained a rump two-tier North Yorkshire without York. These changes were implemented in
1996.
From the second and later tranches, it recommended
Buckinghamshire,
Bedfordshire and
Berkshire county councils to be abolished. Elsewhere, it operated rather inconsistently. Some counties were recommended to have no change, others to be split into large unitary authorities, with large districts sometimes being recommended for unitary status, but sometimes not. In early
1995, soon after the report had been delivered, John Banham resigned as head of the Commission.
In
Buckinghamshire and
Bedfordshire it did not accept the recommendations of the Commission, which was for an entirely unitary structure, and decided to only make
Luton and
Milton Keynes unitary, with the rest of those counties retaining a two-tier structure. The proposal to abolish Berkshire County Council was accepted, however. This had been strongly supported by the County Council earlier, though as implementation drew closer, and the political composition of the Council altered, it changed its mind. Another county council that was recommended to be abolished was
Dorset, where four unitary authorities were proposed. Two of these were accepted,
Bournemouth and
Poole, whilst the rest of the county remained two-tier. Most of the recommendations from this round of the review were implemented in
1997, a few being held over till 1998.
In many counties that were to remain unchanged, the government accepted the Report, with reservations about specific districts. The Environment Secretary referred the cases of twenty-one districts to a reconstituted commission, under
David Cooksey. These were
Basildon,
Blackburn,
Blackpool,
Broxtowe,
Dartford,
Exeter,
Gedling,
Gillingham,
Gloucester,
Gravesham,
Halton,
Huntingdonshire,
Northampton,
Norwich,
Peterborough,
Rochester upon Medway,
Rushcliffe,
Spelthorne,
Thurrock,
Warrington, and
the Wrekin. About half of these were accepted by the Commission, and these changes were implemented in
1998.
Timetable
On
April 1,
1995, the
Isle of Wight became a single unitary authority. It had previously had a two-tier structure with an Isle of Wight County Council; and a
Medina Borough Council and a
South Wight Borough Council. Also on this day, two small areas were ceded from
Surrey and
Buckinghamshire to
Berkshire, giving it a border with
Greater London.
On
April 1,
1996, the unpopular counties of
Avon,
Humberside and
Cleveland were abolished and their districts turned into unitary authorities. Avon became
Bath and North East Somerset,
North Somerset,
South Gloucestershire and
Bristol. Cleveland's districts merely became unitary authorities directly, without any boundary changes. The part of
Humberside north of the
River Humber and traditionally part of
Yorkshire became part of the new
East Riding of Yorkshire, apart from
Hull, which constituted a unitary authority itself. In the Lincolnshire part of Humberside, two new unitary authorities,
North Lincolnshire and
North East Lincolnshire, were formed. Also at this time, the
City of York was expanded and separated from
North Yorkshire.
On
April 1,
1997, the districts of
Bournemouth,
Darlington,
Derby,
Leicester,
Luton,
Milton Keynes,
Poole,
Portsmouth,
Rutland and
Southampton became unitary authorities. Also, the districts of
Brighton and
Hove were merged to form the new unitary authority of
Brighton and Hove.
On
April 1,
1998,
Blackpool,
Blackburn with Darwen,
Halton,
Medway,
Nottingham,
Peterborough,
Plymouth,
Swindon,
Stoke-on-Trent,
Southend-on-Sea,
Telford and Wrekin,
Torbay,
Thurrock and
Warrington became unitary authorities. Also,
Hereford and Worcester was abolished and replaced by the unitary authority of
Herefordshire and the shire county of
Worcestershire.
Berkshire was split into six unitary authorities, but not formally abolished.
Impact
In
Avon and
Humberside, which were being abolished, the successor unitary authorities were mergers of existing
districts. Apart from these, nearly all the others were created using existing
district boundaries, which had been set in
1974 (and in many cases had been unrevised since the
1930s). There was only one expansion (
York) and two mergers -
Brighton and
Hove into
Brighton and Hove, and
Rochester and
Gillingham into
Medway.
Some quite large districts that had been historic county boroughs were not granted unitary status. The largest of these was
Northampton, with a population of about 200,000.
The local government reform did not affect
police force areas, or fire and rescue service areas.
The
ceremonial counties were also affected by this reform. Avon, Humberside and Cleveland were abolished for ceremonial purposes. In Avon, the parts were allocated to their original
Somerset and
Gloucestershire, with
Bristol being restored as a ceremonial county in its own right. Cleveland was simply partitioned between
County Durham and
North Yorkshire. Humberside was split between
Lincolnshire and the new ceremonial
East Riding of Yorkshire (including Hull).
Herefordshire,
Rutland, and
Worcestershire were also restored as ceremonial counties.
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The experience in West Sussex -
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