Local Government Act 1972
The
Local Government Act 1972 (1972 c. 70) is an
Act of Parliament in the
United Kingdom, that reformed
local government in
England and Wales, on
April 1,
1974.
Its pattern of two-tier
metropolitan and non-metropolitan county and
district councils remains in use today in large parts of
England, although the Metropolitan County Councils were abolished in 1986 and it was replaced with
unitary authorities in many areas in the 1990s. In
Wales, it established a similar pattern of administrative counties and
districts. These have since been entirely replaced with a
system of unitary authorities. In
Scotland, the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 established a similar system of two-tier
regions and districts in
1975 — this was also replaced by a
system of unitary council areas in 1996.
Elections were held to the new authorities in 1973, and they acted as 'shadow authorities' until the handover date. Elections to non-metropolitan county councils were held on
April 12, those to non-metropolitan district councils were held on
June 7. [
1]
Elected
County councils had been established in England and Wales for the first time in
1888, coveringareas known as administrative counties. Some large towns, known as
county boroughs were politically independent from the counties they were physically situated in. The county areas were two-tier, with many
municipal borough,
urban district and
rural districts within them, each with its own council.
Apart from the creation of new county boroughs, the most significant change since
1899 (and the establishment of
metropolitan boroughs in the
County of London) had been the establishment in
1965 of
Greater London and its thirty-two
London boroughs, covering a much larger area than the previous county. Two pairs of small administrative counties were also merged at this time, to form
Huntingdon and Peterborough and
Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely. However, the Local Government Commission was routinely having its recommendations ignored (such as its proposal to abolish
Rutland as a county authority).
It was generally agreed that there were significant problems with the structure of local government. Despite mergers, there was still a proliferation of small district councils in rural areas, and in the major conurbations the borders had been set before the pattern of urban development had become clear. For example, the area that was to become the seven boroughs of the metropolitan county of
West Midlands, local government was split between three administrative counties (
Staffordshire,
Warwickshire, and
Worcestershire), and eight county boroughs (
Birmingham,
Coventry,
Dudley,
Solihull,
Walsall,
Warley,
West Bromwich, and
Wolverhampton).
The
Redcliffe-Maud commission was set up in
1966. In
1969 it recommended a system of single-tier
unitary authorities for the whole of England, apart from three metropolitan areas of
Merseyside,
Selnec (Greater Manchester) and
West Midlands (
Birmingham and the
Black Country), which were to have both a metropolitan council and district councils.
This report was accepted by the
Labour Party government of the time, but the
Conservative Party won the
1970 general election, and on a manifesto that committed them to 'two-tiers everywhere'.
The Act abolished previous existing local government structures, and created a two-tier system of counties and districts everywhere. Some of the new counties were designated
metropolitan counties, containing
metropolitan boroughs instead. The allocation of functions differed between the metropolitan and the non-metropolitan areas (the so-called '
shire counties') — for example,
education and
social services were the responsibility of the shire counties, but in metropolitan areas was given to the districts. The distribution of powers was slightly different in Wales than in England, with libraries being a county responsibility in England — but in Wales districts could opt to become library authorities themselves.
Although called two-tier, the system was really three-tier, as it retained
civil parish councils, although in Wales they were renamed
community councils.
The Act introduced 'agency', where one local authority (usually a district) could act as an
agent for another authority. For example, since road maintenance was split depending upon the type of road, both types of council had to retain engineering departments. A county council could delegate its road maintenance to the district council if it was confident that the district was competent. Some powers were specifically excluded from agency, such as education.
The Act abolished various historic relics such as
aldermen. Many existing boroughs that were too small to constitute a district, but too large to constitute a
civil parish, were given
Charter Trustees.
Most provisions of the Act came into force at midnight on
April 1,
1974. Elections to the new councils had already been held, in
1973, and the new authorities were already up and running as 'shadow authorities', following the example set by the
London Government Act 1963.
The Act specified the composition and names of the English and Welsh counties, and the composition of the metropolitan and Welsh districts. It did not specify any names of districts, nor indeed the borders of the non-metropolitan districts — these were specified by
Statutory Instrument after the passing of the Act (specifically by The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Definition) Order 1972, SI 1972/2038).
In
England there were 46 counties and 296 districts, in Wales there were 8 and 37. Six of the English counties were designated as metropolitan counties. The new English counties were based clearly on the traditional ones, albeit with several substantial changes. The 13
traditional counties of Wales, however, were abandoned entirely for administrative purposes, and 8 new ones instituted.
In England prior to the passing of the Act there had been 1086 urban and rural districts and 79 county boroughs. The number of districts was reduced about fourfold.
England
*
Merseyside - based around
Liverpool, south-west
Lancashire, along with, from the other side of the
River Mersey, the
Wirral in north-west
Cheshire*
Greater Manchester - the
Manchester urban area along with many surrounding towns such as
Stockport and
Bolton*
South Yorkshire - based upon the
Sheffield-
Rotherham area in the
West Riding of Yorkshire*
Tyne and Wear - the
Tyneside conurbation based on
Newcastle-upon-Tyne in
Northumberland, along with
Sunderland in
County Durham*
West Midlands -
Birmingham,
Wolverhampton, the
Black Country and
Coventry*
West Yorkshire -
Leeds-
Bradford-
Huddersfield area in the
West RidingThree new administrative counties were formed focused on old
county boroughs as follows —:
*
Avon formed from northern
Somerset, southern
Gloucestershire, and
Bristol and
Bath*
Cleveland formed from southern
Durham and northern part of the
North Riding, focusing on the
Teesside conurbation along with
Guisborough and
Hartlepool*
Humberside formed from
eastern Yorkshire, particularly
Hull and northern
Lincolnshire around
Scunthorpe and
GrimsbyTwo were formed from mergers —:
*
Cumbria was formed from
Westmorland,
Cumberland and parts of
Lancashire (
Furness) and
Yorkshire (
Sedbergh Rural District)
*
Hereford and Worcester formed from the merger of
Herefordshire and the parts of
Worcestershire not in
West MidlandsOther changes to administrative boundaries were —:
*
Bournemouth and
Christchurch were ceded to
Dorset from
Hampshire*
County Durham took the
Startforth Rural District from the
North Riding*
East Suffolk and
West Suffolk were merged into
Suffolk*
Gatwick Airport was transferred from
Surrey to
West Sussex*
Lincolnshire was formed from
Kesteven,
Holland, and the parts of
Lindsey not in
Humberside*
Huntingdonshire and Peterborough was annexed by
Cambridgeshire*
Mid Sussex given from
East Sussex to
West Sussex*
Norfolk obtained a strip of land near
Great Yarmouth from
Suffolk including several villages
*
North Yorkshire formed from most of the
North Riding, along with parts of the
West Riding and the
East Riding*
Rutland was merged into
Leicestershire as a
district*
Slough and
Eton were ceded from
Buckinghamshire to
Berkshire*
Tintwistle Rural District ceded from
Cheshire to
Derbyshire, rather than become separated from Cheshire or become part of Greater Manchester
*
Vale of White Horse, including
Berkshire's former county town
Abingdon was ceded to
Oxfordshire, as was the
Municipal Borough of
Wallingford, and
Wallingford Rural District*small parts of the
West Riding of Yorkshire ceded to
Lancashire, including
Barnoldswick and
Earby*
Warrington and
Widnes,
Lancashire towns beyond the southern border of
Greater Manchester and
Merseyside annexed to
Cheshire*
Warwickshire was left being a very odd shape due to the inclusion of
Coventry in
West MidlandsThe only counties to survive entirely unchanged were
Cornwall,
Hertfordshire,
Isle of Wight,
Shropshire and
Wiltshire. Apart from these,
Devon,
Essex,
Kent,
Northamptonshire were only changed by the inclusion of
county boroughs.
Many proposals made by the government were actually later withdrawn in favour of more traditional boundaries. The metropolitan counties were significantly trimmed from their original conception before they ended up in the Draft Bill, and were trimmed further before they ended up in the Statute Book. For example,
Merseyside lost
Skelmersdale,
Ellesmere Port and
Runcorn, while
Greater Manchester lost
Glossop and
Wilmslow,
West Midlands lost
Kidderminster and
Telford (but gained
Coventry) and
Tyne and Wear lost
Easington. The Act as passed actually included
Charlwood and
Horley (along with
Gatwick Airport) from
Surrey into
West Sussex, but the 'Charlwood and Horley Act
1974' reversed this.
Cleveland and
Avon also experienced trimming at the edges, with Cleveland losing
Whitby and Avon losing
Frome. Other rejected reforms included the inclusion of
Lowestoft with
Norfolk,
Colchester with
Suffolk, and
Long Eaton with
Nottinghamshire.
The government stood firm on the existence or abolition of county councils. The
Isle of Wight (originally scheduled to be merged back into
Hampshire as a district) was the only local campaign to succeed, despite protests from
Rutland and
Herefordshire.
Wales
In
Wales the new administrative counties generally bore no relation to the
traditional counties. Apart from the new Glamorgan authorities, all the names were in the
Welsh language, with no English equivalent. The names were taken from ancient British kingdoms.
In the south,
Gwent was a successor authority to
Monmouthshire, covering virtually the same territory, and also including
Newport county borough.
Glamorgan was split into
South Glamorgan (with
Cardiff),
West Glamorgan (with
Swansea) and
Mid Glamorgan (with
Merthyr Tydfil). In mid and west Wales,
Dyfed was a merger of the administrative counties of
Cardiganshire,
Pembrokeshire and
Carmarthenshire.
Powys was formed from the merger of the administrative counties of
Brecknockshire,
Radnorshire and
Montgomeryshire, with those entities retained as
districts. In the north,
Gwynedd and
Clwyd were established, the former covering
Anglesey,
Caernarvonshire and most of
Merionethshire, the latter covering
Flintshire and most of
Denbighshire.
Map
Functions previously exercisable by local authorities were distributed broadly as so:
*
Sanitary authorities: districts, and London boroughs
*Water and sewerage: districts, London boroughs (provision for joint boards in London)
*Town and country planning: districts and counties
*Traffic: counties (main roads) and districts
*Gipsy sites: counties (?)
*Education: non-metropolitan counties and metropolitan districts
*Housing: districts
*Social services: non-metropolitan counties and metropolitan districts
*Police: counties
*Fire services: counties
*Food and drugs: counties and London boroughs, some Welsh districts
*Weights and measures: counties and London boroughs, some Welsh districts
*Passenger transport authorities: metropolitan counties
*Other bus services: non-metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan districts
*Licensed premises: districts
*Cinemas: districts
*Theatres: districts
*Rent tribunals: non-metropolitan counties and metropolitan districts
*Public libraries and museums: non-metropolitan counties, London boroughs and metropolitan districts, some Welsh districts
*Youth employment services: non-metropolitan counties and metropolitan districts
*Moneylenders licences: districts
*Pawnbroker licences: districts
*
Dog licences: districts
*Game licences: districts
*Crematoria: districts, London boroughs, parishes, communities
In many areas both authorities had some powers. For some powers, certain Welsh districts were allowed greater powers by the Secretary of State.
Despite assurances that the Act was not attempting to amend historic loyalties, it nonetheless used the term 'county' instead of 'administrative county' and redefined the
ceremonial counties used for purposes such as
Lieutenancy to these. Both of these decisions have been criticised strongly by groups seeking to preserve awareness of
traditional counties. The Act allowed the
Duchy of Lancaster to appoint Lord-Lieutenants for the shrunken
Lancashire along with all of
Greater Manchester and
Merseyside.
Other causes of outrage were the adoption of the new administrative counties by the makers of atlases, and the
Royal Mail in many cases adopting the changes. Whilst previous changes had been localised and so caused localised annoyance only, the 1974 reforms led to a wider movement (see
Association of British Counties).
Some of the reaction against the Act came not from people concerned with the preservation of traditional counties, but instead was motivated solely by opposition to change. The
Isle of Wight, for example, is historically part of
Hampshire, yet resisted efforts to reintegrate it administratively — the
county borough councils regretted the loss of their status. Especially stung was the
City and County of Bristol, which had had its own
Lord Lieutenant for centuries.
The system established, however, was not to last. In
England, the
county councils of the metropolitan counties (and the
Greater London Council) were abolished in
1986 by
Margaret Thatcher's government, effectively re-establishing county borough status for the metropolitan boroughs. A further local government reform in the
1990s led to the creation of many new
unitary authorities, and the complete abolition of
Avon,
Cleveland,
Hereford and Worcester and
Humberside.
In
Wales the two-tier system was abolished entirely in
1996, and replaced with the current
principal areas of Wales. The 1974 administrative counties have been retained as
preserved counties for various purposes, notably as ceremonial counties, albeit with substantive border revisions.
*
(Partial) Text of the Local Government Act 1972*
Text of The English Non-Metropolitan Districts Order 1972 (S.I 1972/2039)*Local Government Act 1972
*English Local Government Reformed (1974), John Redcliffe-Maud, Bruce Wood
