Regions of England
The
region, also known as
Government Office Region, is currently the highest tier of
local government subnational entity of
England in the
United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom was divided into regions by
John Major's government in 1994 following the
Maastricht Treaty. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland had each constituted a region with England requiring further division. The English regions, which initially numbered ten, replaced the
existing regional structure.
Merseyside originally constituted a region in itself. In 1998 it was merged into the
North West England region; creating the nine present-day regions. [
1]
Current
In 1998 regional assemblies were created in each region. The powers of the assemblies are limited and, other than London, they are not directly elected. Each region has a
Government Office and associated institutions, including a
Regional Development Agency. As there are no regional elections, local representatives on regional assemblies are nominated by the councils of their sub divisions and 30% of members come from regional stakeholders.
Since 1999 the regions have been used as England's
European Parliament constituencies [
2] and as statistical
NUTS level 1 regions. Since
1 July 2006, there have been ten
NHS Strategic Health Authorities, each of which corresponds to a region, except for
South East England, which is divided into western and eastern parts.
Future
The regions are to be used for
fire brigade co-ordination in the future, with one headquarters for each region. [
3] The current plans for consolidating the number of
police forces propose merging forces within the confines of the current
Government Office regions.
Ofcom has tentatively proposed a telephone numbering plan with a
wide area code (020, 021, 022 etc.) used for each government office region. [
4] [
5]
Elected assemblies
As power was to be devolved to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales without a counterweight in England, a series of referenda were planned to establish elected regional assemblies in some of the regions. The first was held in London in 1998 and was successfully passed. The
London Assembly and
Mayor of London of the
Greater London Authority were created in 2000. A referendum was held in North East England on
4 November 2004 but was rejected. Plans to hold further referenda in other regions were then cancelled.
Local government in England does not follow a uniform structure. Therefore each region is divided into a range of
further sub divisions. London is divided into
London boroughs while the other regions are divided into
metropolitan counties,
shire counties and
unitary authorities. Counties are further divided into
districts and some areas are also
parished. Regions are also divided into sub-regions which usually group socio-economically linked local authorities together. However, the sub-regions have no official status and are little-used other than for strategic planning purposes.
There is opposition to an increased role for the regions and of the introduction of further elected regional assemblies. The
Conservative Party's current policies do not include further regionalisation.
Criticisms range from claims that regions remove powers from other levels of local government or that as
regions of the EU they are unsuited to English needs for local governance. The geographical scope of the regions has also been criticised with claims that places too socio-economically diverse are contained within the same region.
Alternative proposals range from retaining the current structure, replacement with
city regions or providing an elected body for the whole of England.
*
Historical and alternative regions of England*
List of articles about local government in the United Kingdom*
Boundary committee for England*
Boundary committee's map*
Regional Gateway*
Government Offices for the English Regions*
English Regions Network (English regional assemblies)
