Subdivisions of England

History

The 1974 reform of local government established the tier structure throughout England with county authorities in metropolitan and Greater London also existing, 1986 reform abolished these. From the 1996 reform the structure's use has been declining, 21 tiered areas remain out of the original 48. The county tier provides the majority of services, including education and social services while the 164 district-tier councils have a more limited role.

New local administrative subdivisions in England have generally evolved through path dependence, with new units often created by merging smaller, lower-tier areas.

Regional divisions

Regions

Main article: Regions of England

At the highest level, all of England is divided into nine regions that are each made up of a number of counties and districts. These "government office regions" were created in 1994, and from the 1999 Euro-elections up until the UK's exit from the EU, they were used as the European Parliament constituencies in the United Kingdom and in England's European Parliament constituencies.

The regions vary greatly in their areas covered, populations and contributions to the national economy. All have the same status, except London which has substantive devolved powers.

There was a failed attempt to create elected regional assemblies outside London in 2004 and after then the structures of regional governance (regional assemblies, regional development agencies and local authority leaders' boards) have been subject to review.

Prior to the government office regions established in 1994, England was divided into eight economic planning regions. These originated in the civil defence regions established during the Second World War.

List of regions

Combined authority areas

Main article: Combined authority

Outside London, the primary administrative body above the upper-tier or unitary local authority is the combined authority or combined county authority. Each combined authority covers a combined authority area, made up of the territories of each constituent council. The combined authority areas can be coterminous with another, pre-existing subdivision, such as counties. The first combined authority was the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, established in 2010, covering the ceremonial and metropolitan county of Greater Manchester. Other combined authorities exist within or beyond previously existing boundaries. For example, the unitary authority area of the Borough of Halton, part of Cheshire for ceremonial purposes, joined with the metropolitan boroughs of Merseyside to form the Liverpool City Region.

Counties

Main article: Counties of England

Counties have been a subdivision of England since they were established in the period between the 7th and 11th centuries. Counties have served an administrative role since then; Parr (2020) describes them as the 'most noticeable example' of path dependence in England's local government geography.

Ceremonial and historic counties

Main article: Ceremonial counties of England, Historic counties of England

For non-administrative purposes, England is wholly divided into 48 ceremonial counties. These are used for the purposes of appointing Lords Lieutenant who are the Crown's representatives in those areas as well as a way of grouping non-metropolitan counties. They are taken into consideration when drawing up Parliamentary constituency boundaries. Ceremonial counties are commonly named after historic counties, the ceremonial county acts as an in between for the administrative boundaries and long established areas used in fields such as sport.

Non-metropolitan and metropolitan counties

Main article: Counties of England#Local government

County-tier councils and each unitary authority are separate non-metropolitan counties, each non-metropolitan county can be known as a district, city or borough. Berkshire is an anomaly in this arrangement whereby its districts became unitary authorities, the non-metropolitan county remain to keep the title of Royal county, in the same way the metropolitan county remained when the county-tier councils were abolished. Each correspond to an administrative body.

Non-metropolitan districts can also be a borough, city or district. Unitary authority areas are joint non-metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan districts.

List of two-tier non-metropolitan counties

Sub-county divisions

Local government districts

The districts of England originate in the 1834 Poor Law reforms, which amalgamated multiple parishes to form Poor Law unions. These areas were later used as the basis for census registration districts and sanitary districts. 1984 reforms to sub-county government created urban districts and rural districts as a standard lower-tier layer of local government beneath administrative counties.

The 1970s local government reforms replaced the administrative counties and county boroughs with non-metropolitan counties and metropolitan counties, covering the whole of England outside of London. The lower tier of government below the non-metropolitan counties were non-metropolitan districts.

Since 1992, many local authorities have been made unitary authorities, or new unitary authorities have been established to replace the previous two-tier local authorities in a particular area. This has led to either the local government district or county being, in effect, abolished.

County borough

County boroughs were wholly independent urban centres that existed between 1888 and 1974. County boroughs were independent of the administrative county.

Metropolitan boroughs and London

In 1986, the county-tier was abolished with the London boroughs, Metropolitan boroughs and combined boards remaining. Apart from status these boroughs have the same powers to unitary authorities.

London Boroughs and the City of London

The Greater London administrative area was created in 1965 with 32 boroughs, excluding the City of London.

Miscellaneous

The Isles of Scilly are governed by a sui generis local authority called the Council of the Isles of Scilly. The authority was established in 1890 as the Isles of Scilly Rural District Council. It was renamed but otherwise unreformed by the changes in local government that occurred in 1974 in the rest of England outside Greater London. Although effectively a unitary authority, for example it is an education authority, the Isles of Scilly are part of the Cornwall ceremonial county and combine with Cornwall Council for services such as health and economic development.

The ancient City of London is the only part of Greater London not within a London borough; it is governed by the City of London Corporation, a sui generis authority unlike any other in England that has largely avoided any of the reforms of local government in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Civil parishes

Main article: Civil parishes in England

The civil parish is the most local unit of government in England. A parish is governed by a parish council or parish meeting, which exercises a limited number of functions that would otherwise be delivered by the local authority. There is one civil parish in Greater London (Queen's Park, in the City of Westminster), and not all of the rest of England is parished. The number of parishes and total area parished is growing.

List of unitary authority areas

Hierarchical list of regions, strategic authorities, counties and districts

Notes

References

References

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