Local government in London explained

Local government in Greater London, England takes place in two tiers; an upper tier and a lower tier. The upper tier authority is the Greater London Authority (GLA), controlled by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The lower tier authorities are the 32 borough councils and the City of London Corporation in the City of London.[1]

Upper tier

The Greater London Authority consists of two elected parts. They are the Mayor of London, who has executive powers, and the London Assembly, who scrutinise the Mayor's decisions and can accept or reject his budget proposals each year. The GLA is responsible for strategic planning, policing, the fire service, most aspects of transport and economic development. It is a recent organisation, having been set up in 2000 to replace the similar Greater London Council (GLC) which had been abolished in 1986.[1] The headquarters of the GLA and the Mayor of London is at City Hall. The current Mayor of London is Sadiq Khan who was elected in 2016, replacing Boris Johnson, who served two terms.

Health services in London are managed by the national government through the National Health Service, which is controlled and administered in London by a single strategic health authority called NHS London.[2]

Timeline for leaders of London-wide government

Timeline

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DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyyPeriod = from:01/04/1964 till:01/01/2029TimeAxis = orientation:horizontalScaleMajor = unit:year increment:8 start:01/04/1964

Colors = id:con value:rgb(0.094,0.525,0.8) legend:Conservative id:lab value:rgb(0.937,0.094,0.129) legend:Labour id:ind value:rgb(0.8,0.8,0.8) legend:Independent

Legend = columns:4 left:150 top:24 columnwidth:100

TextData = pos:(20,27) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:"Leaders:"

BarData = barset:PM bar:Fiske bar:Plummer bar:Goodwin bar:Cutler bar:Livingstone bar:none bar:Johnson bar:KhanPlotData= width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:PM bar:Fiske from: 01/04/1964 till: 01/04/1967 color:lab text:"Fiske" fontsize:10

bar:Plummer from: 01/04/1967 till: 01/04/1973 color:con text:"Plummer" fontsize:10

bar:Goodwin from: 01/04/1973 till: 01/04/1977 color:lab text:"Goodwin" fontsize:10

bar:Cutler from: 01/04/1977 till: 17/05/1981 color:con text:"Cutler" fontsize:10

bar:Livingstone from: 17/05/1981 till: 31/03/1986 color:lab text:"Livingstone" fontsize:10

bar:none from: 31/03/1986 till: 02/05/1997 color:darkblue fontsize:10 from: 02/05/1997 till: 04/05/2000 color:red text:"No London government" fontsize:10

bar:Livingstone from: 04/05/2000 till: 10/06/2004 color:ind fontsize:10 from: 10/06/2004 till: 04/05/2008 color:lab text:"Livingstone" fontsize:10

bar:Johnson from: 04/05/2008 till: 09/05/2016 color:con text:"Johnson" fontsize:10

bar:Khan from: 09/05/2016 till: 01/01/2028 color:lab text:"Khan" fontsize:10

Lower tier

The 33 local authorities are the 32 London borough councils and the City of London Corporation.[1] They are responsible for local services not overseen by the GLA, such as local planning, schools, social services, local roads and refuse collection. The London boroughs each have a council made up from representatives from political parties and single issue organisations elected every four years by local residents

The City of London does not have a conventional local authority, but is governed by the historic City of London Corporation which is elected by both residents and businesses, and which has existed more or less unchanged since the Middle Ages. The head of the Corporation is the Lord Mayor of the City of London, which is a different position from that of Mayor of London. The City of London also has its own police force: The City of London Police, which is independent of the Metropolitan Police Service which covers the rest of Greater London. Within the City of London are two liberties, the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, which are local authorities for most purposes to the present day.[3]

  1. City of London
  2. City of Westminster
  3. Kensington and Chelsea
  4. Hammersmith and Fulham
  5. Wandsworth
  6. Lambeth
  7. Southwark
  8. Tower Hamlets
  9. Hackney
  10. Islington
  11. Camden
  12. Brent
  13. Ealing
  14. Hounslow
  15. Richmond
  16. Kingston
  17. Merton
  18. Sutton
  19. Croydon
  20. Bromley
  21. Lewisham
  22. Greenwich
  23. Bexley
  24. Havering
  25. Barking and Dagenham
  26. Redbridge
  27. Newham
  28. Waltham Forest
  29. Haringey
  30. Enfield
  31. Barnet
  32. Harrow
  33. Hillingdon

Civil parishes

The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 allowed the creation of civil parishes (and parish councils) within London boroughs, if local residents request their creation through a petition. Prior to this, civil parishes were not permitted within Greater London.[4] [5] However, only one civil parish has been created within London at Queen's Park in 2014.[6] The vast majority of London is unparished.

Notes and References

  1. http://www.gatewaysmoving.com/about_moving_to_london_england_uk.htm History and general information.
  2. http://www.nhs.uk/england/authoritiestrusts/sha/MapSearch.aspx?rg=Y21 Strategic Health Authorities > Map Search
  3. http://www.middletemple.org.uk/the_inn/middle-temple-as-a-local-authority.html Middle Temple
  4. Web site: Sandford . Mark . Parish and town councils: recent issues . House of Commons Library . 10 January 2022 . 15 May 2015.
  5. Book: Guidance on Community Governance Reviews. Department for Communities and Local Government. 2010. 978-1-4098-2421-3. London. https://web.archive.org/web/20101201032220/http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/1527635.pdf. 2010-12-01. 2010-09-11. live.
  6. News: Queen's Park parish gets go-ahead. BBC News. 29 May 2012.