Reorganisation, Reorganisation, Reorganisation: The Changing Map of Local Government

Abstract

Central government can take one of two different approaches to local government reorganisation: a system-wide ‘root and branch’ approach or one focusing on a particular type of authority or part of the country. After 60 years of relative structural stability, two royal commissions were established, the Herbert Commission (which reported in 1961) which dealt with the Greater London metropolis and the Redcliffe-Maud Commission (which reported in 1969) which covered the rest of England. Both were tasked with recommending a structure which took into account the large increase in journey-to-work traffic particularly in and around Greater London and the major provincial city regions. In each case a two-tier county-district system was the eventual outcome, but with districts composed of amalgamations of existing urban and rural authorities, which severed the link between community identity and local authority definition. Subsequent reorganisations (the abolition of GLC and the metropolitan counties (1986), the Banham Commission (1995) and the Labour government’s 2006–08 initiative), all partial reorganisations, have continued the move to larger local authorities, with the introduction of unitary (all-purpose) authorities becoming increasingly common.