How is local government organised?

The structure and functions of Local Government in England, Scotland and Wales has developed over centuries and changes are still being implemented. Currently Local Government is structured in two ways – In some areas there are Single Tier Authorities and in other areas there are Two-tier Authorities.

Participatory Budgeting can be used at any level of local government to involve local citizens.

Single Tier Authorities

These authorities have the power to provide all local government services, in other words they are “all purpose councils”. In Scotland and Wales all local government is in the form of Single Tier Authorities. But in England there are both Single Tier and Two-Tier Authorities.

In Scotland there are 32 Unitary Authorities.

In Wales there are 22 Unitary Authorities.

In England there are three types of Unitary Authorities:

• 36 Metropolitan Authorities covering the densely populated urban areas.
• 33 London Boroughs
• 47 English Shire Unitary Authorities. An additional nine new Unitary Authorities will be created in 2009; these include Bedford, Chester, Cornwall, County Durham. Exeter, Ipswich, Wiltshire, Northumberland and Shropshire.

Two-tier Authorities in England

In areas where there are two-tier authorities the local government services are divided between County Councils and District Councils.

In England there are:

·         34 County Councils.

·         238 District Councils.

Town and Parish Councils

In some areas there are parish and town councils which are the lowest level of local government. Parish councils are responsible for such things as bus shelters, burial grounds, allotments, Christmas lights and village halls. There are over 8,000 town and parish councils in England, mainly in rural and semi-rural areas.  Town and  Parish councils are not subject to the same restrictions on funding.  Although they have much smaller budgets than  unitary or two-tier councils,  they have much more freedom over how it's spent and  because they cover much smaller areas they are often best placed for involving their local communities in how money is spent. 

Revenue

Local authorities raise their income in a number of different ways, with the local council tax raising around 25% of the total local authority revenue. The rest is made up of central government grants, which at around 48% forms the greatest part of local government income. The Non-domestic Rate is charged to businesses and this raised about 25% of revenue. The remainder is made up by charges for services, reserves and capital loans.

Partnerships and Regional Authorities

Local Authorities often work in partnership with other public private and community sector organisations and also relate to wider regional structures.  These include the Regional Empowerment Consortia (REC), Regional Improvement & Efficiency Partnerships (RIEPs) and Regional Development Agencies (RDA).  Local Strategic Partnerships or Local Authorities might work together with any of these agencies and other LSPs or authorities and form Multi-area Agreements (MAAs) which set out how services might be delivered over a larger regional area.  These services might be transport infrastructure, waste & recycling collection & disposal, and physical regeneration. 

Local Strategic Partnerships

Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) are statutory, partnerships, which match local authority boundaries. Partners include the local authority,  local health services, police, emergency services, businesses and representatives of the voluntary & community sector.  LSPs bring together at a local level the different parts of the public, private and community sectors, allowing different initiatives and services to support one another so that they can work together more effectively. LSPs aim to deliver better services to local people.   LSPs must develop a community strategy which  outlines the aims and ambitions for the local area  for the next 10 years.  Local people  must be involved in setting those aims and ambitions.

Local Area Agreements

A local area agreement (LAA) is a three-year agreement between a LSP and central government. The LAA describes how the aims and ambitions in the community strategy will be met by achieving targets set by government and the LSP. It also contributes to national priorities set out by the Government.  The LAA is negotiated between the local strategic partnership and the regional Government Office. The local authority negotiates the LAA on behalf of its LSP and is the only body accountable to government.

Click here for a diagram of how it all fits together