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A short history of London government

Historically local government in the capital has been shared between small vestries or boroughs, the City of London, and London-wide bodies such as the Metropolitan Board of Works, the London County Council, the Greater London Council and more recently, the Greater London Authority.

Created in 1889, the London County Council (LCC) was the first metropolitan-wide form of general local government. Its creation was forced by a succession of scandals involving its predecessor the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW). The MBW, which had run London's infrastructure such as roads and bridges, had not been directly elected.

The LCC was created as the principal administrative body for the County of London; a lower tier of 28 metropolitan boroughs was created in 1899, replacing the earlier parishes and vestries.

The LCC's administrative area was the County of London: an area smaller area than Greater London is now and corresponding to today's London Boroughs of Camden, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Westminster.

In 1906 the LCC bought up three adjacent plots of land on the eastern side of Westminster Bridge with the intention of developing a single headquarters. The County Hall, designed by Ralph Knott, and was officially opened in 1922.

1963 Establishment of the Greater London Council (GLC)

In 1963 the Government responded to the expansion of the London urban area into the Home Counties by creating the Greater London Council. Its first members were elected in 1965.

Created at the same time as the GLC, 32 London boroughs replaced the old London County Council and the metropolitan boroughs. The 28 metropolition boroughs that had covered the old LCC area were merged to form 12 London boroughs (referred to collectively as Inner London). The City Corporation, covering the old City of London, remained intact whilst a further 20 boroughs were added to form the outer London area.

Since Greater London Council was not an education authority, but the London County Council had been, an Inner London Education Authority was constituted to continue this role for the area of the old County of London. In outer London, the 20 boroughs were responsible for education.

The boroughs and the GLC covered a Greater London area of some 1,580 sq km and a population of over seven million.

Until 1986 the boroughs and the GLC provided a two-tier system of London government. Responsibility for services was split, and in some cases shared. Whilst the GLC was responsible for services such as London Transport, the fire and emergency planning, flood prevention, information and research, the boroughs had responsibility for environmental services, consumer protection, personal social services, libraries and swimming pools. For some services - such as roads, housing, planning and leisure - responsibility was shared.

1986 Abolition of the GLC

In 1983 in the run-up to the general election, the Conservative Party pledged to abolish the GLC and six other metropolitan county councils.

Following abolition in 1986, the services previously provided by the GLC were carved up between central government, the boroughs and a new set of London-wide bodies.

In the years following the GLC's abolition, the lack of a strategic authority fostered a sense of dissatisfaction among many politicians and amongst Londoners. It left a major gap in the capital's political structures. There was no longer any single, local organisation to take a democratic lead in tackling London-wide issues like transport, planning and regeneration.

This void was filled by ministerial decrees, quangos and groups set up by the London boroughs. Bodies such as the London Planning Advisory Committee, the London Research Centre, and the London Ecology Unit all arose out of the ashes of the GLC's abolition. In addition, the Government appointed a Transport Minister for London, a Cabinet sub-committee on London and created London First, a business-led organisation to promote London as a world city. In 1994 the Government Office for London was set up as part of a system of regional government offices throughout the country.

The re-establishment of regional government

One of the main manifesto pledges of the Labour Party in 1997 was a referendum on the re-introduction of a democratically elected strategic authority for London, with a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. The referendum, held in May 1998, endorsed the setting up of the Greater London Authority by a three to one majority.

The Greater London Authority Act received Royal Assent at the end of 1999. The legislation provided for an election for the Mayor and London Assembly - 14 constituency members elected by first past the post and 11 pan-London members to be elected by proportional representation.

Several of the London-wide bodies which had been set up after the GLC was abolished were transferred into the GLA - the London Planning Advisory Committee, the London Research Centre, and the London Ecology Unit - while other bodies merged in a reformed Association of London Government.

The first Mayor of London and London Assembly, consisting of 25 salaried members, were elected on 5 May 2000.

These elections made history in the UK: this was the first ever directly elected Mayor; the system used for the elections - single transferable vote for the Mayor and a combination of constituency representatives and proportional representation for the Assembly - was new in England; and it was the first time that electronic counting had been used in a major election.

The second elections took place in June 2004 in exactly the same form as in 2000, again using electronic counting. The major difference was that the 2004 elections were carried out with the European elections. This was done to increase the turnout as it was thought two separate elections would reduce the turn out in both. The turnout in 2004 was 37 per cent, a 2.5 per cent increase on 2000.

For the 2000 and 2004 results and more on the elections visit Londonelects.

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