Local Government Commission for England (1992)
The Local Government Commission for England was the body responsible for reviewing the structure of local government in England from 1992 to 2002. It was established under the Local Government Act 1992, replacing the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. The Commission could be ordered by the Secretary of State to undertake "structural reviews" in specified areas and recommend the creation of unitary authorities in the two-tier shire counties of England. The Commission, chaired by John Banham, conducted a review of all the non-metropolitan counties of England from 1993 to 1994, making various recommendations on their future.
After much political debate and several legal challenges, the Commission's proposals resulted in the abolition of Berkshire county council and the counties of Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester and Humberside. Combined with a second wave of reviews in 1995, under the chairmanship of David Cooksey, the Commission's proposals led to the creation of unitary authorities covering many urban areas of England, including cities like Bristol, Kingston upon Hull, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, Stoke-on-Trent and Plymouth. Reforms in the rest of Great Britain followed a different course.
Following the structural review, the Commission then reviewed electoral arrangements in English local authorities, re-warding based on population changes. It was replaced by the Boundary Committee for England in 2002, which finished this review cycle in 2004.
Establishment
Local government was at the time organised under the Local Government Act 1972, which had been passed during Edward Heath's Conservative administration. Before this, local government in England had been a mixed system, with large urban areas being covered by unitary authorities called county boroughs, and the rest of the country having administrative county councils and many smaller district councils, with different competences. The 1972 Act abolished county boroughs, making them districts in two-tier counties. This, and the consequent loss of education, social services and libraries to county control, was strongly regretted by the larger towns outside the new metropolitan counties, such as Bristol, Plymouth, Stoke, Leicester and Nottingham.Michael Heseltine, who had been a junior local government minister during the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, was appointed as Secretary of State for the Environment in John Major's first cabinet of 1990. Heseltine was an enthusiast for unitary local government, and was also an early proponent of the idea of directly elected mayors, to be taken up by Tony Blair's government in the 2000s.
A wide range of political opinion had always favoured in principle the establishment of unitary authorities. The Labour Party had planned to implement the Redcliffe-Maud Report in the 1970s, and the party's 1982 statement of policy "Labour's Programme 1982" said "There is an irrational split of functions between the two tiers compounded by a confusing overlap of responsibilities... We favour the creation in England and Wales of unitary authorities". Heseltine announced in 1991 that the government would be looking at the creation of unitary authorities in the non-metropolitan counties as part of a more general review of local government, including the abolition of the Community Charge, or poll tax.
Heseltine was replaced by Michael Howard in April 1992 after the 1992 general election. Whilst Heseltine had expressed a wish for most of the country to become unitary authorities, Howard issued revised guidance on the basis that the "two-tier structure may be appropriate in some areas", and that the costs of reorganisation might be too much for the recession-hit UK economy to take.
The Commission, chaired by John Banham, started the reviews in July 1992. The process was originally supposed to take some years, with the shire counties being considered in five waves, or "tranches", and it was hoped that the reforms would come into effect from 1994 to 1998. The process took longer than expected, with the Commission unable to recruit enough staff until November 1992. The first tranche, covering Avon, Cleveland, Derbyshire, County Durham, Gloucestershire, the Isle of Wight, Humberside, Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire and Somerset was nearly done by the end of 1993. Banham had said that the Commission was expecting "early wins" in Cleveland, Humberside and Avon.
The first recommendation, published in 1993, was the decision to make Isle of Wight a unitary authority. The island had been split between South Wight and Medina boroughs, with an Isle of Wight County Council, since 1974.
Acceleration
Three more final reports, for Cleveland, Derbyshire and Durham, were published in November 1993. In both Derbyshire and Durham, unitary authorities would be created covering the large urban areas, but the rest of the county would remain two-tier in structure.A new Secretary of State, John Gummer, had taken over in May, and he did not like these proposals, or the long time it took to produce them. Gummer sped-up the work plan and directed that all remaining reviews should start in December and be complete by the end of 1994. Gummer also issued new guidance, making it clear that wholly unitary solutions should be preferred, particularly ones smaller than existing counties but larger than existing districts. He further announced that Derbyshire and Durham would be referred back to the Commission for consideration under the new guidance. Gummer accepted the Commission's proposal to abolish Cleveland, but asked the Commission to consider Durham and Derbyshire again under the new guidance. The Labour Party, while remaining broadly in favour of unitary authorities, attacked the Commission for inconsistency. The leader of the Labour-controlled Derbyshire County Council questioned the inclusion of Derbyshire in the first tranche, which otherwise consisted mainly of counties newly created in 1974 and their neighbours.
The revised guidance included wording as follows:
In some areas the commission may wish to recommend a continuation of the existing two-tier structure. But the government expects that to be the exception, and that the result will be a substantial increase in the number of unitary authorities in both urban and rural areas.
Lancashire and Derbyshire County Councils, fearing their abolition under the new guidance, took a case to the High Court, seeking a judicial review that it was illegal. On 28 January, the High Court ruled in their favour, deleting the sentence in dispute, implying that the Commission should consider retaining the status quo, either in part or wholly, as an option as well.
The commission recommended that Avon and Humberside should be abolished and broken up into four unitary authorities each. It also recommended that the rump Somerset be broken up into three unitary authorities. It suggested that North Yorkshire be split into three unitary authorities – one for York, and two others to be called "West Riding of Yorkshire" and "North Riding of Yorkshire". It recommended no change in Lincolnshire and Gloucestershire. The County Councils of Avon, Cleveland and Somerset sought judicial review to stop these proposals going forward, but the High Court found them within the law.
The government accepted most of these recommendations, but also kept the status quo in Somerset, and in North Yorkshire retained a rump two-tier North Yorkshire without York – both reportedly the subject of strong lobbying by local Conservative MPs. The government did not accept the recommendations of the Commission on Gloucestershire, and announced its intention to refer the county back. These changes were implemented in 1996.
Remaining tranches
Reviews continued throughout 1994, with draft proposals published for consultation, outlining the Commission's preferred option and other options. The Commission made extensive usage of MORI polling in each of the local areas affected to determine which options were more popular locally. For example, in Cambridgeshire, the Commission outlined three options for a split of the county into unitary authorities, the preferred option being a three-way split between the "City & County of Cambridge", Huntingdonshire and Peterborough & Fenland.In final reports delivered in October 1994, the Commission recommended Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire county councils be abolished and replaced with four and three unitary authorities respectively. In other counties, it backed down from more radical draft proposals, and it recommended no change in Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Kent and Oxfordshire. In Hampshire it recommended that Southampton, Portsmouth and New Forest become unitary authorities.
A further batch of reports was delivered in December, recommending that Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex should remained unchanged. In Hereford and Worcester, Worcestershire would become a two-tier county whilst Herefordshire become a unitary authority. In Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland would become unitary authorities, with the rest of the county remaining two-tier – a pattern followed also in County Durham, Devon, East Sussex, Essex, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Wiltshire. The Commission recommended the abolition of two county councils – Berkshire and Dorset.
The final batch of recommendations was published in January 1995, slightly missing the deadline, and recommended no change for Cornwall, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire and Shropshire. In Derbyshire it recommended the creation of a unitary city of Derby with the remainder of the county remaining two-tier.
In a January 1995 interview, Banham explained the decision-making process of the Commission was based strongly on local opinion, noting that although a fully unitary solution for much of the country would commend all-party support in the House of Commons, he thought it would cause "mayhem" when implemented. He also advocated the creation of more parish councils in unparished areas. In a letter to The Times in March 1994, he noted he had the attitude that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".