The
administrative area of Greater London
contains thirty-two London
boroughs. Inner London
comprises twelve of these boroughs plus the City of London
. Outer London
comprises the twenty remaining boroughs of Greater London.
Functions
The London boroughs are administered by
London Borough
Councils which are elected every four years. The boroughs are
the principal
local
authorities in London and are responsible for running most
local services in their areas, such as schools, social services,
waste collection and roads. Some London-wide services are run by
the
Greater London
Authority, and some services and lobbying of government are
pooled within
London Councils. Some
London borough councils also group together for such services as
waste collection and disposal, e.g. the West London Waste
Authority. The London boroughs are
local government district and have
similar functions to
metropolitan
boroughs. Each London borough is a
Local Education Authority. Until
1990 the Inner London boroughs were served by a shared LEA, the
Inner London Education
Authority.
Nomenclature
There are three boroughs which do not use the term "London Borough
of" in their names. They are Westminster, which is termed the
City of Westminster as it has
city status; and Kingston
upon Thames and Kensington and Chelsea, which are termed "Royal
Borough of", due to their
Royal borough
status. Additionally, the council for Westminster is termed
Westminster City Council.
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† not a London borough
* Royal Borough |
History
The present London boroughs were created by the
London Government Act 1963.
They came
into existence on 1 April 1965 with the creation of Greater London. The first London Borough elections had been
held in 1964 with the newly elected London Borough Councils acting
as "shadow" authorities before coming into power the following
year.
They had wider authority than the inner London
metropolitan
boroughs and neighbouring
urban
districts and
municipal
boroughs which they mostly replaced, but less power than the
three
county boroughs of Croydon,
West Ham and East Ham, which ceased to exist at the same
time.
Between 1965 and
1986 the London boroughs were
part of a two-tier system of government, and shared power with the
Greater London Council (GLC).
However on 1 April 1986, the GLC was abolished, the London boroughs
inherited most of its powers and became in effect
unitary authorities (combining both county
and borough functions). Since the creation in
2000 of a new
Greater London Authority, covering
the former GLC area but with more limited powers, the boroughs now
have powers intermediate between those of English
unitary authorities and
non-metropolitan districts within
shire counties.
The
City of
London is administered by its own distinct body, the
City of London
Corporation, which predates the London boroughs.
The word
borough has cognates in virtually every
Germanic language, as well as other
Indo-European languages. For
a fuller explanation, see under
borough.
Former authorities
The boroughs were created as follows. There have been some changes
to boundaries and some boroughs have been renamed since 1965.
See also
(11a)
(11b)
(11c)
(22a)
(part) (22b)
(9a)
(9b)
(9c)
(4a)
(4b)
(10a)
(10b)
(3a)
(3b)
(6a)
(part) (6b)
(21a)
(2b)
(7b)
(7c)
(7a)
(8a)
(8c)
(8b)
(5b)
(2c)
(2b)
(2a)
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