Regional government: The end of England?

Journal of Planning and Environment Law

Volumn , Issue OCC. PAP. 27, 1999, Pages 6-15

  Grant, Malcolm ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM; POLITICAL CHANGE; REGIONAL POLITICS;

UNITED KINGDOM;

EID: 0033382536     PISSN: 03074870     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (30)

1. Professor and Held of the Department of Land Economy. University of Cambridge, and Chairman, Local Government Commission for England. The views expressed in this paper arc strictly my own, and not those of the Commission.
2. Greater London Authority Act 1999. Elections for the Mayor and the Assembly will take place in May, and the Authority will have legal effect from July 6, 2000.
3. Local Government Commission for England, Electoral Areas for the Assembly of the Greater London Authority November 1998.
4. Building Partnerships for Prosperity (Cm 3814; December 1997).
5. Sec further Grant, M Commentary on the Regional Development Agenda Act 1998 Sweet 2nd Maxwell Current Law Statutes 1998.East Midlands, Eastern, London, North East, North West, South East, South West, West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humbcr. The regions are denned by Sched. 1 to the 1998 Act in terms of the county council and unitary council areas within them. Implementation is delayed in London, where the London Development Agency will be within the Greater London Authority.
6. Regional Development Act 1998, s.7.
7. Ibid., s.8.
8. Ihid., s.18.
9. There is a useful review of the possible alternative approaches, from a minimalist to an advanced model, in the Constitution Unit's Report, Regional Government in England (1996).
10. Local Government Ckrmidt Friday, September 3.1999.
11. Putlu Finaue, September 3-9,1999, p. 7.
12. Sir Frank Stenton, Anglo Saxon England, Oxford University Press 1971, p. 32.
13. John Blair, "The Anglo Saxon period", in Kenneth Morgan (ed). The Oxford History of Britain, Oxford University Press rev. cd 1999; 84-85.
14. Ibid., 36.
15. Stcnton observes that "The only county which his since arisen in this part of England is the anomalous shire of Rutland, of which the southern half, in King Edward's day, was an integral part of Northamptonshire, and the northern half formed a great 'liberty', detached from the organisation of the neighbouring shires for the benefit of its lady. Queen Edith" (op. at., 502). The local government review of the 1990s was to sec Rutland become detached again, this time from Leicestershire, and translated into a unitary authority.
16. Stenton, op. at., p. 683.
17. A further seven counties were created by the Act of Union in 1536 under Henry VIII.
18. Morgan, op. a'J., 157.
19. Sec further A. G. Powdl, "Strategics for the English Regions" (1978) 48 Town Planning Rtvieui 5.
20. Report of the Royal Commission on the Constitution, \969-19131 Cmnd 5460: "If assemblies were to be established in Scotland and Wales and this later led to a demand for similar assemblies in some or all of the English regions, that would be the time to consider establishing them. But that, in the view of the majority of us, is not so likely 2 consequence that it ought to be anticipated by laying down a uniform system of government from the outset."
21. 1941 2 K.B. 26, atension of proportional representation to local government, put forward by the Mackintosh Committee, Local Government and the Saltish Parliament; The report of the Commission en Leal Government and the Scottish Parliament (Scottish Office, June, 1999) will prove politically attractive in Scotland, let alone Englind.
22. For this reason, the Local Government Commission usually recommended that the new unitary authorities should be tied into joint structure planning arrangements with their former counties, rather than being authorised to prepare unitary development plans. The only exceptions were areas of low interdependency, such as the Isle of Wight and Herefordshire.
23. R. v. Secretary cfStattfor the Environment, ex p. Lancashire County Council [1994] 4 All E.R.. 165.
24. The Structure cf Local Government in England: A consultation paper (DoE, April 1991), pan. 27.
25. Renewing Local Government in the English Shires, HMSO 1993.
26. Rtnewinz Leal Government in the English Shires: a report on the 1992-95 structural review, HMSO 1995, p. 15.
27. Constitution Unit, op. dl., p. 62.
28. That was the view consistently advanced by the Royal Town Planning Institute in the local government review 1992-95.
29. For example, the Bill that was to lead to the County Councils Act 1888 entered Parliament with provisions that would have created just 10 urban county boroughs. It emerged from Parliament with no fewer than 59, and with a mechanism thai would allow other cities to seek this status. By 1918 that process had led to the creation of a further 23, and 110 extensions to the territories of existing county boroughs. The battle continued to rage until the 1970s, as successive Local Government Commissions were appointed and dissolved, but failed completely to dent the vested interests.
30. Constitution Unit, Rtgional Government in England (1996), p. 26.