Editing History of England (section)

===Political history and local government===
{{Further|History of local government in England}}

A [[Local Government Commission for England (1958–1967)|Local Government Commission]] was wound up in 1966, and replaced with a Royal Commission (known as the [[Redcliffe-Maud Report|Redcliffe-Maud commission]]). In 1969 it recommended a system of single-tier [[unitary authorities]] for the whole of England, apart from three metropolitan areas of [[Merseyside]], [[Greater Manchester|Selnec]] (Greater Manchester) and [[West Midlands (county)|West Midlands]] ([[Birmingham]] and the [[Black Country]]), which were to have both a metropolitan council and district councils. This report was accepted by the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] government of the time despite considerable opposition, but the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] won the [[1970 United Kingdom general election|June 1970 general election]], and on a manifesto that committed them to a two-tier structure.

The reforms arising from the [[Local Government Act 1972|Local Government Act of 1972]] resulted in the most uniform and simplified system of local government which has been used in England. They effectively wiped away everything that had gone before, and built an administrative system from scratch. All previous administrative districts—statutory counties, administrative counties, county boroughs, municipal boroughs, counties corporate, civil parishes—were abolished.

The aim of the act was to establish a uniform two tier system across the country. Onto the blank canvas, new counties were created to cover the entire country; many of these were obviously based on the [[Historic counties of England|historic counties]], but there were some major changes, especially in the north.

This uniform two-tier system lasted only 12 years. In 1986, the metropolitan county councils and Greater London were abolished. This restored autonomy (in effect the old county borough status) to the metropolitan and London boroughs. The Local Government Act (1992) established a commission ([[Local Government Commission for England (1992)|Local Government Commission for England]]) to examine the issues, and make recommendations on where unitary authorities should be established. It was considered too expensive to make the system entirely unitary, and also there would doubtlessly be cases where the two-tier system functioned well. The commission recommended that many counties be moved to completely unitary systems; that some cities become unitary authorities, but that the remainder of their parent counties remain two-tier; and that in some counties the ''status quo'' should remain.

The [[rate-capping rebellion]] was a campaign within English local councils in 1985 which aimed to force the Conservative government of [[Margaret Thatcher]] to withdraw powers to restrict the spending of councils. The campaign's tactic was that councils whose budgets were restricted would refuse to set any budget at all for the financial year 1985–86, requiring the Government to intervene directly in providing local services, or to concede. However, all 15 councils which initially refused to set a rate eventually did so, and the campaign failed to change Government policy. Powers to restrict council budgets have remained in place ever since.

In 1997, the [[Lieutenancies Act 1997|Lieutenancies Act]] was passed. This firmly separated all local authority areas (whether unitary or two-tier), from the geographical concept of a county as high level spatial unit. The lieutenancies it established became known as [[ceremonial counties]], since they were no longer administrative divisions. The counties represent a compromise between the [[historic counties of England|historic counties]] and the counties established in 1974.

While the 1997 Labour government devolved power to [[Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament|Wales]], [[Scottish Parliament|Scotland]] and [[Northern Ireland Assembly|Northern Ireland]], it refused to create a devolved Assembly or [[Devolved English parliament|parliament for England]], planning instead to introduce eight regional assemblies around England to devolve power to the regions. In the event, only a [[London Assembly]] (and directly elected [[Mayor]]) was established. Rejection in a referendum of a proposed North-East Assembly in 2004 effectively scrapped those plans. A pre-condition of having a regional assembly was for the whole area to move to unitary authority status. Since the [[2005 United Kingdom general election|2005 general election]] the government has floated the idea of voluntary mergers of local councils, avoiding a costly reorganisation but achieving desired reform. For instance, the guiding principles of the government's "New Localism" demand levels of efficiency not present in the current over-duplicated two-tier structure.