| Subdivisions of England | |||||||||||||||
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Subdivisions of England (as of 1 April 2023) that have a principal local authority: two-tiernon-metropolitan counties and theirnon-metropolitan districts;metropolitan boroughs;unitary authorities;London boroughs; and thesui generisCity of London andIsles of Scilly. | |||||||||||||||
| Location | England | ||||||||||||||
| Subdivisions |
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| This article is part ofa series within the Politics of the United Kingdom on the |
UK General Elections in England |
Thesubdivisions ofEngland constitute a hierarchy ofadministrative divisions and non-administrative ceremonial areas.
Overall, England is divided intonine regions and48 ceremonial counties, although these have only a limited role in public policy. For the purposes oflocal government, the country is divided intocounties,districts andparishes. In some areas, counties and districts form a two-tier administrative structure, while in others they are combined under aunitary authority. Parishes cover only part of England.
The current system is the result of incremental reform which has its origins in legislation enacted in 1965 and1972.[1]

England has a non-universal structure oflocal government subdivisions. There are two tiers of local government subdivision -(administrative) counties anddistricts (known as boroughs in London).[2]
Different local divisions exist across England:[2]
The authority structure is slowly replacing the tier structure and metropolitan boroughs with all the metropolitan boroughs in combined authorities and periodic abolitions of the tier structure councils into unitary authority councils.
The 1974 reform of local government established the tier structure throughout England with county authorities in metropolitan and Greater London also existing, 1986 reform abolished these. From the 1996 reform the structure's use has been declining, 21 tiered areas remain out of the original 48. The county tier provides the majority of services, including education and social services while the 164 district-tier councils have a more limited role.[1]
As of April 2023, there are 62 unitary authorities.[2] Unitary authorities have control of their areas functioning.[3] There is a general push towards the reorganisation of English local government to the authority structure, often reorganisation is a condition of new devolution powers.[4] 46 unitary authorities were created fromthe 1996 reform, nine more werecreated in 2009, followed by further changes in2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023. TheGreater London administrative area was created in 1965 with 32 boroughs, excluding theCity of London.[5] Six Metropolitan two-tiered areas were created in 1974, similar to the Greater London model. These county-tier councils had extra devolved powers to others. In 1986, the county-tier was abolished with theLondon boroughs,Metropolitan boroughs and combined boards remaining. Apart from status these boroughs have the same powers to unitary authorities.
Combined authorities operate the opposite way round to the county in a tier structure, the combined authority acts on what the unitary authorities have agreed upon to focus on and what powers have been given by central government. In 2000, theGreater London Authority was created with an electedMayor of London and theLondon Assembly.[5] In 2010, theGreater Manchester Combined Authority was created with a similar modal to the GLA a with further combined authorities based on the GMCA created. As of June 2023[update], 10 combined authorities and the Greater London Authority currently exist.
TheIsles of Scilly are governed by asui generis local authority called theCouncil of the Isles of Scilly. The authority was established in 1890 as the Isles of Scilly Rural District Council. It was renamed but otherwise unreformed by the changes in local government that occurred in 1974 in the rest of England outside Greater London.[6] Although effectively a unitary authority, for example it is an education authority,[7] the Isles of Scilly are part of theCornwall ceremonial county and combine withCornwall Council for services such as health[8] and economic development.[9]
The ancientCity of London is the only part of Greater London not within a London borough; it is governed by theCity of London Corporation, asui generis authority unlike any other in England[5] that has largely avoided any of the reforms of local government in the 19th and 20th centuries.[10]
The civil parish is the most local unit of government in England.[1] A parish is governed by aparish council orparish meeting, which exercises a limited number of functions that would otherwise be delivered by the local authority. There is one civil parish in Greater London (Queen's Park, in theCity of Westminster),[11] and not all of the rest of England is parished. The number of parishes and total area parished is growing.
At the highest level, all of England is divided into nine regions that are each made up of a number of counties and districts. These "government office regions" were created in 1994,[12] and from the1999 Euro-elections up until the UK's exit from the EU, they were used as theEuropean Parliament constituencies in the United Kingdom and in England'sEuropean Parliament constituencies.
The regions vary greatly in their areas covered, populations and contributions to the national economy.[12] All have the same status, exceptLondon which has substantivedevolved powers.[13]
There was a failed attempt to createelected regional assemblies outside London in 2004 and since then the structures of regional governance (regional assemblies,regional development agencies andlocal authority leaders' boards) have been subject to review. Following the change of government in 2010, these were scheduled for abolition by 2012.[needs update]
For non-administrative purposes, England is wholly divided into 48ceremonial counties.[14] These are used for the purposes of appointingLords Lieutenant[14] who are the Crown's representatives in those areas as well as a way of grouping non-metropolitan counties. They are taken into consideration when drawing up Parliamentary constituency boundaries.[citation needed] Ceremonial counties are commonly named after historic counties, the ceremonial county acts as an in between for the administrative boundaries and long established areas used in fields such as sport.
County-tier councils and each unitary authority are separatenon-metropolitan counties, each non-metropolitan county can be known as a district, city or borough.Berkshire is an anomaly in this arrangement whereby its districts became unitary authorities, the non-metropolitan county remain to keep the title ofRoyal county, in the same way the metropolitan county remained when the county-tier councils were abolished.[15] Each correspond to an administrative body.
Non-metropolitan districts can also be a borough, city or district. Unitary authority areas are joint non-metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan districts.
| Type | Region |
|---|---|
| Set up | 1994 |
| No | 9 |
| Units |
| Type | Non-metropolitan county | Non-metropolitan district |
|---|---|---|
| Set up | 1974 | 1974 |
| No | 21 | 164 |
| Units | List of districts |
| Type | County | Borough |
|---|---|---|
| Set up | 1974 | 1974 |
| No | 6 | 36 |
| Units | Greater Manchester | |
| Merseyside | ||
| South Yorkshire | ||
| Tyne and Wear | ||
| West Midlands | ||
| West Yorkshire |
| Type | Set up | No | Units |
|---|---|---|---|
| County gained district functions | 2023 | 2 | |
| District(s) gained county functions | 2023 | 2 | |
| District(s) gained county functions | 2021 | 2 | |
| District(s) gained county functions | 2020 | 1 | |
| District(s) gained county functions | 2019 | 2 | |
| County gained district functions | 2009 | 5 | |
| District(s) gained county functions | 2009 | 4 | |
| District(s) gained county functions | 1998 | 21 | |
| District(s) gained county functions | 1997 | 9 | |
| District gained county functions | 1996 | 13 | |
| County gained district functions | 1995 | 1 | |
| Sui generis | 1890 | 1 | |
| Total | 63 | ||