Where does the political authority held by local governments such as cities and counties come from?

How are local councillors elected?

In England, councillors are elected on four-year terms to single or multi-member wards using the first past the post electoral system. Council seats are elected altogether every four years (in 67% of councils); by thirds three years out of every four (31%); or in halves every two years (2%).

In Scotland, councillors are elected to multi-member wards via single transferable vote, a proportional voting system which allows voters to rank candidates. Councils are normally elected as a whole every four years. In 2015, the Scottish Parliament extended the franchise in local elections to 16- and 17-year-olds.

In Wales, councillors are elected to single and multi-member wards using first past the post, and councils come up for election as a whole every four years. In 2020, Senedd Cymru (the Welsh parliament) voted to extend the local franchise – as in Scotland – to 16- and 17-year-olds.

In Northern Ireland, councillors are elected via single transferable vote to multi-member electoral areas. All councillors are elected every four years.

How is local government funded?

Councils across the UK are funded by a combination of central government grants and local taxes. The balance between these funding sources varies. 

In England, in 2020/21, 55.7% of funding came from central government grants (adjusted to remove Covid business relief grants), 28.7% from council tax, and 15.6% from business rates revenue (which is collected locally but then redistributed via a nationally-run system).[1]  

In Scotland, 68% of council funding came from the Scottish government’s General Revenue Grant, 14% from business rate revenues, and 19% from council tax. The Scottish parliament has increased council tax for by highly valued households while reducing revenue funding, meaning that Scottish councils are becoming more reliant on local taxation.[2] 

In Wales, there is greater reliance on grants from the Welsh government, which make up 65% of council funding, compared to 22% from council tax and 13% from business rates revenues.[3] 

Councils in Northern Ireland are funded differently. They draw their income from district rates (70%), which are a property tax like council tax, as well as grants from the Northern Ireland executive (8%) and fees for services including building control and waste collection (22%). 

Spending on local government has fallen across the UK since the beginning of austerity in 2010, but to a varying extent between the nations. Councils in England cut spending by roughly 21% between 2010/11 and 2018/19 – over 10 percentage points more than in Scotland and Wales. However, spending on local government rose in all nations of the UK in 2020/21 compared with 2019/20 owing to the Covid pandemic. In England, spending rose by 6.2% in real terms between these years.[4] 

Abstract

This article explores intergovernmental policy interactions between central city, county, and suburban city governments in 186 metropolitan areas. Two hypotheses are developed to test the existence and shape of intergovernmental policy interactions between these governments. A competition hypothesis, based on Tiebout's 1956 concept of interjurisdictional competition, posits that counties and cities compete in the developmental policy area by matching what other cities and counties do. A cooperation hypothesis, based on the notion of the functional arrangements between local governments, posits that counties and cities cooperate in the public safety and education policy areas by supplementing others' policies or by substituting their policies with others' policies. The results of an analysis of local government expenditures indicate that local governments compete as well as cooperate at the intergovernmental level and that intergovernmental policy competition is weaker than interjurisdictional policy competition. The article ends with a series of discussions on possible changes in the current local government system to mitigate the competition between cities and their counties.

Journal Information

Political Research Quarterly (PRQ) is a refereed scholarly journal publishing original research in all areas of political science. PRQ is published by the University of Utah and is the official journal of the Western Political Science Association. Most issues also feature field essays integrating and summarizing current knowledge in particular research areas. PRQ is published in March, June, September, and December.

Publisher Information

Sara Miller McCune founded SAGE Publishing in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global community. SAGE is a leading international provider of innovative, high-quality content publishing more than 900 journals and over 800 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas. A growing selection of library products includes archives, data, case studies and video. SAGE remains majority owned by our founder and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures the company’s continued independence. Principal offices are located in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC and Melbourne. www.sagepublishing.com

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