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Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the county. These divisions had emerged from a range of units of old, pre-unification England (such as the Kingdoms of Sussex and Kent) and further Medieval reorganizations (sometimes using duchies such as Lancashire and Cornwall). These historical county lines were usually drawn up before the industrial revolution and the mass urbanization of England. The counties each had a county town and many county names were drawn from these (for example Nottinghamshire, from Nottingham). Since the latter part of the 19th Century there has been a series of local government reorganizations The solution to the emergence of large urban areas was the creation of large metropolitan counties centered on cities (an example being Greater Manchester). In the 1990s reform of local government, there began the creation of unitary authorities, where districts gained the administrative status of a county. Today, there exists some confusion between the geographic counties (which do not necessarily form an administrative unit) and the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. Non-metropolitan counties (or "shire counties") are divided into one or more districts. At the very lowest level, England is divided into parishes, though these are not to be found everywhere (many urban areas for example are unparished). Parishes are prohibited from existing in Greater London. England is now also divided into 9 regions, which do not have an elected authority and exist to co-ordinate certain local government functions across a wider area. London is a special case, and is the one region which currently has a representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The 32 London boroughs and the Corporation of London remain the local form of government in the city. Other than London, the official regions are: |
England Information: Inside
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