Regions of England

English Regions
Also known as	Government office region
Category	Regions
Location	England
Created	1994
Number	9 (as at 2010)
	leaders' board (8)
	elected assembly (1)
Additional status	European Parliament constituency
Populations	2.5–8 million
Areas	1,000–23,000 km²
Government	Leaders' Board
	Development agency
	Greater London Authority
Subdivisions	Metropolitan county
	Non-metropolitan county
	City and London borough

England

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of England

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The English Regions, also known as the Government Office Regions, are currently the highest tier of sub-national government entity of England, used by central Government for statistical purposes. One of the regions, London, has a directly elected assembly.

The other eight regions have Local Authority Leaders’ Boards, which have limited powers and functions delegated by Central Government departments, with members appointed by local government bodies. Since 2007, each region has also had its own part-time regional minister within the Government. In 2009 the House of Commons established regional Select Committees for each of the regions outside of London. These committees ceased to exist upon the dissolution of Parliament on 12 April 2010 and have not been re-established by the newly elected House. ^[1] A Regional Affairs Committee exists as a grand committee of the House of Commons, where any MP representing a constituency in England can discuss regional matters.

History

In ancient times (the second half of the first millennium) the heptarchy divided England into territories roughly the same order of magnitude as modern regions. During Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals also created similarly-sized regions. See historical and alternative regions of England for details.

The division of England into a number of administrative regions was first considered by the British government shortly prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament. The Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or "Home Rule All Round". On September 12 the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, gave a speech in which he proposed 10 or 12 regional parliaments for the United Kingdom. Within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands would make natural regions.^[2][3] While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a while widely anticipated and various schemes for dividing England devised.^[4][5]

By the 1930s several competing systems of regions were adopted by central government for such purposes as census of population, agriculture, electricity supply, civil defence and the regulation of road traffic.^[6]

Creation of some form of provinces or regions for England has been an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, which would see power devolved from central government. Edward Heath's administration in the 1970s did not create a regional structure in the Local Government Act 1972, waiting for the Royal Commission on the Constitution, after which government efforts were concentrated on a constitutional settlement in Scotland and Wales for the rest of the decade.

In England, the majority of the Commission "suggested regional coordinating and advisory councils for England, consisting largely of indirectly elected representatives of local authorities and operating along the lines of the Welsh advisory council". One-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the "eight now [in 1973] existing for economic planning purposes, modified to make boundaries to conform with the new county structure".^[7][8] A minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain (five within England), which would take over substantial amounts of the central government.^[9]

In April 1994 the John Major government created a set of ten Government Office Regions for England. Prior to 1994, although various central government departments had different regional offices, the regions they used tended to be different and ad hoc. The stated purpose was as a way of co-ordinating the various regional offices more effectively: they initially involved the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Employment, Department of Transport and the Department for the Environment.^[10]

Also, the Maastricht Treaty encouraged the creation of regional boundaries for selection of members for the Committee of the Regions of the European Union: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland had each constituted a region, but England represents such a large proportion of the population of the United Kingdom that further division was thought necessary.

Following the Labour Party's victory in the 1997 general election, the government created Regional Development Agencies.

The English regions, which initially numbered ten, have since also replaced the Standard Statistical Regions. Merseyside originally constituted a region in itself. In 1998 it was merged into the North West England region, creating the nine present-day regions.^[11]

In 2007 a Treasury Review for new Prime Minister Gordon Brown recommended that greater powers should be given to local authorities and that the Regional Assemblies would be phased out of existence by 2010.^[12]

Also in 2007 nine new Regional Ministers were appointed by the incoming Gordon Brown government. Their primary goal is to improve communication between central government and the regions of England.^[13]

Powers and functions

East

London

South East

South West

East Midlands

West Midlands

Yorkshire and
the Humber

North
East

North West

Current

Each region, outside London, has a Government Office (with some responsibility for industry, employment, training, agriculture, transport and the environment)^[14]. Local Authority Leaders’ Boards and Regional Development Agencies also exist in these regions but are due to be abolished in the future.

The London region is administered by the Greater London Authority which consists of an elected London Assembly and a separately elected Mayor of London.

Since 1999, the nine regions have also been used as England's European Parliament constituencies^[15] and as statistical NUTS level 1 regions. Since 1 July 2006, there have been ten NHS Strategic Health Authorities, each of which corresponds to a region, except for South East England, which is divided into western and eastern parts.

Former partnership regional assemblies

In 1998 partnership regional assemblies were created the eight English regions outside London. The powers of the assemblies were limited and they are not directly elected. The functions of the English regions are essentially devolved to them from Government departments or have been taken over from pre-existing regional bodies, such as regional planning conferences and regional employers' organisations. The assemblies were replaced by smaller Local Authority Leaders’ Boards between 2008 and 2010.

Each former regional assembly made proposals for the UK members of the Committee of the Regions, with members drawn from the elected councillors of the local authorities in the region. The final nominations are made by central government.^[16]

Proposals for elected regional assemblies

As power was to be devolved to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales without a counterweight in England, a series of referenda were planned to establish elected regional assemblies in some of the regions. The first was held in London in 1998 and was passed. The London Assembly and Mayor of London of the Greater London Authority were created in 2000. A referendum was held in North East England on 4 November 2004 but the proposal for an elected assembly was rejected. Plans to hold further referenda in other regions were then cancelled, for fear of further rejections. The remaining eight regional assemblies were abolished in 2010 as part of a Sub-National Review of Economic Development and Regeneration with most of their functions transferring to the relevant Regional Development Agency and to Local Authority Leaders’ Boards.^[17].

Future

The regions may be used for fire brigade co-ordination in the future, with one headquarters for each region.^[18] Ofcom has tentatively proposed a telephone numbering plan with a wide area code (020, 021, 022 etc.) used for each government office region.^[19]

Subdivisions

Local government in England does not follow a uniform structure. Therefore each region is divided into a range of further subdivisions. London is divided into London boroughs while the other regions are divided into metropolitan counties, shire counties and unitary authorities. Counties are further divided into districts and some areas are also parished. Regions are also divided into sub-regions which usually group socio-economically linked local authorities together. However, the sub-regions have no official status and are little-used other than for strategic planning purposes.

List of regions

1. East Midlands
2. East of England
3. Greater London
4. North East England
5. North West England
6. South East England
7. South West England
8. West Midlands
9. Yorkshire and the Humber

See also

• Historical and alternative regions of England
• List of articles about local government in the United Kingdom
• Rule of the Major-Generals (1655) and their ten regions
• Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics

References

1. ↑ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm100527/debtext/100527-0001.htm#10052726000005
2. ↑ Local Parliaments For England. Mr. Churchill's Outline Of A Federal System, Ten Or Twelve Legislatures, The Times, September 13, 1912, p.4
3. ↑ G. K. Peatling, Home Rule for England, English Nationalism, and Edwardian Debates about Constitutional Reform in Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 35, No. 1. (Spring, 2003), pp.71-90, accessed December 16, 2007
4. ↑ In 1917 the Royal Geographical Society debated a paper by C.B. Fawcett that detailed 12 provinces he considered to be the "natural divisions of England". Detailed boundaries were proposed with regional capitals designated on the basis of the possession of universities or university colleges. C. B. Fawcett, Natural Divisions of England in The Geographical Journal, Vol. 49, No. 2. (Feb., 1917), pp. 124-135, accessed November 28, 2007
5. ↑ In 1919 Fawcett expanded his paper into a book entitled the Provinces of England, and a similar system of regions was proposed by G.D.H. Cole in The Future of Local Government in 1921. In 1920 the Ministry of Health published its own proposals for 15 provinces, subdivided into 59 regionsE. W. Gilbert, Practical Regionalism in England and Wales in The Geographical Journal, Vol. 94, No. 1. (Jul., 1939), pp. 29-44. Accessed November 28, 2007
6. ↑ E. W. Gilbert, Practical Regionalism in England and Wales in The Geographical Journal, Vol. 94, No. 1. (Jul., 1939), pp. 29-44. Accessed November 28, 2007
7. ↑ Whitehall powers would go to Scotland, Wales and regions, but no full self-government. The Times. November 1, 1973.
8. ↑ More freedom for Scots, Welsh in proposals to region regions. The Times. November 1, 1973.
9. ↑ Dissenters urge plan for seven assemblies. The Times. November 1, 1973.
10. ↑ Devolution and British Politics. Chapter 10. English regional government : Christopher Stevens
11. ↑ National Statistics - Beginners' guide to UK geography
12. ↑ HM Treasury Press Release 79/07 - 17th July, 2007
13. ↑ Regional Ministers at Government Offices webpage. Accessed 27 February 2010
14. ↑ Parry, R., Social Policy in the United Kingdom
15. ↑ United Kingdom Election Results
16. ↑ Committee of the Regions - Appointing the UK delegation
17. ↑ eGov monitor - Planning transfer undermines democracy. 29 November 2007
18. ↑ BBC News - Region gets fire control shake-up
19. ↑ OFCOM - Wide area code planning (DOC)

External links

• Boundary committee for England
• Boundary committee's map
• Dept of Communities and Local Government - Regional Gateway
• Government Offices for the English Regions
• Government Office for the North West
• English Regions Network (English regional assemblies)