The London boroughs are administered by London Borough Councils which are elected every four years. The boroughs are the principal local authorities in London and are responsible for running most local services in their areas, such as schools, social services, waste collection and roads. Some London-wide services are run by the Greater London Authority, and some services and lobbying of government are pooled within London Councils. Some London borough councils also group together for such services as waste collection and disposal, e.g. the West London Waste Authority. The London boroughs are local government districts and have similar functions to metropolitan boroughs. Each London borough is a Local Education Authority. Until 1990 the Inner London boroughs were served by a shared LEA, the Inner London Education Authority.
Nomenclature
There are three boroughs which do not use the term "London Borough of" in their names. They are Westminster, which is termed the City of Westminster as it has city status; and Kingston upon Thames and Kensington and Chelsea, which are termed "Royal Borough of", due to their Royal borough status. Additionally, the council for Westminster is termed Westminster City Council.
The present London boroughs were created by the London Government Act 1963. They came into existence on 1 April1965 with the creation of Greater London. The first London Borough elections had been held in 1964 with the newly elected London Borough Councils acting as "shadow" authorities before coming into power the following year.
Between 1965 and 1986 the London boroughs were part of a two-tier system of government, and shared power with the Greater London Council (GLC). However on 1 April 1986, the GLC was abolished, the London boroughs inherited most of its powers and became in effect unitary authorities (combining both county and borough functions). Since the creation in 2000 of a new Greater London Authority, covering the former GLC area but with more limited powers, the boroughs now have powers intermediate between those of English unitary authorities and non-metropolitan districts within shire counties.
The word borough has cognates in virtually every Germanic language, as well as other Indo-European languages. For a fuller explanation, see under borough.
