Regions of England

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Regions of England
Category
  • Statistical regions
  • Administrative region (1)
LocationEngland
Created
  • 1994
Number
9 regions
Additional status
Populations2,669,941–9,180,135
Areas1,572–23,836 km2
Government
Subdivisions
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Regions
Administration

The regions of England, formerly known as the government office regions, are the highest tier of sub-national division in

devolved functions; they no longer fulfil this role, continuing to be used for limited statistical purposes.[2]

While the UK was a member of the

first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) regions ("NUTS 1 regions") within the European Union, which in 2021 were superseded by International Territorial Level
(ITL) regions ("ITL 1 regions").

The

London Region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders' boards
to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities. The remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders' boards.

In 1998,

regional Select Committees were established in 2009. However, the chambers and select committees were abolished in May 2010, restoring these functions to the main tier of local government,[3] with limited functions transferred to the regional local authority leaders' boards created in 2009. Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government
, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011.

From 2011,

combined authorities have been introduced in some city regions
, with similar responsibilities to the former regional chambers (and in some cases, replacing a regional local authority leaders' board on a smaller scale), but which also receive additional delegated functions from central government relating to transport and economic policy.

Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development. They had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding from the central government as well. These were abolished in 2012, with statutory functions returning to local authorities and central government; however, smaller scale local enterprise partnerships
were voluntarily established to take on some functions relating to coordinating economic priorities and development.

History

Background

See also: Historical and alternative regions of England

After about 500 AD, England comprised seven

East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex—often referred to as the heptarchy. The boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England and Wales of similar size to the modern regions.[4]

Proposals for administrative regions within

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 12 September 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.[5][6] While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a while widely anticipated and various schemes for dividing England devised.[7][8] 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.[9] Nine "standard regions" were set up in 1946, in which central government bodies, statutory undertakings and regional bodies were expected to cooperate.[10] However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s.[11]

Creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-

Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain (five within England), which would take over substantial amounts of the central government.[14]

Some elements of

White Paper on The Future of Development Plans, which proposed the introduction of strong regional guidance within the planning system,[10] and by the Government's issuing of Strategic Guidance at a regional level, from 1986 onwards.[11]

Regions as areas of administration

In April 1994, the

Department of Employment, Department of Transport and the Department for the Environment.[15] Following the Labour Party's victory in the 1997 general election, the government created regional development agencies. Around a decade later the Labour administration also founded the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships
(RIEPs) with £185m of devolved funding to enhance councils' capacity to improve and take the lead in their own improvement.

The

NUTS level 1 regions. Since 1 July 2006, there have also been ten strategic health authorities, each of which corresponds to a region, except for South East England
, which is divided into western and eastern parts.

In 1998,

Committee of the Regions, with members drawn from the elected councillors of the local authorities in the region. The final nominations were made by central government.[19] Although they were publicly funded, one of the Regional Assemblies claimed not to be a public authority and therefore not subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000.[20]

As power was to be devolved to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales without corresponding devolution in England, a series of

referendum
was held in North East England on 4 November 2004, but the proposal for an elected assembly was rejected.

Abolition

In 2007, a Treasury Review for new Prime Minister

Regional Ministers were appointed by the incoming Brown ministry. Their primary goal was stated as being to improve communication between central government and the regions of England.[22] The assemblies were effectively replaced by smaller local authority leaders' boards between 2008 and 2010, and formally abolished on 31 March 2010, as part of a "Sub-National Review of Economic Development and Regeneration". Most of their functions transferred to the relevant regional development agency and to local authority leaders' boards.[23]

In June 2010, the incoming Coalition Government announced its intentions to abolish regional strategies and return spatial planning powers to local government. These plans include the withdrawal of funding to the existing eight Local Authority Leaders' Boards, with their statutory functions also being assumed by local councils. The boards in most cases continue to exist as voluntary associations of council leaders, funded by the local authorities themselves.[24][25][26] No appointments as Regional Ministers were made by the incoming UK government in 2010.

These changes did not affect the directly elected London Assembly, which was established by separate legislation as part of the Greater London Authority. In 2011, Greater London remains administered by the Greater London Authority, which consists of an elected London Assembly and a separately elected Mayor of London.

Following the abolition of the Government Offices in 2011, it was announced that the former Government Office Regions (GOR) would henceforth be known, for the purposes of statistical analysis, simply as Regions.[27]

List of regions

Regions of England (2021)
Region GSS code ITL code Land area[28] Population[29] GVA[30] GDP[31]
(km2) (%) People (%) Density
(/km2) 		Total
(£ billions) 		Per capita (£) Total
(£ billions) 		Per capita (£)
North East E12000001 TLC 8,581 7% 2,646,772 5% 308 £56.5 £21,340 £65.0 £24,575
North West E12000002 TLD 14,108 11% 7,422,295 13% 526 £196.0 £26,411 £220.3 £29,681
Yorkshire and the Humber E12000003 TLE 15,404 12% 5,481,431 10% 356 £133.4 £24,330 £151.8 £27,692
East Midlands E12000004 TLF 15,624 12% 4,880,094 9% 312 £118.4 £24,261 £134.2 £27,505
West Midlands E12000005 TLG 12,998 10% 5,954,240 11% 458 £146.1 £24,530 £164.6 £27,649
East of England E12000006 TLH 19,116 15% 6,348,096 11% 332 £171.4 £26,995 £193.3 £30,442
London E12000007 TLI 1,572 1% 8,796,628 16% 1,572 £487.4 £55,412 £526.5 £59,855
South East E12000008 TLJ 19,072 15% 9,294,023 16% 487 £301.5 £32,443 £336.2 £36,174
South West E12000009 TLK 23,836 18% 5,712,840 10% 240 £149.8 £26,219 £169.3 £29,628
England E92000001 130,310 100% 56,536,419 100% 434 £1,760.4 £31,138 £1,961.2 £34,690

ITL 1 statistical regions

Main articles: ITL 1 statistical regions of England and International Territorial Level

International Territorial Level (ITL) is a

first level regions, which are currently mirrored by the ITL classification, of which 9 regions are in England. The sub-structure corresponds to administrative divisions
within the country. Formerly, the further NUTS divisions IV and V existed; these have now been replaced by Local Administrative Units (LAU-1 and LAU-2 respectively). Between 1994 and 2011, the nine regions had an administrative role in the implementation of
UK Government
policy, and as the areas covered by (mostly indirectly) elected bodies.

Subdivisions

Main article: Subdivisions of England

Local government in England does not follow a uniform structure. Therefore, each region is divided into a range of

shire counties and unitary authorities. Counties are further divided into districts and some areas are also yet further divided into civil parishes
. 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.

References

  1. ^ Local government geography and history, Department for Communities and Local Government. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  2. ^ "A Beginners Guide to UK Geography (2023)". Open Geography Portal. Office for National Statistics. 24 August 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  3. ^ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 27 May 2010 (pt 0001)". Publications.parliament.uk. 27 May 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  4. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/95468. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  5. ^ Local Parliaments For England. Mr. Churchill's Outline of a Federal System, Ten Or Twelve Legislatures, The Times, 13 September 1912, p.4
  6. JSTOR 4054518
  7. JSTOR 1779341
  8. JSTOR 1788587
  9. JSTOR 1788587
  10. ^ a b c Paul N. Balchin and Luděk Sýkora, Regional Policy and Planning in Europe, Routledge, 1999, pp.89–100
  11. ^ a b Urlan Wannop, Regional Imperative: Regional Planning and Governance in Britain, Europe and the United States, Routledge, 2002, pp.8–30
  12. ^ Whitehall powers would go to Scotland, Wales and regions, but no full self-government. The Times. 1 November 1973.
  13. ^ More freedom for Scots, Welsh in proposals to region regions. The Times. 1 November 1973.
  14. ^ Dissenters urge plan for seven assemblies. The Times. 1 November 1973.
  15. ^ Devolution and British Politics. Chapter 10. English regional government: Christopher Stevens
  16. ^ "National Statistics - geography - government office regions (GOR)". ONS. 10 May 2002. Archived from the original on 7 June 2002. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  17. ^ "United Kingdom Election Results". Election.demon.co.uk. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  18. ^ "Regional Development Agencies Act 1998". Opsi.gov.uk. 1 February 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  19. ^ Committee of the Regions – Appointing the UK delegation Archived 21 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ "South East Regional Assembly: Policy on access to information". Webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk. 28 May 2010. Archived from the original on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  21. ^ HM Treasury Press Release 79/07 – 17 July 2007 Archived 8 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Regional Ministers at Government Offices webpage. Retrieved 27 February 2010. Archived 18 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ eGov monitor – Planning transfer undermines democracy. 29 November 2007 Archived 19 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ "In Full: The projects axed or suspended by government". BBC News. 17 June 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  25. ^ "Scrapping regional bureaucracy will save millions – Newsroom – Department for Communities and Local Government". Communities.gov.uk. 17 June 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  26. ^ "1 Horse Guards Road" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 November 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  27. ^ ONS: Regions (Former GORs). Accessed 8 August 2012
  28. ^ "Standard Area Measurements (Latest) for Administrative Areas in the United Kingdom (V2)". Open Geography Portal. Office for National Statistics. 5 April 2023. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
  29. ^ Park, Neil (21 December 2022). "Estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  30. ^ Fenton, Trevor (25 April 2023). "Regional gross value added (balanced) per head and income components". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  31. ^ Fenton, Trevor (25 April 2023). "Regional gross domestic product: all ITL regions". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 15 August 2023.

External links

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