Elected mayors in the United Kingdom
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Directly-elected mayors (elected by the general electorate as opposed to by borough councils) were introduced into England in the 1990s and 2000s.
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[edit] London
The Greater London Authority Act 1999 first introduced the principle of a directly elected London Mayor under universal suffrage into England. The first election was in 2000, and former leader of the abolished Greater London Council, Ken Livingstone, won as an independent. However, the position is a strategic regional one, and quite different to that of local authority Mayors.
[edit] Mayors of local authorities
Most Mayors in the UK are ceremonial figures whose only real power is to chair sessions of their Councils. In 2000 the Labour government led by Tony Blair passed the Local Government Act 2000 which introduced the option of directly elected mayors for local authorities in England and Wales.
The Act ended the previous committee-based system, where functions were exercised by committees of the council, and produced three distinct methods of local authority administration (and the opportunity for the Government to define more by secondary legislation). All three separated the decision-making Executive function from backbench councillors and created opportunities for overview and scrutiny processes.
The title Lord Mayor of London refers only to the City of London within the greater city, while within Stoke-on-Trent the title Lord Mayor refers to the chair of Council and is a separate post to that of Elected Mayor. It may be, however, that if other cities whose mayor has the right to bear the title Lord Mayor adopted an Elected Mayoral model of governance, they would grant the tite of Lord Mayor to their Elected Mayor.
Several districts in England now have directly-elected mayors with real powers and an advisory cabinet to assist them. The changes were encouraged by the central government but usually required local request and ratification by referendum.
This system had been considered by the previous government, and former Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine had been a proponent of it. [1]
Twelve districts now have directly-elected mayors. Some of the mayoral elections were initially won by independents, notably in Hartlepool where the election was won by a man in a monkey suit on a campaign of free bananas for schools, Stuart Drummond; and in Middlesbrough, where it was won by former police officer Ray Mallon who left the local Police Force to stand for election. Having receded somewhat as an issue after 2002 it has now moved up the political agenda, following positive reports of mayors' performance under the new system and recent Labour gains in several mayoralties. In February 2006, the Labour-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research published a report calling for elected mayors in Birmingham and Manchester, which was positively received by the government though not in the two city councils concerned.
In October 2005, Torbay elected their first elected mayor, [2], who is the only Conservative directly-elected mayor in the country at the moment.
There has been some public backlash about perceived excessive power of directly elected mayors. Campaigns are now under way in four of the twelve local authorities with directly elected mayors (Doncaster, Hartlepool, Lewisham and Stoke-on-Trent) to hold referendums to abolish the posts. [3]
In October 2006, the DCLG white paper Strong and prosperous communities proposed that in future the requirement for a referendum to approve the creation of an elected mayor for a council area be dropped in favour of a simple resolution of the council following community consultation. It also proposed the direct election of council cabinets where requested and that the mayor and council manager system in Stoke-on-Trent be reformed into a conventional mayor and cabinet system, it having being the only English council to adopt that system [4].
[edit] Powers of local authority mayors
A local authority elected mayor has similar powers to the Executive Committee in a Leader and Cabinet model local authority. These can be described as 'exclusive' powers and as 'codecision' powers and are defined in the |Local Government (Functions and Responsibilities) (England) Regulations 2000.
Codecision powers are those which the Mayor shares with the Council and consist of the power to make the local authority's Annual Budget and its Policy Framework Documents. These are: Annual Library Plan; Best Value Performance Plan; Children's Services Plan; Community Care Plan; Community Strategy; Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy; Early Years Development Plan; Education Development Plan; Local Development Framework; and the Youth Justice Plan.
In order to amend or reject a Mayor's proposals for any of the Budget and Policy Framework Documents, their Council must resolve to do so by a two-thirds majority. This is again from secondary legislation, in this case the |Local Government (Standing Orders) (England) Regulations 2001.
Exclusive powers are less easy to define, because they consist of all the powers which are granted to a local authority by Act of Parliament except those defined as codecision powers or as 'not to be the responsibility of an authority's Executive'. This latter is a highly limited list (including quasi-judicial decisions on planning and licensing, and certain ceremonial, employment and legal decisions).
An Elected Mayor (in a Mayor and Cabinet system) also has the power to appoint up to 9 Councillors as members of a cabinet and to delegate powers to them as individuals, to the Mayor and Cabinet committee, or to subcommittees of the Mayor and Cabinet committee. In practice, the Mayor remains personally accountable, so most Mayors have chosen to delegate to a very limited extent - if at all.
Protecting the British tradition of independent civil service has led to the interesting situation where the apparent introduction of separation of powers has led only from the transfer of powers from one elected branch (the Council) to another (the Mayor).
Local authorities in Britain remain administered by a permanent staff of Chief Officers led by a Chief Executive, who are politically neutral bureaucrats whose powers remain unaffected by the introduction of an Elected Mayor (though obviously the policies they are required to implement may change). Senior Officers continue to be appointed by a politically representative committee of Councillors (and more junior Officers by the Senior Officers) and the Mayor may not attempt to influence the decision as to who is appointed (except within the committee as a member of the committee).
In order to maintain the professional and political independence of the staff, the Mayor (or any other member of the Council) may not personally direct any member of staff. Changing the direction of an authority may only be made through a formal decision making process and then only on the basis of official Reports put together by Officers.
Accordingly, an Elected Mayor cannot really be accurately characterised as an Executive Mayor as exists in parts of the US and certain other countries, but more as a semi-Executive.
[edit] List of directly-elected mayors
Currently there are thirteen directly elected Mayors in England (including the Mayor of London).
| District | Type | Mayor | Party |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bedford | non-metropolitan district | Frank Branston | independent |
| Doncaster | metropolitan borough | Martin Winter | Labour |
| London | Region of England | Ken Livingstone | Labour, first elected as independent |
| Hackney | London borough | Jules Pipe | Labour |
| Hartlepool | unitary authority | Stuart Drummond | independent |
| Lewisham | London borough | Steve Bullock | Labour |
| Mansfield | non-metropolitan district | Tony Egginton | independent |
| Middlesbrough | unitary authority | Ray Mallon | independent |
| Newham | London borough | Robin Wales | Labour |
| North Tyneside | metropolitan borough | John Harrison | Labour |
| Stoke-on-Trent | unitary authority | Mark Meredith | Labour |
| Torbay | unitary authority | Nicholas Bye | Conservative |
| Watford | non-metropolitan district | Dorothy Thornhill | Liberal Democrats |
Ex-mayors are:
- Linda Arkley, North Tyneside (2003-2005).
- Chris Morgan North Tyneside (May 2002-April 2003).
- Mike Wolfe, Stoke-on-Trent (October 2002-May 2005).
[edit] Mayoral referendums
To date there have been 34 referendums on whether to establish an elected Mayor in English local authorities. 12 have been passed and 22 rejected by the voters.
To cause a referendum, the normal procedure is for the Council to request it, which has happened in 22 cases. In 12, the voters themselves have requested a referendum by petition and in one (Southwark) central Government forced the holding of a referendum.
The majority of these were held between June 2001 and May 2002 - a further seven have been held since.
"Yes" majority shown in green, "No" majority shown in red.
Source: |Electoral Commission; Ceredigion County Council
| Local authority | Date | Yes Votes | Yes Vote % | No Votes | No Vote % | Turnout % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berwick-upon-Tweed | 7 June 2001 | 3,617 | 26 | 10,212 | 74 | 64 |
| Cheltenham | 28 June 2001 | 8,083 | 33 | 16,602 | 67 | 32 |
| Gloucester | 28 June 2001 | 7,731 | 32 | 16,317 | 68 | 31 |
| Watford | 12 July 2001 | 7,636 | 52 | 7,140 | 48 | 25 |
| Doncaster | 20 September 2001 | 35,453 | 65 | 19,398 | 35 | 25 |
| Kirklees | 4 October 2001 | 10,169 | 27 | 27,977 | 73 | 13 |
| Sunderland | 11 October 2001 | 9,375 | 43 | 12,209 | 57 | 10 |
| Brighton & Hove | 18 October 2001 | 22,724 | 38 | 37,214 | 62 | 32 |
| Hartlepool | 18 October 2001 | 10,667 | 51 | 10,294 | 49 | 34 |
| Lewisham | 18 October 2001 | 16,822 | 51 | 15,914 | 49 | 18 |
| Middlesbrough | 18 October 2001 | 29,067 | 84 | 5,422 | 16 | 34 |
| North Tyneside | 18 October 2001 | 30,262 | 58 | 22,296 | 42 | 36 |
| Sedgefield | 18 October 2001 | 10,628 | 47 | 11,869 | 53 | 33 |
| Redditch | 8 November 2001 | 7,250 | 44 | 9,198 | 56 | 28 |
| Durham | 20 November 2001 | 8,327 | 41 | 11,974 | 59 | 29 |
| Harrow | 6 December 2001 | 17,502 | 43 | 23,554 | 57 | 26 |
| Plymouth | 24 January 2002 | 29,559 | 41 | 42,811 | 59 | 40 |
| Harlow | 24 January 2002 | 5,296 | 25 | 15,490 | 75 | 25 |
| Newham | 31 January 2002 | 27,263 | 68 | 12,687 | 32 | 26 |
| Southwark | 31 January 2002 | 6,054 | 31 | 13,217 | 69 | 11 |
| West Devon | 31 January 2002 | 3,555 | 23 | 12,190 | 77 | 42 |
| Shepway | 31 January 2002 | 11,357 | 44 | 14,438 | 56 | 36 |
| Bedford | 21 February 2002 | 11,316 | 67 | 5,537 | 33 | 16 |
| Hackney | 2 May 2002 | 24,697 | 59 | 10,547 | 41 | 32 |
| Mansfield | 2 May 2002 | 8,973 | 55 | 7,350 | 45 | 21 |
| Newcastle-under-Lyme | 2 May 2002 | 12,912 | 44 | 16,468 | 56 | 31.5 |
| Oxford | 2 May 2002 | 14,692 | 44 | 18,686 | 56 | 34 |
| Stoke on Trent | 2 May 2002 | 28,601 | 58 | 20,578 | 42 | 27 |
| Corby | 1 October 2002 | 5,351 | 46 | 6239 | 54 | 31 |
| Ealing | 12 December 2002 | 9,454 | 45 | 11,655 | 55 | 10 |
| Ceredigion | 20 May 2004 | 5,308 | 27 | 14,013 | 73 | 36 |
| Isle of Wight | 5 May 2005 | 28,786 | 43.7 | 37,097 | 56.3 | 60.4 |
| Fenland | 14 July 2005 | 5,509 | 24.2 | 17,296 | 75.8 | 33.6 |
| Torbay | 14 July 2005 | 18,074 | 55.2 | 14,682 | 44.8 | 32.1 |
| Crewe and Nantwich | 4 May 2006 | 11,808 | 38.2 | 18,768 | 60.8 | 35.3 |
[edit] Wales and Scotland
Although Wales is included in the legislation, only one Welsh authority, Ceredigion, has gone down this route and the proposal was rejected in a referendum.
The Act does not apply in Scotland and the Scottish Parliament has chosen to reform local government instead by introducing the Single Transferrable Vote electoral system.
