Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London

The Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London, also known as the Herbert Commission, was established in 1957 and published its report in 1960. The report made recommendations for the overhaul of the administration of the capital that were implemented in a modified form by the London Government Act 1963.

The chairman of the Commission was Sir Edwin Herbert The other members were:

The membership of the commission was notable for not containing anyone with previous involvement with local government in the London area.

The Commission’s terms of reference were to: “examine the present system and working of Local Government in the Greater London area; to recommend whether any, and if so what, changes in local government structure and the distribution of local government functions in the area, or any part of it, would better secure effective and convenient local government.”

The review area was:

The existing local authorities varied widely in population and size: the six county councils or county boroughs in the metropolitan area had similar responsibilities, yet the number of inhabitants in their areas under their control varied from over 3,000,000 to 110,000. There were 102 county districts within the review area and these also varied greatly: some had larger populations and rateable value than existing county boroughs, while others had only a few thousand residents. Outside of the County of London the division of functions between county councils and county districts was also unclear: some districts enjoyed considerable independence with a range of delegated “county” powers, while similar districts did not. There were no set criteria for such delegation, which instead came about because of “fortuitous historical, political and personal factors”, a situation leading to “serious administrative friction” in some counties.

The Commission held 114 meetings, heard oral evidence on 70 occasions, and asked nearly 16,000 questions. The Commission was also able to draw on the work of the Greater London Group of the London School of Economics, which had carried out an extensive survey on local government in London.

The evidence heard by the Commission was contradictory: that of the Ministry of Local Government and Housing depicted a system that was breaking down while that given by the local authorities vigorously defended the status quo.

In the absence of consensus, the Commission drew up two criteria by which to guide its recommendations:

By following these criteria a two-tier system was envisaged, with a regional authority for “technical” services and smaller local authorities for “personal” services. Much of the Commission’s deliberations involved trying to find an optimum size for the sub-units of the proposed system. The general agreement of witnesses was that a basic “many-purpose” unit should have a population of between at least 250,000, with many favouring a range of 500,000 to 1,500,000. It was stressed by council officers and teachers that authorities would need to be of a sufficiently large size to provide promotion prospects and attract good staff.

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