Directly elected mayors in England
London
The Government of London Act first introduced the principle of electing a person called a 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 the local authority Mayors.
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 a reform of local government in England and Wales which changed this somewhat.
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.
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]
There are currently no elected mayors in any cities whose mayor has the right to bear the title Lord Mayor (the title Lord Mayor of London refers only to the City of London within the greater city), but if this were to arise, it may be the elected mayor would inherit that title.
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 October 2005, Torbay elected their first elected mayor, [2], who is the only Conservative directly-elected mayor in the country at the moment.
Powers of Local Authority Mayors
A local authority Elected Mayor has the same powers as 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 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.
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).
Accordingly, an Elected Mayor cannot really be accurately characterised as an Executive Mayor as exists in the US and certain other countries, but more as a semi-Executive.
List of Directly Elected Mayors
Currently there are twelve directly elected Mayors in England (including the Mayor of London). Although Wales is included in the legislation, no Welsh authority has gone down this route. The Act does not apply in Scotland and the Scottish Parliament has chosen to reform local government instead by introducting the Single Transferrable Vote electoral system.
| District | Type | Mayor | Party |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bedford | non-metropolitan district | Frank Branston | independent |
| Doncaster | metropolitan borough | Martin Winter | Labour |
| Greater 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, Mike Wolfe, and Chris Morgan.
Mayoral Referendums
To date there have been 31 referendums on whether to establish an elected Mayor in English local authorities. 11 have been passed and 20 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 6, the voters themselves have requested a referendum by petition and in one (Southwark) central Government forced the holding of a referendum.
Crewe and Nantwich Borough in Cheshire will hold a referendum on whether to set up an Elected Mayor and Cabinet system for their Council on Thursday 4 May 2006, making it the thirteenth UK institution to adopt a form of Elected Mayoral management structure if the proposal is successful.
Source: [Electoral Commission].
| District | Date | Decision | Votes For | Votes Against | Turnout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berwick-upon-Tweed | 7 June 2001 | No | 3,617 (26%) | 10,212 (74%) | 64% |
| Cheltenham | 28 June 2001 | No | 8,083 (33%) | 16,602 (67%) | 32% |
| Gloucester | 28 June 2001 | No | 7,731 (32%) | 16,317 (68%) | 31% |
| Watford | 12 July 2001 | Yes | 7,636 (52%) | 7,140 (48%) | 25% |
| Doncaster | 20 Sep 2001 | No | 35,453 (65%) | 19,398 (35%) | 25% |
| Kirklees | 4 Oct 2001 | No | 10,169 (27%) | 27,977 (73%) | 13% |
| Sunderland | 11 Oct 2001 | No | 9,375 (43%) | 12,209 (57%) | 10% |
| Brighton and Hove | 18 Oct 2001 | No | 22,724 (38%) | 37,214 (62%) | 32% |
| Hartlepool | 18 Oct 2001 | Yes | 10,667 (51%) | 10,294 (49%) | 34% |
| Lewisham | 18 Oct 2001 | Yes | 16,822 (51%) | 15,914 (49%) | 18% |
| Middlesbrough | 18 Oct 2001 | Yes | 29,067 (84%) | 5,422 (16%) | 16% |
| North Tyneside | 18 Oct 2001 | Yes | 30,262 (58%) | 22,296 (42%) | 36% |
| Sedgefield | 18 Oct 2001 | No | 10,628 (47%) | 11,869 (53%) | 33% |
| Redditch | 8 Nov 2001 | No | 7,250 (44%) | 9,198 (56%) | 28% |
| Durham City | 20 Nov 2001 | No | 8,327 (41%) | 11,974 (59%) | 29% |
| Harrow | 6 Dec 2001 | No | 17,502 (43%) | 23,554 (57%) | 26% |
| Plymouth | 24 Jan 2002 | No | 29,559 (41%) | 42,811 (59%) | 40% |
| Harlow | 24 Jan 2002 | No | 5,296 (25%) | 15,490 (75%) | 35% |
| Newham | 31 Jan 2002 | Yes | 27,263 (68%) | 12,687 (32%) | 26% |
| Southwark | 31 Jan 2002 | No | 6,054 (31%) | 13,217 (69%) | 11% |
| West Devon | 31 Jan 2002 | No | 3,555 (23%) | 12,190 (77%) | 64% |
| Shepway | 31 Jan 2002 | No | 11,357 (44%) | 14,438 (56%) | 36% |
| Bedford | 21 Feb 2002 | Yes | 11,316 (67%) | 5,537 (33%) | 16% |
| Hackney | 2 May 2002 | Yes | 24,697 (59%) | 10,547 (41%) | 32% |
| Mansfield | 2 May 2002 | Yes | 8,973 (55%) | 7,350 (45%) | 21% |
| Newcastle-under-Lyme | 2 May 2002 | No | 12,912 (44%) | 16,468 (56%) | 31.5% |
| Oxford | 2 May 2002 | No | 14,692 (44%) | 18,686 (56%) | 34% |
| Stoke-on-Trent | 2 May 2002 | Yes | 28,601 (58%) | 20,578 (42%) | 27% |
| Corby | 1 Oct 2002 | No | 5,351 (46%) | 6,239 (54%) | 31% |
| Ealing | 12 Dec 2002 | No | 9,454 (45%) | 11,655 (55%) | 10% |
| Ceredigion | 20 May 2004 | No | 5,308 (27%) | 14,013 (73%) | 36% |