Regions of England

Regions of England
London South East South West West Midlands North West North East Yorkshire and the Humber East Midlands East

The region, also known as Government Office Region, is currently the highest tier of local government subnational entity in England.

England is, from the point of view of the UK government, divided into nine regions, each containing one or more counties. These regions were created in 1994 by John Major's government and since 1999 have been used as England's European Parliament constituencies ^* and as statistical UK level 1 regions.

The supposed need to create a formal regional tier of government in the UK (and the regions of England) was due to the European Union (then European Community) decision to create regions of the EU, pursuant to the Maastricht Treaty - see Committee of the Regions, to which English regions send personnel (usually appointed from amongst local authority councillors) for EU-wide discussions.

Merseyside originally constituted a region in itself. In 1998 it was merged into the North West England region. ^*

These regions are proposed to be used for fire brigade co-ordination in the future, with one headquarters for each region. ^*. The government has proposed merging police forces within the current Government Office regions, although note that this has been, temporarily at least, discontinued. From 1st July 2006, there will be ten NHS Strategic Health Authorities, each of which will correspond to a region, except for South East England, which is divided into western and eastern parts. Tourism has been divided into these so-called regions for the past few years, as have some arts and museums institutions. Ofcom has also tentatively proposed a telephone numbering plan with a wide area code (020, 021, 022 etc.) used for each government office region.

[http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/oftel/ind_groups/numbering/forum/widearea.doc

Current powers

The powers of the regions are limited and there are no elected regional governments except for London.

Each region has a Government Office and a few associated institutions, including a Regional Development Agency (RDA) and an unelected assembly. As there are no regional elections, local representatives on regional bodies are nominated and appointed by county councils, unitary authorities, and borough councils. This has produced criticism, amongst public and politicians alike, of unaccountability and lack of democracy. London is a special case because it has an elected mayor and an assembly with powers in a number of policy areas.

Regional devolution

The Labour Government announced that it wished to increase the power of government at the regional level, as part of the "devolution" that led to elected assemblies in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and part of the concept of regions in the EU. The present appointed regional assemblies would be replaced by elected bodies.

Criticism

There is some strong opposition to the introduction of such assemblies from the general public, and also in politics, especially from the Conservative Party, but also from back-bench Labour Party MPs. Opponents of regionalism argue that instead of decentralising power from London, the new tier of government will simply take power away from county councils, unitary authorities, parish councils, and so on, and that the assemblies will be far weaker than those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland .

There has been considerable concern amongst the general public that a by-product - if not a purpose - of introducing regional assemblies (elected or otherwise) is to weaken the United Kingdom, and England within it. The government-created regions are often criticised for being illogical, sometimes arbitrary, and disconnected from the reality of UK and English cultural, historic, and economic development.

There is also criticism that the regionalisation policy is based on continental patterns of local government supported by the European Union and ignores the traditional primacy of the county system in the United Kingdom (including England). Regions were introduced originally in 1994 because of the European Community's creation of the regions of the EU. Many citizens say that they do not want to be imposed upon by the EU or by Westminster, and do not wish to pay for an expensive new layer of bureacracy when the need for it has not been convincingly set out by the UK or EU governments. Critics point out that the EU plan for regionalisation has never been democratically tested, nor has it arisen from the grass roots of the member states. Rather, it is a top-down political structure. Critics ask 'cui bono?' (Latin for 'Who benefits? Who is the beneficiary?'), and in the only referendum to be held to date the public overwhelmingly rejected the government's proposals, suggesting that whatever benefits the government said would arise for the citizenry, the citizens were not convinced. In fact, the media found that the general public voting in the referendum were previously not aware that an unelected Regional Assembly existed and was being funded by them to take decisions affecting their lives, therefore the general consensus was 'stop wasting our money'.

The regions themselves have also been criticised as being largely based on those devised by the UK government in the Cold War for coordinating civil defence . They are identical apart from that Yorkshire and the Humber and North East England made up two sub-regions in a larger region in the civil defence system - see Civil defence regions. These civil defence regions were in turn based on older Second World War-era divisions, although they saw a major shakeup in the 1970s. ^*

Specific objections include, but by no means are limited to:

the North West region is too elongated, and Cumbria should instead be associated with the geographically closer North East; [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmstand/g/st030123/pm/30123s03.htm
the South East region is too large, in terms of both population and area; or that it is too small as three counties which were previously part of it (Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Essex) were combined with East Anglia to create the East of England, but these counties are similar to those which were left in the South East as they are all part of the London commuter belt; or that it is inappropriate to separate it from London. ^*
the South West region is either too large (Gloucestershire being considered a West Midlands county by some), or too small (and that Hampshire and Berkshire should be associated with it). Many Cornish people feel that Cornwall should be removed from this region and should form its own region, on historical and cultural grounds. ^*. Opponents of this proposal point out that Cornwall has only a fifth of the population of the smallest existing region.
the Yorkshire and the Humber region excludes the Cleveland area, of which the areas south of the River Tees are traditionally part of Yorkshire and includes the Grimsby and Scunthorpe areas which have been split from their traditional county of Lincolnshire, the rest of which lies in the East Midlands region.

Other suggestions have included a new Marches region, consisting of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Worcestershire or that Devon and Cornwall should form a region of their own. [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199798/cmstand/e/st980129/80129s01.htm

Northern England referendums, 2004

A referendum was held in the North East region on 4th November 2004, wherein the voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposal that this region should have a elected Regional Assembly.

Similar referendums had been planned in North West England and Yorkshire and the Humber. Following the rejection of the proposal in the North East, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott ruled out holding further referenda in other regions for the foreseeable future. He acknowledged that the government's proposal had been overwhelmingly rejected by the people, but since November 2004 the government has continued pushing forward its regionalisation agenda. The North East Regional Assembly has continued to operate, despite having no mandate from the people to do so. Calls for the unelected Regional Assembly to be closed down have been ignored, but the campaign to end regionalisation continues.

External links

This section originally contained only pro-regionalisation links. Obviously the article was placed here by a supported of the government's agenda. As of 15th July 2006 it has some new links added, for the sake of balance:

New links:

Government Office Regions

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Regions of England

Current powers

Regional devolution

Criticism

Northern England referendums, 2004

See also

External links