Metropolitan borough

A metropolitan borough or metropolitan district is the style of a sub-division of a metropolitan county. The first metropolitan boroughs in England were created in London in 1899, ten years after the formation of London County Council. These were abolished in 1965 with the expansion of London into Greater London, and replaced with several London boroughs.

The 1974 local government reorganisation in England saw the creation of a two-tier system of county and district councils. The six conurbations were created as Metropolitan Counties containing Metropolitan Districts. Urban areas were permitted to petition the Queen to become known as boroughs. Most metropolitan districts did so, becoming known as metropolitan boroughs. Unlike the non-metropolitan districts, the metropolitan districts were also local education authorities.

After the abolition of the metropolitan county councils (MCCs) in 1986, the metropolitan districts became, in effect, unitary authorities, but this description is not used, although most of the functions of the MCCs were devolved to the boroughs, by law, the boroughs have to co-operate to provide some services jointly within their metropolitan county, these include emergency services, public transport, waste disposal and civil defence.

The metropolitan boroughs are:

For the historic London metropolitan boroughs see County of London.

See Also

• Local Government Act 1972
• Local Government Act 1985
• Subdivisions of England
• Passenger Transport Authority
• UK topics