Department overview | |
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Formed | July 4, 2023 |
Dissolved | December 16, 2024 |
Headquarters | 2 Marsham Street, London, England |
Parent department | Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government |
Website | www |
The Office for Local Government (Oflog) was a body responsible for assessing and improving the performance of local government in England. [1] Established in 2023 following a string of local authority bankruptcies to collect statistics on local performance, [2] it answered to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
As of June 2024 [update] , Oflog had no chair following the departure of Lord Morse before the 2024 United Kingdom general election. [3] Following the release of a dataset on local government performance, The Times published an article ranking local authorities; [4] This led to a significant criticism of Oflog for its failure to provide sufficient information on usage of the statistics, [5] with some calling for a "reset" following the 2024 election. [3]
Oflog was abolished on 16 December 2024. [6]
Telford and Wrekin is a borough and unitary authority in Shropshire, England. In 1974, a non-metropolitan district of Shropshire was created called the Wrekin, named after a prominent hill to the west of Telford. In 1998, the district became a unitary authority and was renamed "Telford and Wrekin", which remains part of the Shropshire ceremonial county and shares institutions such as the Fire and Rescue Service and Community Health with the rest the county.
Halton is a unitary authority area with borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, North West England. The borough was created in 1974 and contains the towns of Runcorn and Widnes and the civil parishes of Daresbury, Hale, Halebank, Moore, Preston Brook, and Sandymoor. Since 1998, Halton Borough Council has been a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council. Since 2014, it has been part of the Liverpool City Region and a member of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
Mid Bedfordshire was a local government district in Bedfordshire, England, from 1974 to 2009.
Tendring District is a local government district in north-east Essex, England. Its council is based in Clacton-on-Sea, the largest town. Other towns are Brightlingsea, Harwich, Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze.
Local government in Northern Ireland is divided among 11 single-tier districts known as 'Local Government Districts' and formerly known as district council areas (DCAs). Councils in Northern Ireland do not carry out the same range of functions as those in the rest of the United Kingdom; for example they have no responsibility for education, road-building or housing. Their functions include planning, waste and recycling services, leisure and community services, building control and local economic and cultural development. The collection of rates is handled centrally by the Land and Property Services agency of the Northern Ireland Executive.
The Metropolitan Borough of Walsall is a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Walsall, but covers a larger area which also includes Aldridge, Bloxwich, Brownhills, Darlaston, Pelsall and Willenhall.
Barrow-in-Furness was a local government district with borough status in Cumbria, England. It was named after its main town, Barrow-in-Furness. Other settlements included Dalton-in-Furness and Askam-in-Furness. It was the smallest district in Cumbria, but the most densely populated, with 924 people per square kilometre. The population was 71,980 in 2001, reducing to 69,087 at the 2011 Census.
The Metropolitan Borough of Bury is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is north of Manchester, to the east of Bolton and west of Rochdale. The borough is centred around the town of Bury but also includes the other towns of Ramsbottom, Tottington, Radcliffe, Whitefield and Prestwich. Bury bounds the Lancashire districts of Rossendale and Blackburn with Darwen to the north. With a population of 194,606 in 2022, it is the smallest borough in Greater Manchester.
The functions of local government in the Republic of Ireland are mostly exercised by thirty-one local authorities, termed County, City, or City and County Councils. The principal decision-making body in each of the thirty-one local authorities is composed of the members of the council, elected by universal franchise in local elections every five years from multi-seat local electoral areas using the single transferable vote. Many of the authorities' statutory functions are, however, the responsibility of ministerially appointed career officials termed Chief executives. The competencies of the city and county councils include planning, transport infrastructure, sanitary services, public safety and the provision of public libraries. Each local authority sends representatives to one of three Regional Assemblies.
In England, directly elected mayors are directly elected executive political leaders of some local government bodies, usually either local authorities (councils) or combined authorities. Mayors of the latter may be informally referred to as “metro mayors”.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for housing, communities, and local government in England. It was established in May 2006 and is the successor to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, established in 2001. The department shares its headquarters building, at 2 Marsham Street in London, with the Home Office.
West Northamptonshire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, and was created in 2021. It contains the county town of Northampton, as well as the towns of Daventry, Brackley and Towcester, and the large villages of Brixworth and Long Buckby; the rest of the area is predominantly agricultural villages though it has many lakes and small woodlands.
Devon County Council is the county council administering the English county of Devon. Based in the city of Exeter, the council covers the non-metropolitan county area of Devon. Members of the council (councillors) are elected every four years to represent the electorate of each county division, almost all being nominated by the major national political parties.
A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all counties of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for the census in England and Wales, the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) is responsible for the census in Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) is responsible for the census in Northern Ireland.
The regions of England, formerly known as the government office regions, are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. They were established in 1994 and follow the 1974–96 county borders. They are a continuation of the former 1940s standard regions which followed the 1889–1974 administrative county borders. Between 1994 and 2011, all nine regions had partly devolved functions; they no longer fulfil this role, continuing to be used for limited statistical purposes.
A combined authority (CA) is a type of local government institution introduced in England outside Greater London by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. CAs are created voluntarily and allow a group of local authorities to pool appropriate responsibility and receive certain devolved functions from central government in order to deliver transport and economic policy more effectively over a wider area. In areas where local government is two-tier, both must participate in the combined authority.
Limerick City and County Council is the local authority of Limerick City and County in Ireland. It came into operation on 1 June 2014 after the 2014 local elections. It was formed by the merger of Limerick City Council and Limerick County Council under the provisions of the Local Government Reform Act 2014. As a city and county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housing and community, roads and transportation, urban planning and development, amenity and culture, and environment. The council has 40 elected members. Elections are held every five years and are by single transferable vote. The head of the council has the title of Mayor. The city and county administration is headed by a director general, Pat Daly. The administrative centre is City Hall, Limerick, with other civic offices at Dooradoyle. Following a plebiscite in 2019, Limerick became the first local authority in Ireland with a directly elected mayor in 2024, when John Moran was elected for a five-year term.
Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a ceremonial county also called Greater London, and the City of London. The Greater London Authority is responsible for strategic local government across the region, and regular local government is the responsibility of the borough councils and the City of London Corporation. Greater London is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Hertfordshire to the north, Essex to the north-east, Kent to the south-east, Surrey to the south, and Berkshire and Buckinghamshire to the west.
East Suffolk is a local government district in Suffolk, England. The largest town is Lowestoft, which contains Ness Point, the easternmost point of the United Kingdom. The second largest town is Felixstowe, which has the country's largest container port. On the district's south-western edge it includes parts of the Ipswich built-up area. The rest of the district is largely rural, containing many towns and villages, including several seaside resorts. Its council is based in the village of Melton. The district was formed in 2019 as a merger of the two previous districts of Suffolk Coastal and Waveney. In 2021 it had a population of 246,058. It is the most populous district in the country not to be a unitary authority.
"Levelling up" was a political policy first articulated in the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto that aims to reduce the imbalances, primarily economic, between areas and social groups across the United Kingdom. It seeks to do so without acting to the detriment of prosperous areas, such as much of South East England. A white paper for the policy was published by Boris Johnson's government on 2 February 2022, and was continued by Rishi Sunak's government. The policy was overseen by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.