# Local Government Act 1933

The Local Government Act 1933 (23 & 24 Geo. 5. c. 51) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated and revised existing legislation that regulated local government in England (except the County of London) and Wales. It remained the principal legislation regulating local government until the Local Government Act 1972 took effect in 1974.

## Powers of local authorities

Although local authorities acquired few new powers or duties, the Act did include a few innovations:
* One section dealt with custody of records, and led to the establishment of county record offices
* It became easier for local authorities to form joint committees where they had a common interest
* A council could acquire land outside of its area in order to perform its functions
* County councils could agree to exchange areas of land to form more efficient boundaries
* Rural and urban district councils, previously elected annually by thirds, could opt for elections of the whole council, triennially.

## Administrative areas and local authorities

Although the 1933 Act did not create new local government areas, it repealed most of the Local Government Acts of 1888 and 1894, and parts of the Municipal Corporations Act 1882, and reestablished the existing councils and administrative areas.
Section 1 stated:
    (1) For the purposes of local government, England and Wales (exclusive of London) shall be divided into administrative counties and county boroughs, and administrative counties shall be divided into county districts, being either non-county boroughs, urban districts or rural districts, and county boroughs and county districts shall consist of one or more parishes.
    (2) Subject to any alteration of boundaries or the constitution of new authorities which may take effect after the passing of this Act--
       (a) the administrative counties shall be the administrative counties which are named in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act;
       (b) the county boroughs shall be the boroughs which are named in Part II of the First Schedule to this Act;
       (c) the non-county boroughs shall be the boroughs which are named in Part III of the First Schedule to this Act;
       (d) the urban districts shall be the urban districts other than boroughs existing at the passing of this Act;
       (e) the rural districts shall be the rural districts existing at the passing of this Act; and
       (f) the parishes shall be the urban parishes which at the passing of this Act are comprised in boroughs or urban districts, and the rural parishes which at the passing of this Act are comprised in rural districts.
    (3) Every county borough shall, with respect to the functions which the council of the borough discharge, form a separate administrative area.
The term "non-county boroughs" was introduced in preference to "municipal borough" as county boroughs were also legally municipal boroughs. The councils for each of these various areas were to be known by the generic term of "local authorities" in this and subsequent legislation.
The actual titles of the councils remained the same:
* X county council (or council of the county of X) for administrative counties
* The mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Y (or (lord) mayor, aldermen and citizens of the city of Z) for boroughs
* W urban district council (or urban district council of W)
* V rural district council (or rural district council of V)
Rural parishes were governed by parish councils or parish meetings.

### Local government areas listed in the Act

Administrative counties
(a) England (exclusive of London)
| Bedford Berks Buckingham Cambridge Chester Cornwall Cumberland Derby Devon Durham Essex Gloucester Hereford Hertford Huntingdon Isle of Ely | Isle of Wight Kent Lancaster Leicester Lincoln, Parts of Holland Lincoln, Parts of Kesteven Lincoln, Parts of Lindsey Middlesex Monmouth Norfolk Northampton Northumberland Nottingham Oxford Rutland Salop | Soke of Peterborough Somerset Southampton Stafford Suffolk, East Suffolk, West Surrey Sussex, East Sussex, West Warwick Westmorland Wilts Worcester York, East Riding York, North Riding York, West Riding |
(b) Wales
| Anglesey Brecknock Caernarvon Cardigan | Carmarthen Denbigh Flint Glamorgan | Merioneth Montgomery Pembroke Radnor |
County boroughs
(a) England
| Barnsley Barrow-in-Furness Bath Birkenhead Birmingham Blackburn Blackpool Bolton Bootle Bournemouth Bradford Brighton Bristol Burnley Burton upon Trent Bury Canterbury Carlisle Chester Coventry Croydon Darlington Derby Dewsbury Doncaster Dudley Eastbourne | East Ham Exeter Gateshead Gloucester Great Yarmouth Grimsby Halifax Hastings Huddersfield Ipswich Kingston-upon-Hull Leeds Leicester Lincoln Liverpool Manchester Middlesbrough Newcastle-upon-Tyne Newport Northampton Norwich Nottingham Oldham Oxford Plymouth Portsmouth Preston | Reading Rochdale Rotherham Saint Helens Salford Sheffield Smethwick Southampton Southend-on-Sea Southport South Shields Stockport Stoke-on-Trent Sunderland Tynemouth Wakefield Wallasey Walsall Warrington West Bromwich West Ham West Hartlepool Wigan Wolverhampton Worcester York |
(b) Wales
| Cardiff | Merthyr Tydfil | Swansea |
Non-county boroughs
(a) England
| Administrative county | Non-county boroughs |
| Bedford | Bedford, Dunstable, Luton |
| Berks | Abingdon, Maidenhead, Newbury, New Windsor, Wallingford, Wokingham |
| Buckingham | Aylesbury, Buckling, Chepping Wycombe |
| Cambridge | Cambridge |
| Chester | Congleton, Crewe, Dukinfield, Hyde, Macclesfield, Stalybridge |
| Cornwall | Bodmin, Dunheved otherwise Launceston, Falmouth, Fowey, Helston, Liskeard, Lostwithiel, Penryn, Penzance, Saint Ives, Saltash, Truro |
| Cumberland | Whitehaven, Workington |
| Derby | Buxton, Chesterfield, Glossop, Ilkeston |
| Devon | Barnstaple, Bideford, Clifton Dartmouth Hardness, Great Torrington, Honiton, Okehampton, South Molton, Tiverton, Totnes |
| Dorset | Bridport, Dorchester, Lyme Regis, Poole, Shaftesbury, Wareham, Weymouth and Melcombe Regis |
| Durham | Durham, Hartlepool, Jarrow, Stockton-on-Tees |
| Essex | Barking, Chelmsford, Colchester, Harwich, Ilford, Leyton, Maldon, Saffron Walden, Walthamstow |
| Gloucester | Cheltenham, Tewkesbury |
| Hereford | Hereford, Leominster |
| Hertford | Hemel Hempstead, Hertford, Saint Alban, Watford |
| Huntingdon | Godmanchester, Huntingdon, Saint Ives |
| Isle of Ely | Wisbech |
| Isle of Wight | Newport, Ryde |
| Kent | Bromley, Chatham, Dartford, Deal, Dover, Faversham, Folkestone, Gillingham, Gravesend, Hythe, Lydd, Maidstone, Margate, New Romney, Queenborough, Ramsgate, Rochester, Sandwich, Tenterden, Royal Tunbridge Wells |
| Lancaster | Accrington, Ashton-under-Lyne, Bacup, Chorley, Clitheroe, Colne, Darwen, Eccles, Fleetwood, Haslingden, Heywood, Lancaster, Lytham Saint Anne's, Middleton, Morecambe and Heysham, Mossley, Nelson, Rawtenstall, Stretford, Widnes |
| Leicester | Loughborough |
| Lincoln, Parts of Holland | Boston |
| Lincoln, Parts of Kesteven | Grantham, Stamford |
| Lincoln, Parts of Lindsey | Louth |
| Middlesex | Acton, Brentford and Chiswick, Ealing, Finchley, Hendon, Heston and Isleworth, Hornsey, Southgate, Twickenham, Willesden, Wood Green |
| Monmouth | Abergavenny, Monmouth |
| Norfolk | King's Lynn, Thetford |
| Northampton | Brackley, Daventry, Higham Ferrers |
| Northumberland | Berwick-upon-Tweed, Blyth, Morpeth, Wallsend |
| Nottingham | East Retford, Mansfield, Newark, Worksop |
| Oxford | Banbury, Chipping Norton, Henley-upon-Thames, Woodstock |
| Salop | Bishop's Castle, Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Wenlock |
| Soke of Peterborough | Peterborough |
| Somerset | Bridgwater, Chard, Glastonbury, Taunton, Wells, Yeovil |
| Southampton | Aldershot, Andover, Basingstoke, Christchurch, Gosport, Lymington, Romsey, Winchester |
| Stafford | Bilston, Lichfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Rowley Regis, Stafford, Tamworth, Wednesbury |
| Suffolk, East | Aldeburgh, Beccles, Eye, Lowestoft, Southwold |
| Suffolk, West | Bury Saint Edmunds, Sudbury |
| Surrey | Barnes, Godalming, Guildford, Kingston upon Thames, Reigate, Richmond, Wimbledon |
| Sussex, East | Bexhill, Hove, Lewes, Rye |
| Sussex, West | Arundel, Chichester, Worthing |
| Warwick | Nuneaton, Royal Leamington Spa, Rugby, Stratford-upon-Avon, Sutton Coldfield, Warwick |
| Westmorland | Appleby, Kendal |
| Wilts | Calne, Chippenham, Devizes, Malmesbury, Marlborough, New Sarum, Swindon, Wilton |
| Worcester | Bewdley, Droitwich, Evesham, Kidderminster, Stourbridge |
| York, East Riding | Beverley, Bridlington, Hedon |
| York, North Riding | Redcar, Richmond, Scarborough, Thornaby-on-Tees |
| York, West Riding | Batley, Brighouse, Goole, Harrogate, Keighley, Morley, Ossett, Pontefract, Pudsey, Ripon, Todmorden |
(b) Wales
| Administrative county | Non-county boroughs |
| Anglesey | Beaumaris |
| Brecknock | Brecknock |
| Caernarvon | Bangor, Caernarvon, Conway, Pwllheli |
| Cardigan | Aberystwith, Cardigan, Lampeter |
| Carmarthen | Carmarthen, Kidwelly, Llandovery, Llanelly |
| Denbigh | Denbigh, Ruthin, Wrexham |
| Flint | Flint |
| Glamorgan | Cowbridge, Neath, Port Talbot |
| Montgomery | Llanfyllin, Llanidloes, Montgomery, Welshpool |
| Pembroke | Haverfordwest, Pembroke, Tenby |

## Amendment and repeal

The 1933 Act was amended by the Local Government Act 1958. The local authorities as defined in the Act, with the exception of rural parishes, were abolished in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, when most of the Act was repealed. Parts of the Act still have currency, however. For example, many council byelaws now in force are made under section 249 of the Act.