Having looked at how local government in Wales has got to where it is, next it’s worth examining how local government in Wales operates.
The powers and responsibilities of local government are largely set out in law. These powers and responsibilities generally change with the law – both at a Welsh and UK level.
As mentioned in Part I (The Story of Local Government), most of the modern framework for local government is set out in the Local Government Act 1972. There have been changes to the law since then – devolved and non-devolved – but the most important rules relating to the structure and governance of local councils have remained the same.
In Wales, local government responsibilities are divided between the 22 unitary (also called principal) authorities and the country’s 730-or-so town and community councils as well as some regional boards, panels and commissions (more on this later). The unitary authorities have the biggest share of responsibilities and powers.
Broadly speaking, it looks something like this:
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Some local government responsibilities are known as “statutory services”. This means a council must, by law, provide the service.
Some unitary authority statutory services include social care, most elements of the planning system, public libraries, waste collection, licensing, building control, some elements of the housing system, highways, environmental health and education.
There are also local government services that don’t have to provide by law (called discretionary services). Councils can choose whether to provide them or not and/or charge to use them. These include public toilets, car parks, swimming pools & leisure centres, CCTV systems, parks & playgrounds and tourism promotion.
Town and community councils have no statutory responsibilities meaning they don’t have to provide any services by law. They do, however, have some rights – such as a right to be consulted on planning applications and a right to raise funds through council tax precepts (more on this later).
Under the Local Government & Elections Act 2021, unitary authorities – as well as town & community councils in Wales that meet a certain standard of governance – have a “general power of competence”. This means they can carry out any function they deem necessary for the well-being of their local community within the law.
One trend over the last decade has seen the 22 unitary authorities hand responsibility and leases for discretionary services – such as public toilets, parks and leisure centres – to town & community councils (often via Community Asset Transfer), arm’s length companies, clubs or charitable trusts.
One grey area is housing. While councils have statutory responsibilities – such as a requirement to provide services relating to homelessness – they seemingly don’t have a statutory responsibility to provide housing itself. Since the 1980s, a sizable proportion of previous council homes have been transferred to “not-for-profit” housing associations – though some Welsh unitary authorities have started to build council housing again.
