Abstract
MORE than three years have now passed since the appearance of the White Paper of the Coalition Government on the reform of local government, and in presenting its second annual report the Local Government Boundary Commission, set up as a result of the sole recommendation of the 1945 report, has now reached the conclusion that in many areas of Britain—and these covering the great bulk of the population—the present powers and instructions of the Commission do not permit the formation of local government units as effective and convenient as they should be. In this report the Commission has chosen to set out its views and to detail recommendations which, if accepted, will require legislation and amendment of the ‘General Principles' laid down by Parliament for its guidance. Much of the report is occupied by a discussion of the functions of local authorities, although the Commission has no jurisdiction in this aspect. Its experience has demonstrated the futility of considering functions and boundaries separately, just as it has shown the weakness of the original White Paper in refusing to contemplate any significant change in the existing structure of local government or the introduction of some form of regional development.
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Local Government in Britain. Nature 161, 825–827 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161825a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/161825a0