Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973


The Local Government Act 1973 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered local government in Scotland on 16 May 1975.
The Act followed and largely implemented the report of the Royal Commission on Local Government in Scotland in 1969, and it made the most far-reaching changes to Scottish local government in centuries. It swept away the counties, burghs and districts established by the Local Government Act 1947, which were largely based on units of local government dating from the Middle Ages, and replaced them with a uniform two-tier system of regional and district councils.
In England and Wales, the Local Government Act 1972 established a similar system of two-tier administrative county and district councils.

The Act

The Act abolished previous existing local government structures and created a two-tier system of regions and districts on the mainland and a unitary system in the islands. The former counties remained in use for land registration purposes.
The Act also established the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland, with the remit to make proposals to the Secretary of State for effecting changes which it thought desirable in the interests of effective and convenient local government. The Act also abolished the use of Fiars Prices for valuing grain.

The new local government areas

Regions

RegionComposed of
Highland
Grampian
  • The county of the city of Aberdeen.
  • The county of Aberdeen.
  • The county of Banff.
  • The county of Kincardine.
  • The county of Moray.
    • Tayside
  • The county of the city of Dundee.
  • The county of Angus.
  • The county of Kinross.
  • The county of Perth.
    • Fife
  • The county of Fife.
    • Lothian
  • The county of the city of Edinburgh.
  • The county of East Lothian.
  • The county of Midlothian.
  • The county of West Lothian.
    • Borders
  • The county of Berwick.
  • The county of Peebles.
  • The county of Roxburgh.
  • The county of Selkirk.
  • In the county of Midlothian—the electoral division of Heriot and Stow.
    • Central
  • The county of Clackmannan.
  • The county of Stirling.
  • In the county of Dunbarton—the village of Croftamie.
  • In the county of Perth—the burghs of Callander, Doune, Dunblane; the Western district ; the parish of Muckhart.
  • In the county of West Lothian—the burgh of Bo'ness; the district of Bo'ness.
    • Strathclyde
  • The county of the city of Glasgow.
  • The county of Ayr.
  • The county of Bute.
  • The county of Dunbarton.
  • The county of Lanark.
  • The county of Renfrew.
  • The county of Argyll.
  • In the county of Stirling—the burgh of Kilsyth; Western No. 3 district; the electoral division of Kilsyth West; the polling district of Kilsyth East.
    • Dumfries and Galloway
  • The county of Dumfries.
  • The county of Kirkcudbright.
  • The county of Wigtown.

    • Island areas

    Districts

    Several districts were later renamed: Merrick becoming Wigtown, Argyll to Argyll and Bute, Bishopbriggs and Kirkintilloch to Strathkelvin, Cumbernauld to Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, and Lanark to Clydesdale.

    Reaction and aftermath

    Unlike the 1972 Local Government Act in England and Wales, the 1973 Act in Scotland used the term for the upper tier of the two-tier system. This has caused far less confusion over the identity of the counties in Scotland. Despite the Act stipulating that the regions, not counties, should be shown on Ordnance Survey maps, the counties still enjoy wide public recognition. Even though they no longer play any direct part in local government, counties are used in many other systems. The Royal Mail continued to use them as postal counties, and the Watsonian vice-counties, registration counties and many of the Lieutenancy areas of Scotland are based on them.
    However, the sheer size of some regions meant that it became cumbersome to administer all functions on a region-wide basis. By 1977 Strathclyde Regional Council had established unelected sub-Regional Councils, which resembled the County Councils that the Regional Council had replaced.
    The two-tier system of local government introduced by the act lasted until 1 April 1996 when the Local Government etc. Act 1994 came into effect, abolishing the regions and districts and replacing them with 32 unitary authorities.