London Policy and Administration

(City Hall, headquarters of the Greater London Authority, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:City_hall_london.jpg)

Local administration

London management is done on two levels: at the level of the city, under the authority of the Greater London Authority (GLA) and at a local level within the 33 London boroughs.

The Greater London Authority is responsible for the London plan defining the London development strategy, police services (Metropolitan Police Authority), the fight against fire (London Fire Brigade), most transport (Transport for London) and economic development (London Development Agency). The GLA consists of the Mayor of London, who has executive powers, and the London Assembly which considers proposals of the mayor and vote or reject his budget proposals each year. GLA is a relatively new administration (2000) created to replace the Greater London Council (GLC) abolished in 1986. The headquarters of the Greater London Authority and the Mayor of London (City Hall) are located on the River Thames near Tower Bridge.

Since May 6, 2016, the mayor of London is occupied by the Labour Sadiq Khan.

The 33 districts are formed of 32 boroughs and the City of London and are responsible for local services not supported by the GLA, such as local planning, schools, social services, local roads and waste management. Each district is headed by a board (council) elected every four years. The city of London is not directed by a conventional local authority but by the Corporation of London elected by residents and businesses and which has hardly changed shape since the Middle Ages. The Corporation of London is headed by the Lord Mayor of London, which is a different position from that of the Mayor of London.

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LondonNumbered.png)

Map of the 33 London boroughs: 1. City of Londres ¹ ², 2. City of Westminster ², 3. Kensington and Chelsea ², 4. Hammersmith and Fulham ², 5. Wandsworth ², 6. Lambeth ², 7. Southwark ², 8. Tower Hamlets ², 9. Hackney ², 10. Islington ², 11. Camden ², 12. Brent, 13. Ealing, 14. Hounslow, 15. Richmond upon Tamise, 16. Kingston upon Tamise, 17. Merton, 18. Sutton, 19. Croydon, 20. Bromley, 21. Lewisham ², 22. Greenwich, 23. Bexley, 24. Havering, 25. Barking and Dagenham, 26. Redbridge, 27. Newham ², 28. Waltham Forest, 29. Haringey ², 30. Enfield, 31. Barnet, 32. Harrow, 33. Hillingdon

Notes :

¹: the City of London is not designated as a borough.
²: this borough is part of Inner London today, according to the NSO and Eurostat NUTS.

The City of London has its own police force, the City of London Police, independent of the Metropolitan Police Service which is responsible for the rest of Greater London.

Health services are managed by the national government through the National Health Service, under the responsibility, in London, of a single NHS Strategic Health Authority.

Postcodes in London

A postcode is used to deliver mail and corresponds to a particular address. In Britain, postal code appears as follows: WY11 1ZZ. The first two letters for the city, the numbers for an area, the letters and numbers in a residential area. Postal code indicates the street of residence but also which side of the street he lives.

London postcodes are divided into North, North West, South East, South West, West and East. Every postal code begins with N, NW, SE, SW, W and E and the areas of the city center by EC and WC. Each zone corresponding to a postcode has 1-10 km² according to population density, giving the first letter of postal code is indicated immediately in what place you live in London. London is divided into districts, which are an administrative subdivision of the city.

National administration

(Westminster Palace, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palace_of_Westminster,_London_-_Feb_2007.jpg)

London is the seat of UK government located in the Palace of Westminster in Westminster. Several offices of government are located in the vicinity of Parliament, particularly along Whitehall where the Prime Minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street.

Though used for the first time in the nineteenth century by John Bright to describe England itself, the term Mother of the Parliament is often used to refer to the British Parliament because it is often considered the first to have introduced a system composed of an upper chamber and a lower chamber elected and was followed by many other political systems, including in Europe and the Commonwealth countries.

In the elections to the House of Commons, London is divided into 73 electoral districts that each elect one Member of Parliament (MP). During the 2015 election, the Labour Party won 45 of the 73 London seats, the Conservatives 27 and the Liberal Democrats last.