Devolution and local government

Devolution was introduced amid a rhetoric of democratic renewal and promised the active engagement of local government. Local government has responded in different ways in different parts of the United Kingdom. In Scotland and Wales local authorities have built on their advocacy of devolution before 1997 to realize a close partnership with devolved government. In London, too, local authorities have come to engage closely with regional government. In the rest of England local authorities were at best ambivalent about the possibility of regional government, preferring to work in a national context with UK government institutions. Northern Ireland local government is parochial and appears suspicious of engagement with devolved government. These differences express some of the wider relationships of the component societies of the United Kingdom to the UK state and have helped to embed continued centralized government in England.