The Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the metonym City Hall, is the devolved regional governance body of Greater London, in the United Kingdom. It consists of two political branches: an executive Mayor (currently Sadiq Khan) and the 25-member London Assembly, which serves as a means of checks and balances on the Mayor. The authority was established in 2000, following a local referendum, and derives most of its powers from the Greater London Authority Act 1999 and the Greater London Authority Act 2007.
It is a strategic regional authority, with powers over transport, policing, economic development, and fire and emergency planning. Three functional bodies – Transport for London, the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime, and the London Fire Commissioner – are responsible for delivery of services in these areas. The planning policies of the Mayor of London are detailed in a statutory London Plan and the licensing policies are detailed in a London Strategic Licensing Policy - these are regularly updated and published.
The Greater London Authority is mostly funded by direct government grant and it is also a precepting authority, with some money collected with local Council Tax. The GLA is unique in the British devolved and local government system, in terms of structure (it uses a presidential system-esque model), elections and selection of powers. The authority was established to replace a range of joint boards and quangos and provided an elected upper tier of local government in Greater London for the first time since the abolition of the Greater London Council in 1986.
Since May 2016, both branches have been under the control of the London Labour Party.
The GLA is different from the corporation of the City of London with its largely ceremonial lord mayors, which controls only the square mile of the city, London's chief financial centre.
Purpose The GLA is responsible for the strategic administration of the of Greater London. It shares local government powers with the councils of 32 London boroughs and the City of London Corporation. It was created to improve the co-ordination between the local authorities in Greater London, while the Mayor of London's role is to provide a single representative for the capital. The Mayor proposes policy and the GLA's budget, and makes appointments to the capital's strategic executive such as Transport for London.
The statutory core purposes of the GLA are: economic development and wealth creation; promoting social development; and the improvement of the environment.
The London Assembly scrutinises the mayor. The assembly must also accept or amend the mayor's budget on an annual basis.
The GLA is based at City Hall in the London Borough of Newham, situated next to the redeveloped Royal Victoria Dock in Canning Town. The GLA moved to this building from the previous City Hall, in Southwark, in January 2022.
History
Background
In 1986, the Greater London Council was abolished by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. Many people have surmised that the decision to abolish the GLC was made because of the existence of a high-spending left-wing Labour administration under Ken Livingstone, although pressure for the abolition of the GLC had arisen before Livingstone took over, and was largely driven by the belief among the outer London borough councils that they could perform the functions of the GLC just as well.
On abolition, the strategic functions of the GLC were transferred to bodies controlled by central government or joint boards nominated by the London borough councils. Some of the service delivery functions were transferred down to the councils themselves. For the next 14 years there was no single elected body for the whole of London. The Labour Party never supported the abolition of the GLC and made it a policy to re-establish some form of citywide elected authority.
Creation The Labour Party advocated a government structure comprising a single, directly elected mayor (a policy first suggested by Tony Banks in 1990), together with an elected deliberative assembly to scrutinise them. This model was based on the mayor–council government of many American and Canadian cities rather than the parliamentary-style GLC. Indeed, it was partly aimed at making sure the new body resembled the erstwhile GLC as little as possible. After Labour won the 1997 general election, the policy was outlined in a white paper entitled A Mayor and Assembly for London (March 1998).
Simultaneously with the elections to the London Borough councils, a referendum was held on the establishment of the GLA in May 1998, which was approved with 72% of the vote. The Greater London Authority Act 1999 passed through Parliament, receiving royal assent in October 1999. Most polling showed that Livingstone, the last leader of the GLC, would easily win the mayoral election. However, in a controversial election campaign, the then prime minister, Tony Blair, attempted to block the nomination of Livingstone, a factional rival, and imposed his own candidate. In reaction, Livingstone stood as an independent candidate, resulting in his expulsion from the Labour Party. He won the May 2000 election, pushing Labour's candidate into third place and becoming the first directly elected politician in the United Kingdom. Following an interim period in which the mayor and assembly had been elected but had no powers, the GLA was formally established on 3 July 2000.
When it was originally established, the GLA's statutory strategies included:
transport economic development and regeneration biodiversity municipal waste management air quality ambient noise
The original functional bodies were: Transport for London, the London Development Agency, the Metropolitan Police Authority and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.
Further powers and reforms In November 2005, the government published a consultation document reviewing the powers of the GLA, making proposals for additional powers, including waste management, planning, housing, and learning and skills.Greater London Authority may get a lot more power: ODPM opens consultation The result of the consultation and final proposals were published by the Department for Communities and Local Government on 13 July 2006.Communities and Local Government – The Greater London Authority: The Government's Final Proposals for Additional Powers and Responsibilities for the Mayor and Assembly This led to the Greater London Authority Act 2007, which devolved further powers to the Greater London Authority, specifically including strategic planning.
Other legislation has further reformed or enabled the further reform of the GLA. The Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 enabled the transfer of London Regional Transport to Transport for London. The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 transferred responsibility for policing the Royal Parks to the Metropolitan Police. The Localism Act 2011 made a number of changes to the GLA: abolishing the London Development Agency, transferring its functions to the GLA enabling the GLA to publish a statutory economic development strategy as a consequence of the abolition of the London Development Agency. transferring land acquisition and social housing powers of the Homes and Communities Agency for London replacing five separate statutory strategies with a single statutory environment strategy enabling the GLA to establish mayoral development corporations for specific areas enabling the London Assembly to reject statutory strategies with a two-thirds majority The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 replaced the Metropolitan Police Authority with the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime. Secondary legislation under the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 transferred responsibility for the Royal Parks from the Royal Parks Agency to The Royal Parks Limited, allowing the Mayor of London to appoint some of its trustees, but not the chair. The Policing and Crime Act 2017 replaced the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority with the London Fire Commissioner. The Pedicabs (London) Act 2024 enabled TfL to establish a regulatory framework for pedicabs. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 transferred strategic premises licensing powers to the GLA and enabled TfL to establish a regulatory framework for shared micromobility vehicle schemes.
Headquarters
For the first two years of its existence, the Greater London Authority was based at Romney House, 47 Marsham Street in Westminster. The inaugural meeting of the London Assembly took place at Emmanuel Centre, also on Marsham Street.
Between July 2002 and December 2021, the Greater London Authority was based at a building known as City Hall in Southwark, on the banks of the River Thames, close to Tower Bridge. City Hall was designed by Norman Foster and constructed at a cost of £43 million on a site formerly occupied by wharves serving the Pool of London. This building did not belong to the GLA but was leased under a 25-year rental agreement from the Kuwait Investment Authority."Inside City Hall" Retrieved 2010-03-01
In November 2020, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced plans to vacate City Hall at the end of 2021 and relocate to The Crystal in the Canning Town area of East London. The Crystal building is owned by the Greater London Authority and is currently under-occupied. City Hall was not owned by the authority itself and the proposed move would save the Greater London Authority £12.6 million a year in rental costs. The decision was confirmed on 3 November 2020. Newham Borough Council gave permission for a change of use for the building in December 2020. The authority vacated City Hall on 2 December 2021. The Crystal was renamed "City Hall" in December 2021.
In addition to City Hall, staff of the Greater London Authority are also based at Palestra House on Blackfriars Road and at the London Fire Brigade headquarters on Union Street, both in Southwark.
The predecessors of the Greater London Authority, the Greater London Council and the London County Council, had their headquarters at County Hall, upstream on the South Bank. Although County Hall's old council chamber is still intact, the building is unavailable for use by the GLA because of its conversion into, among other things, a luxury hotel, amusement arcade and aquarium.
Powers and functions Functional bodies Areas which the GLA has responsibility for include transport, policing, fire and rescue, development and strategic planning. The GLA does not directly provide any services itself. Instead, its work is carried out by functional bodies which, together with the GLA itself, form the GLA GroupLondon Assembly, GLA Oversight Committee, Transparency of the GLA Group, published 25 June 2013, accessed 30 May 2023 and work under the policy direction of the mayor and assembly. These functional bodies are: Transport for London (TfL) – Responsible for managing most aspects of London's transport system, including public transport, main roads, and traffic management, and administering the London congestion charge. The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) – Responsible for overseeing the Metropolitan Police Service, which provides policing throughout Greater London. Replaced the Metropolitan Police Authority in January 2012 under the provisions of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011. The London Fire Commissioner – Administers the London Fire Brigade and co-ordinates emergency planning. Until April 2017 this was the responsibility of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA). Mayoral development corporations: London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) Oxford Street Development Corporation (OSDC).