Under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 all principal autorities were required to have a monitoring officer. The local authority's team of officers these days is usually led by the chief executive, who carries out the duties formerly executed by the town clerk. He is responsible for the council's legal advise and the post has often been held by a solicitor ( There may, however, be a separate council solicitor the council's Head of legal services ) he or she will notify the council to any situation that is unlawful, improper or which would constitute maladministration.

The Local Government and Housing Act 1989 required that an officer be designated as Head of Paid Services, he or she would prepare the agenda of all meetings of the council and the committees, and ensure that minutes are recorded. In effect, he or she is responsible for much of the efficiency and execution of the council's duties. A council is entitled to appoint as many chief officers ( heads of departments or directors) as it thinks it needs to run its services, the chief executive will supervise and organize the paid officials, appointed by the council who then assist the various committees .

The chief executive is in touch with all phases of the council's work and is invaluable in providing a link between one council and another and in guiding a newly elected council through its duties.

FINANCE

The council's financial department covers the expenses, of the council by working out an estimate of expenditure at the start of the financial year, taking into account what it expects in government grants, revenue raised from its own services, council tax and business rates. Under the Local Government Finance Act 1988, each authorities chief finance officer has the responsibility of advising the authority on lawful, and prudent expenditure.The collection of the various council taxes, are the responsibility of the council, all domestic properties in England and Wales have become liable to local tax once again payable by all occupiers of property, whether they are the owners or tenants, but the latter often make an arrangement with their landlord that they are responsible for the rate.

GOVERNMENT GRANTS

The total amount of grant in any year is fixed in advance, after consultation between the minister and the local authority. Central government, helps an authority with high expenditure with grants for its services, it may also help with special grants for a particular service. Government Grants occasionally take the form of capital grants, paid on approval of claims made by local authorities in respect of capital expenditure on specific services - principally roads and public lighting.

More often, however, they are made on an annual basis either as specific grants, i.e. for particular services, or as non-specific grants. Supplementary grants are also given for particular services - for example, the National Parks Supplementary Grant for counties in national park areas, or councils having a considerable numbers of immigrants.

LOANS

Loans may be raised by local authorities for financing such capital expenditure as the acquisition of land, the erection of buildings and other permanent work, either under the general powers confired by Local Government, or under powers conferred by local Acts of Parliament.

All applications for loan sanctions must be for a specific purpose; most of them are dealt with by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, although for a few purposes other government departments may deal with them. Local authorities may borrow in a variety of ways. They may raise long term loans from the public by issuing stock on the Stock Exchange or by bonds, or by mortgages. They may also raise a proportion of their long-term borrowing each year from the central government.

Treasury, loans within the authorities' permitted quota, are loans fixed from time to time with the interest normally based on the rate at which the government itself can borrow.

AUDIT

Control of finance is usually exercised internally details of a local authority's spending are available from estimates drawn up annually by the council based on detailed information on revenue and expenditure. The annual report and accounts of council are all, by statute, subject to audit by a district auditor.The Secretary of State for the Environment must approve the auditor before he is appointed.

The district auditors are independent officers and, exercise their powers and the performance of the duties conferred . The authority must make the accounts available for inspection to any elector in the area. An elector is also entitled to attend the audit and question the auditor on any item in the accounts.After the audit has been made, the auditor sends his report to the Secretary of State and to the authority. The authority must make the report available for any elector to read and any newspaper that wishes to apply for it, and hold a meeting of its full council, as soon as possible after the audit, to discuss the report.

SERVICES

It is impossible to give a full list of the activities of local councils, but the main services are : police, public, housing, education, planning, and roads and highways.The service's provided would be easier to understand - and to describe - if they could be more precisely allocated to the various councils. But we find the county council sharing its responsibilities with other councils.

Local authorities through the environmental health department have wide powers such as places where food is handled, being able to seize any food which is unfit for human consumption.

The planning department prepares schemes for town planning, deciding for example, which land will be used for building homes, which for building shops, which shall be preserved for park land and other open spaces, and which shall be allocated for industrial use.

These local plans also decide such questions as how many houses shall be built to the acre and so on. Local authorities too have the power to alter any private scheme which they consider contrary to the local plan, and before any house can be built its plans must have been approved by the local authority conforming to local by-laws, and building regulations.Housing is a branch of local administration the war held up all normal building and replacement for four years, and the community was faced at its close with an appalling housing problem - to make up for the arrears of the past as well as plan an orderly development for the future.

Authorities are given extensive powers in the purchase of land for building schemes, for new homes and clearing slums. Further powers in making orders for slum property to be demolished and rebuilt. Although the majority of these houses have been provided by private enterprise, frequently working in close co-operation with the local authorities, many councils have built large estates at rents low enough to be within the means of small wage-earners.

The police forces of England and Wales are no longer directly accountable to local authorities they are either committees of the county councils or they are combined Police Authorities bringing together several county council areas. The metropolitan police, which polices the whole of the counties of London and Middlesex and parts of Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire is accountable to the Home Secretary . The City of London police, is responsible for the small area of the city, which is controlled by a commissioner, under the ultimate authority of the common council of the City of London.

The provision of council housing is now augmented by the housing association, in some areas councils have given over the complete stock of council property over to housing associations . The concept is not new it dates from the mid-nineteenth century. However, the early housing associations rents were too expensive for the labouring classes', for whom the accommodation was intended .

Since the Housing Act 1988, new housing association tenancies are treated as private dwellings, private landlords and housing associations 'approved' by the Housing Corporation (Tai Cymru in Wales) can buy up council houses, taking over as a new landlord following a ballot of the tenants. A ballot has to be held of tenants about the proposal, and 50 per cent of the tenants affected must vote in the ballot for it to be valid. Council tenants can also approach a new 'approved landlord' to take over their homes under the Tenants' Choice procedures or they could themselves form a 'tenant-owned' body which could apply for approval from the Housing Corporation (Tai Cymru in Wales) to become a landlord and pursue the Tenants' Choice procedures.

EDUCATION

The Education Reform Act 1988 introduced changes to local education, which reduce the control of the local education authority over the running of schools. Under the Local Management of Schools, the financial management of all secondary schools and primary schools with more than 200 pupils were to have governing bodies with the local education authority retaining direct responsibility for structural aspects of the school buildings and various centrally provided services.
In addition to this, the Act includes a provision for all secondary schools and primary schools with over 300 pupils to 'opt out' of local authority control from September 1989 and become 'grant maintained' by the Department of Education ad Science. If the school does 'opt out' there will be a new governing body set up which will be responsible for all the school's finances and which will receive a grant directly from central government instead of support from the local education authority which in turn will lose its government grant . The Act requires local education authorities to draw up a plan for higher education in their areas. This could include educational classes for adults and voluntary educational associations .