Southampton City Council

The City of Southampton shown within Hampshire

Southampton City Council has records in its archives of council meetings as early as 1199.[6] The Local Government Act 1888 established Southampton as a county borough of the county Hampshire, then officially known as the County of Southampton.[7] This meant that the city of Southampton had independent governance from the county.[8]

Local government restructuring with an act in 1973 made the City of Southampton a non-metropolitan district within the Hampshire county. It succeeded Hampshire County Council and became a Unitary Authority in April 1997 due to the 1992 Local Government Act.[9]

From 2000 to 2008 the council was under no overall control of any one party.[10] Though the Liberal Democrats supported a minority Conservative administration after the 2007 election,[11] in February 2008 the Lib Dems aligned with the Labour party to set a new budget.[12] The subsequent May 2008 election that year saw the Conservatives achieved a majority control of the council.[13]

Since the 2012 council election the Labour party re-took control of the city council, Mark Williams was council leader for a few months and resigned for behaviours that, according to an independent enquiry, "fell below national guidelines of openness and honesty in public life" after attempting to cover up the split of Coxford councillors Don Thomas and Keith Morrell from the Labour party.[14] He was replaced as council leader by Simon Letts 2013.[9][15] There have been two splits from the party whilst in a majority administration due to the implementation of austerity measures from central government: The two aforementioned Coxford councillors in 2013 who originally called themselves the 'Labour Councillors Against the Cuts' group,[16] and later known as 'Putting People First'; and Redbridge councillor Andrew Pope in 2015, who formed the Southampton Independents. In the 2018 election, both Simon Letts and leader of the Conservative group, Jeremy Moulton, both lost their seats.[17] Chris Hammond became the new leader of the council after the election.[2] In 2018 two municipal companies were set up by the council, 'CItizEN'[18] and the 'Southampton Local Authority Trading Company'.[19]

The local authority derives its powers and functions from the Local Government Act 1972 and subsequent legislation. For the purposes of local government, Southampton is within a non-metropolitan area of England. As a unitary authority, Southampton City Council has the powers and functions of both a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. In its capacity as a district council it is a billing authority collecting Council Tax and business rates, it processes local planning applications, it is responsible for housing, waste collection and environmental health. In its capacity as a county council it is a local education authority, responsible for social services, libraries and waste disposal.

In August 2018 the council launched its own not-for-profit energy company 'CitizEn', created with the ambition to offer competitive rates for energy to tackle fuel poverty in the city.[18][20][21] The company was set up in cooperation with Nottingham City Council’s company Robin Hood Energy.[18] The council is currently in talks with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council for them to become a partner in the scheme.[22]

The wards of Southampton used since 2002.

There are 48 seats on the council, or 3 seats for each of the city's 16 wards.[39] The wards are:

For each election, a third of the council or one representative for each ward is elected for a term of four years. Over four years there are three elections and a fourth gap year. Since becoming a unitary authority in 1997 the party has been controlled by different parties:

Footnotes