Directly elected mayors in England

In England, directly elected mayors are directly elected executive political leaders of some local government bodies, usually either local authorities (councils) or combined authorities. Mayors of the latter may be informally referred to as “metro mayors”.

The first such post was the Mayor of London, created as the executive of the Greater London Authority in 2000 as part of a reform of the local government of Greater London. Since the Local Government Act 2000, all of the several hundred principal local councils in England and Wales have been required to review their executive arrangements.

Examples of local authority mayors include the Mayor of Middlesbrough and the Mayor of North Tyneside.

Metro mayors include the Mayor of Greater Manchester and the Mayor of the West Midlands. Legislation on directly elected mayors applies both to England and Wales, but there are currently no directly elected mayors in Wales. Metro mayors enjoy a seat on the Council of the Nations and Regions, where they sit alongside the UK Prime Minister and First Ministers of devolved governments. The Mayor of London and the mayors of combined authorities also sit on the England-only Mayoral Council.