Local Government Act 1929
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| Long title | An Act to amend the law relating to the administration of poor relief, registration of births, deaths, and marriages, highways, town planning and local government; to extend the application of the Rating and Valuation (Apportionment) Act, 1928, to hereditaments in which no persons are employed; to grant complete or partial relief from rates in the case of the hereditaments to which that Act applies; to discontinue certain grants from the Exchequer and provide other grants in lieu thereof; and for purposes consequential on the matters aforesaid. |
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| Citation | 19 & 20 Geo. 5 c. 17 |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 27 March 1929 |
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Status: Repealed
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The Local Government Act 1929 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made changes to the Poor Law and local government in England and Wales.
The Act abolished the system of Poor Law Unions in England and Wales and their boards of guardians, transferring their powers to local authorities. It also gave county councils increased powers over highways, and made provisions for the restructuring of urban and rural districts as more efficient local government areas.
Under the Act all boards of guardians for poor law unions were abolished, with responsibility for public assistance transferred to county councils and county boroughs. The local authorities took over infirmaries and fever hospitals, while the workhouses became public assistance institutions. Later legislation was to remove these functions from the control of councils to other public bodies: the National Assistance Board and the National Health Service.
The Metropolitan Asylums Board was also abolished, and the London County Council became responsible for its institutions.
County councils gained increased powers as the ultimate highway authority for all roads in the county. They acquired direct responsibility for all roads in the charge of rural district councils, as well as retaining control of roads classified by the Ministry of Transport. Urban district councils continued to be in charge of unclassified roads in their areas.
The 1929 Act sought to solve a problem that had arisen in the existing scheme of local government, with administrative counties divided into a large number of small urban and rural districts. Some urban districts had a population of just a few hundred and did not have the resources to deliver modern local government services. Similarly, there were a number of rural districts created in 1894 that had small and irregular areas. There were also a few areas where parishes in one county were administered by a rural district council in another.
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