London's 33 local councils

Most of the things people need from local government in London are delivered by their borough, not by a single city-wide body. Your council collects the bins, sets and collects Council Tax, issues parking permits and penalty notices, runs school admissions, handles housing and homelessness, grants planning permission and licenses everything from food premises to street trading. If you are not sure which borough you live in, the quickest way to find out is the official GOV.UK postcode tool at gov.uk/find-local-council, which routes you to the right council for whatever you need to do.

Above the boroughs sits the Greater London Authority (GLA) — the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The GLA does not empty your bins or send your Council Tax bill. Its role is London-wide and strategic: transport through Transport for London, policing through the Metropolitan Police, the London Fire Brigade, the London Plan that shapes how the capital grows, and strategies for air quality, housing supply and the environment. So a rule of thumb helps: day-to-day services are your borough; the big city-wide levers are the GLA. You can read more about the city-wide role on the official site, london.gov.uk.

The directory below lists all 33 authorities in alphabetical order, each linking to its own official .gov.uk website. The tier badge follows the statutory London Government Act 1963 split — 12 Inner boroughs, 20 Outer boroughs — with the City of London Corporation marked separately, since it is not a borough but is treated in law as an Inner London authority. Alternative classifications exist for statistics and for the Mayor's London Plan; this page uses the original statutory definition.