London’s Authorities and Services

The Greater London Authority (GLA) is the London-wide body responsible for coordinating the boroughs, strategic planning, and running some London-wide services such as policing, the fire service and transport. The GLA was created in 2000 as a replacement body for the former Greater London Council (GLC) which was created in 1965 and abolished in 1986 after political disputes between the GLC and the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. The GLA consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

The mayor is elected by the Supplementary Vote system while the assembly is elected by the Additional Member System. London is represented in Parliament by 74 MPs (members of Parliament). The territorial police force for the 32 London boroughs is the Metropolitan Police Service, more commonly referred to as the Metropolitan Police, or simply «the Met». The City of London has its own police force, the City of London Police.

Health services in London are managed by the national government via the National Health Service (NHS).

Transport is one of the four areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London, but the mayor’s financial control is limited. The executive agency which runs London’s transport system is Transport for London (TfL). The public transport network is one of the most extensive in the world, but faces congestion and reliability issues. The network is one of the most complex transit systems in the world with just over 1 billion journeys used every year on the underground alone.

As of mid-2005, in preparation for the 2012 London Olympic Games a total of £7 billion ($12 billion) will be spent on refurbishment and expansion of city links, mainly on the London Underground. Although the main reason for this is because of the increased traffic flow that will be caused by the 2012 Olympics, the work would still be completed if London had not won the games. By 2013 a new service called Crossrail is due to be opened. Also in planning is the Cross River Tram (CRT). It will depart in the south suburbs, cross the River Thames, through to the City of London (the financial district), and continue its journey to the northern suburbs. It is speculated that it will be the world’s longest tram.

The British media is concentrated in London and is sometimes accused of having a «London bias». All the major television networks are headquartered in London including the BBC, which remains Britain's most influential media organization. Partly to counter complaints about London bias, the BBC announced in June 2004 that some departments are to be relocated to Manchester. Other major networks include ITV and BSkyB, Channel 4 and Five are also based in London. Like the BBC, these produce some programmes elsewhere in the UK, but London is their main production centre.

The English newspaper market is dominated by national newspapers, all of which are edited in London. Until the 1970s, most of the national newspapers were concentrated in Fleet Street, but in the 1980s they relocated to new premises with automated printing works. Most of these are in East London, most famously the News International plant at Wapping. The last major news agency in Fleet Street, Reuters, moved to Canary Wharf in 2005, but Fleet Street is still commonly used as a collective term for the national press. Regional Editions of most national newspapers are available, including editions for northern England, Scotland and Wales.

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