Nottingham City Council

History

Nottingham was an ancient borough. The earliest known borough charter was issued by Henry II sometime between 1155 and 1165; that charter did not purport to create the borough, but instead confirmed to it the rights that it had already held in the time of Henry I (reigned 1100–1135). The borough was governed by a corporation, also known as the town council. A later charter of 1284 granted the borough the right to appoint a mayor. In 1449 the corporation was given the right to appoint its own sheriffs, making Nottingham a county corporate, judicially independent from the rest of Nottinghamshire.

In 1836 Nottingham became a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. When elected county councils were established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, Nottingham was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services and so it was made a county borough, independent from Nottinghamshire County Council.

Nottingham was awarded city status on 7 August 1897, allowing the corporation to call itself Nottingham City Council. In 1928 the city council was given the right to appoint a lord mayor.

In 1974 Nottingham became a non-metropolitan district under the Local Government Act 1972, becoming a lower tier authority with Nottinghamshire County Council providing county-level services in the city for the first time. The city kept the same outer boundaries, but did gain an exclave from Nottinghamshire containing the Shire Hall. Nottingham kept its borough and city statuses and its lord mayoralty.

In 1998, Nottingham City Council regained responsibility for county-level services from Nottinghamshire County Council. The way this change was implemented was to create a new non-metropolitan county of Nottingham covering the same area as the existing district, but with no separate county council; instead the existing city council took on county functions, making it a unitary authority. This therefore restored the city council to the powers it had held when Nottingham was a county borough prior to 1974. Despite having been removed from the non-metropolitan county of Nottinghamshire (the area administered by Nottinghamshire County Council), the city remains part of the wider ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire for the purposes of lieutenancy.

On 29 November 2023, the council declared itself effectively bankrupt, with a £23m overspend forecast for the 2023-24 financial year. This has been speculated to be mainly due to the Robin Hood Energy initiative, which was setup by the council in 2015 and was closed in 2020. Being unable to produce a balanced budget (as required by law), it issued a Section 114 notice which requires all expenditure to cease except for statutory duties.

In 2024 a combined authority was established covering Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby and Derbyshire, called the East Midlands Combined County Authority. The combined authority is chaired by the directly elected Mayor of the East Midlands and oversees the delivery of certain strategic functions across the area.

Governance

As a unitary authority, Nottingham City Council has the functions of a county council and district council combined. There are no civil parishes in Nottingham, which has been an unparished area since the reforms of 1974.

Political control

The council has been under Labour majority control since 1991.

Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms took effect has been as follows:

Non-metropolitan district

Unitary authority

Political leadership

The role of Lord Mayor of Nottingham is largely ceremonial. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1974 have been:

Executive Members

Executive Members are the group of councillors responsible for taking Executive Decisions collectively as part of an Executive Committee or individually for matters within their remit, as delegated by the Leader of the Council. Executive members are selected by the Leader and Deputy Leader. Current Executive Members are:

Political composition

Following the 2023 election, and subsequent changes of allegiance up to October 2025, the composition of the council was:

The next election is due in 2027.

Premises

Full Council meetings are held at Nottingham Council House in the Old Market Square in the city centre, which was completed in 1929 and is now a Grade II* listed building.

In 2009 the council moved its main offices to Loxley House, a modern office building on Station Street, opposite Nottingham railway station.

Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2019 the council has comprised 55 councillors representing 20 wards, with each ward electing two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years.

Wards

The wards are:

Arms

References

References

1. "Council minutes, 12 May 2025".
2. (6 August 2024). "Huge change needed at council, says new chief executive". BBC.
3. Corporation of Nottingham. (1890). "Royal Charters Granted to the Burgesses of Nottingham, A.D. 1155-1712". Thomas Forman and sons.
4. (1835). "The History of Boroughs and Municipal Corporations".
5. "Nottingham Municipal Borough / County Borough". GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth.
6. (13 August 1897). "The City of Nottingham: Receipt of the Royal Charter". Nottingham Daily Guardian.
7. (24 February 1939). "The Municipal Journal and Public Works Engineer".
8. {{cite legislation UK. (1972)
9. "1:25,000 Administrative Area Map, 1953". Ordnance Survey.
10. (28 March 1974). "District Councils and Boroughs".
11. {{London Gazette. (4 April 1974)
12. {{cite legislation UK. (1996)
13. {{cite legislation UK. (1997)
14. (29 November 2023). "Nottingham City Council declares itself effectively bankrupt". BBC.
15. (11 September 2023). "The Robin Hood Energy saga that ended up costing Nottingham City Council £38m". Nottinghamshire Live.
16. (29 November 2023). "Nottingham City Council stops all but essential spending after effectively declaring itself bankrupt". ITV News.
17. {{cite legislation UK. (2024)
18. "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey.
19. "Compositions Calculator". University of Exeter.
20. (11 August 1997). "Who's who in a name game". Nottingham Evening Post.
21. (20 May 1976). "About turn!". Nottingham Evening Post.
22. (5 May 1979). "Labour come in from the cold". Nottingham Evening Post.
23. (4 September 1998). "'Guiding light' of concert hall dies". Nottingham Evening Post.
24. (2 March 2019). "Remembering teacher Betty Higgins who became first woman to lead Nottingham City Council". Nottinghamshire Live.
25. (8 May 1987). "Tories take city - by a whisker!". Evening Post.
26. (4 November 1988). "Power switch". Evening Post.
27. (21 April 1993). "The goodbye girl". Nottingham Evening Post.
28. (21 April 1993). "Taylor in the hot seat". Nottingham Evening Post.
29. (6 May 1995). "Going out with a bang". Nottingham Evening Post.
30. (9 May 1995). "Jobs and security head new city leader's aims". Evening Post.
31. (22 March 2002). "Council leader quits". Dispatch.
32. "Council minutes, 3 May 2002".
33. (6 May 2003). "Council Housing (Nottingham)".
34. "Council minutes, 16 May 2003".
35. (15 March 2019). "Nottingham City Council leader Jon Collins to step down". BBC News.
36. "Council minutes, 20 May 2019".
37. (20 May 2024). "David Mellen officially leaving office as new Nottingham City Council leader takes charge". Nottinghamshire Live.
38. "Council minutes, 20 May 2024".
39. "Local elections 2023: live council results for England". The Guardian.
40. (18 October 2023). "Two Labour councillors resign from party and slam Kier Starmer over Israel and Palestine conflict". Nottingham Post.
41. "Labour suspends Sheriff of Nottingham over budget cuts vote". The BBC.
42. (2025-10-30). "Nottingham city councillors quit Labour to form new party".
43. "Nottingham". Thorncliffe.
44. {{NHLE
45. (23 November 2010). "Loxley House - a Freedom of Information request to Nottingham City Council". [[mySociety]] by [[UK Citizens Online Democracy]].
46. {{cite legislation UK. (2018)
47. "East Midlands Region". Civic Heraldry of England.