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3.6 1974 : Two-tier

Main article: Local Government Act 1972

By the late 1960s, it had become obvious that the structure of local government in England and Wales needed reforming. Harold Wilson's Labour government set up the Redcliffe-Maud Commission to produce proposals for wholesale reform.

The report proposed that most of England the two-tier structure be abolished, and replaced with a system of 58 unitary authories, which would generally ignore the previous administrative boundaries in favour of changes that made geographic sense - a total redrawing of the map. In the metropolitan areas of Merseyside, South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire, and the Birmingham area, there would be 3 metropolitan areas, with 20 district authorities.

These proposals were opposed by the Conservative Party opposition led by Edward Heath. They won the 1970 general election, and set to work defining their own scheme. This scrapped the concept of unitary authorities (even for existing county boroughs) — the entire area of England and Wales was to be divided into uniform counties and districts. In England the counties were to be largely modelled on the existing counties, but in some areas (quite apart from the metropolitan areas) quite radical reforms were put forward.

Despite reassurances from the government that nobody's loyalties were expected to change as a result of the local government reform, and that the ancient and geographic counties would not be formally abolished; many changes did incur significant local oppositions. Most of the radical changes were withdrawn. One aspect the government stood firm on was the mergers of small counties. Campaigns for the continuation of Rutland and Herefordshire were unsuccessful, although due to its special geographic circumstances, the Isle of Wight was permitted to retain a separate county council, as opposed to being reunified with its historic county of Hampshire.

The Local Government Act was passed in 1972, and defined the English counties and metropolitan districts, but not the non-metropolitan districts. These were set by a Boundary Commission that had already begun work.

The metropolitan counties were composed as follows

Merseyside - based around Liverpool, south-west Lancashire, along with, from the other side of the River Mersey, the Wirral in north-west Cheshire
Greater Manchester - the Manchester urban area along with many surrounding towns
South Yorkshire - based upon the Sheffield- Rotherham area in the West Riding of Yorkshire
Tyne and Wear - the Tyneside conurbation based on Newcastle-upon-Tyne in Northumberland, along with Sunderland in County Durham
West Midlands - Birmingham conurbation, including the Black Country and Coventry
West Yorkshire - Leeds- Bradford area in the West Riding

Other significant changes were -

Avon formed from northern Somerset, southern Gloucestershire, and Bristol and Bath
Cleveland formed from southern Durham and northern part of the North Riding, focusing on the Teesside conurbation along with Guisborough and Hartlepool
Cumbria was formed from Westmorland, Cumberland and part of Lancashire and Yorkshire
Herefordshire and Worcestershire were merged into Hereford and Worcester
Humberside formed from eastern Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire
Huntingdon and Peterborough was annexed by Cambridgeshire
Rutland was merged into Leicestershire as a district
Vale of White Horse, including Berkshire's former county town Abingdon was ceded to Oxfordshire

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