Parish, shire and town borough authorities have been in existence in Wales since the 16th century. The growth in powers of local authorities during the industrial revolution lead to the formation of elected county, county borough councils, urban district and rural district councils in the late 19th century. This complex system continued until the first major reorganisation of local government in Wales in 1974 when 8 county councils and 37 district councils were created. In 1996 a further reorganisation created a single tier of 22 authorities providing all local government services to local communities. There are 1257 councillors in Wales.
The principal councils are democratically representative of their local communities and promote participation in local democracy by local people. Whole council elections are held every four years. Councils provide a wide range of personal, community and environmental services for individuals and whole communities from 'the cradle to the grave'. Councils are much more than providers of everyday local services. They have a power of community leadership – to lead, influence and support partner organisations to work to common goals to meet the needs and aspirations of their communities.
Councils have legal status as corporate bodies. They are required to provide statutory services as set out in legislation and are empowered to provide other services at their discretion. They cannot act where there is no legal power to act. Councils have statutory responsibilities to provide local services such as social care and housing and to exercise local control and regulation through, for example, environmental health inspection and planning development control. Councils provide some services directly, work in partnership with other organisations, and commission others to provide services on their behalf. Councils are not motivated by profit although they do provide some trading services such as catering, and services for which there are private sector alternatives such as leisure centres.
In recent years Councils have modernised their management arrangements. The longstanding committee systems have been replaced with executive governance models loosely based on the cabinet system of Government at Westminster. In total 19 councils have cabinets with a leader in place. The remaining 3 councils are run by a politically balanced executive board. The unitary councils in Wales are responsible for £4 billion of public expenditure – that is over one third of the total Welsh budget. Local government is also one of the largest employers in Wales with some 150,000 employees.