Leeds City Council

Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. Leeds has had a council since 1626, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1974 it has been a metropolitan borough council. It provides the majority of local government services in the city. It is the second most populous local government district in the United Kingdom with approximately 800,000 inhabitants living within its area; only Birmingham City Council has more. Since 1 April 2014, it has been a constituent council of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

The council has been under Labour majority control since 2011. It meets at Leeds Civic Hall and has its main offices at Merrion House.

Leeds (historically often spelt Leedes) was a manor and then a town, receiving a charter from King Charles I as a 'free borough' in 1626 giving it powers of self-government, leading to the formation of the Leeds Corporation to administer it. The leader was initially an alderman, the first holder being Sir John Savile. A second charter, granted in 1661 by Charles II, gave the town the right to appoint a mayor. The first holder of that post was Thomas Danby.

Leeds was reformed in 1836 to become a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs were governed across England and Wales. The ruling body was then formally called the "mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Leeds", generally known as the corporation or town council. When elected county councils were created in 1889 Leeds was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services and so it became a county borough, independent from the new West Riding County Council. Leeds became a city in 1893, after which the corporation was also known as the city council. In 1897 the mayoralty was raised to a lord mayor.

The modern city council was established in 1974, with the first elections being held in advance in 1973. Under the Local Government Act 1972, the area of the County Borough of Leeds was combined with those of the Municipal Borough of Morley, the Municipal Borough of Pudsey, Aireborough Urban District, Horsforth Urban District, Otley Urban District, Garforth Urban District, Rothwell Urban District and parts of Tadcaster Rural District, Wetherby Rural District and Wharfedale Rural District from the West Riding. The new Leeds district was one of five metropolitan districts in West Yorkshire. Leeds' borough and city statuses and right to appoint a lord mayor were transferred to the enlarged district.

From 1974 until 1986 the city council was a second-tier authority, with West Yorkshire County Council providing many key services. However, the metropolitan county councils were abolished under the Local Government Act 1985 and the council took responsibility for all former County Council functions. Some functions, notably policing, fire services and public transport are run by joint committees of the five metropolitan boroughs in West Yorkshire.

Since 2014 the council has been a constituent member of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. The combined authority has been led by the directly elected Mayor of West Yorkshire since 2021.

Leeds City Council is responsible for providing all statutory local authority services in Leeds, except for those it provides jointly in conjunction with other West Yorkshire authorities. This includes education, housing, planning, transport and highways, social services, libraries, leisure and recreation, waste collection, waste disposal, environmental health and revenue collection. The council is one of the largest employers in West Yorkshire, with around 33,000 employees.