The British prime minister's legacy was increased centralisation and the willingness of her successors to control local democracy

Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government presided over an 11-year war between central and local government. Her key characteristics, notably her ideological distaste for the left, meant Labour-controlled councils became an inevitable target for her radicalism.

Michael Foot's Labour opposition gained control of town halls as the economic policies of the early 1980s started to bite and many Labour council leaders saw themselves as warriors against the Conservative government – she certainly wanted to neutralise them.

From the start, in 1979-80, there were cuts in government funding for councils. The Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 introduced a new 'block grant' and compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) for direct labour organisations. The block grant allowed the government to impose grant penalties on councils which exceeded expenditure targets and CCT was a deliberately-aimed blow at the union-dominated public sector which had been involved in strikes during the winter of discontent during the final year of the James Callaghan's Labour government.

Powers were taken away from local government in London Docklands and Merseyside and, instead, development corporations were imposed. Enterprise zones, with tax breaks, were also introduced. Michael Heseltine, as Thatcher's environment secretary, oversaw an interventionist style of urban regeneration which has proved influential ever since. Despite the original opposition of councils in the areas where these policies were introduced, the redevelopment policies pursued in Liverpool and London are now seen as effective. Indeed, Heseltine is today one of the few Tory politicians popular in the urban North.

Rate-capping, which restricted the spending of councils, on the other hand utterly divided local and central government. Even Conservative councils and leaders were opposed, though it was a number of radical urban Labour leaders who decided to adopt a policy of not setting a rate. Councils such as Sheffield, Liverpool, Islington, Lambeth and Haringey set out towards illegality as part of a rebellious strategy to confront the Thatcher government and generate mass opposition.

In the end, all authorities backed down, though a number of Liverpool and Lambeth councillors were eventually surcharged and disqualified as a result of financial losses incurred.

Mrs Thatcher's government also moved to abolish the Greater London Council (GLC) and the six metropolitan county councils. GLC leader Ken Livingstone embodied everything the Thatcher government saw as bad in local government. He supported contact with Sinn Fein and pursued 'equalities' policies which, though the norm in 2013, seemed dangerous to the government of the day.

Moreover, the Livingstone GLC hung banners on County Hall (easily seen from parliament) proclaiming London's unemployment figures. Despite a massive campaign to stop abolition, it went ahead in 1986. Four years later, the Inner London Education Authority was also abolished.

But it was with the community charge, universally known as the poll tax, that Mrs Thatcher overstretched herself in her war with local government. She was a convert to the idea and pursued it with the zeal of one.

Millions of households were left worse off by the redistribution of the local tax burden and the tax was seen as seriously unfair. It led to protest marches and a riot in Trafalgar Square and contributed to her downfall in 1990.

No government since has failed to be cautious in dealing with local taxation.

Thatcher's legacy to local governments was increased centralisation and the willingness of her successors to cap, limit and control local democracy in England. This country is one of the most centralised of western democracies, which is an odd legacy for a politician who so prized individualism and freedom.

Tony Travers is director of British Government at the London School of Economics

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