Ipswich is governed locally by a two-tier Council System. Ipswich Borough Council fulfils District Council functions such as refuse collection, housing and planning and Suffolk County Council provides services such as education and social services.

Between 1979 and September 2004 Ipswich Borough Council was under Labour control but the town is now governed by a coalition of Conservative and Liberal Democrat Councillors with Labour in opposition.

The County Council was controlled by a Labour/Liberal Democrat administration between May 1993 and May 2005 but has since reverted to Conservative control, although 10 out of the 13 County Councillors representing Ipswich are Labour and only 1 is a Conservative.

In April 2006 the local borough council initiated public discussions about the idea of turning the borough into a unitary authority. Ipswich had constituted a county borough from 1889 to 1974, independent of the administrative county of East Suffolk, and this status was not restored by the Banham/Cooksey Commission in the 1990s.

Ipswich, Norwich, Exeter and Oxford have united to campaign for unitary authority status for the four towns. Ipswich hopes to use the window of opportunity presented by the October 2006 Local Government White Paper to regain unitary status. In March 2007, it was announced that Ipswich was one of sixteen councils successful for its bid, although consultation needed to take place before a final decision can be made in July 2007. On the 2007-07-25, the Secretary of state announced that she was minded to implement the unitary proposal for Ipswich, but that there were 'a number of risks relating to the financial case set out in the proposal', and invited Ipswich to undertake further work before a final decision is taken.

The town is covered by two parliamentary constituencies – Ipswich (UK Parliament constituency), which covers about 75% and is represented by Labour MP Chris Mole, and Central Suffolk & North Ipswich, which covers the remaining 25% and is represented by Conservative MP Michael Lord. In the 2005 General Election, an Independent Candidate (Sally Wainman)stood on the issue of saving Broomhill Pool in Ipswich, still an ongoing issue.

Dieser Artikel basiert auf dem Artikel Ipswich aus der freien Enzyklopädie Wikipedia und steht unter der GNU-Lizenz für freie Dokumentation. In der Wikipedia ist eine Liste der Autoren verfügbar.