The Local Government and Rating Act 1997 (c 29) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allows a community at the village, neighbourhood, town or similar level beneath a district or borough council to demand its own elected parish or town council.

The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 would later extend the parish petition right to places within Greater London.

Section 11 of the Act allows any such community to collect a petition for a new parish or town council and also to define the area that it shall cover.

Once the petition meets a certain threshold of registered electors’ signatures, the local metropolitan borough council, district council or unitary authority cannot stop it.

This legislation in the United Kingdom, or its constituent jurisdictions, article is a stub.