Municipal services

City governments often operate or contract for additional utilities like electricity, gas and cable television.

In the UK, a combination of local taxation based on property value and central government grants is the main means of funding core services.

In recent years, UK councils have been given some leeway in finding alternative funding which can be the simple sponsorship of flower baskets to the trading of surplus buildings and land for services from private firms.

In their Victorian heyday, with the growth of urbanization and industrialization, they could be responsible for the promotion, organization, funding, building and management of everything from housing to water supplies, power in the form of both gas and electricity, to the introduction of electric trams; almost any activity that the city fathers thought was necessary to promote the economic, social and environmental well-being of their municipality.

One trend in the UK, (in the name of efficiency) has been the privatisation of departments, the transfer of staff and assets to the new organisation and the contracting with the new organization for services to the council.

The similarly isolated Johannesburg has chosen to run its services as standalone and self-funding, corporate entities.