The concept of successor parishes was a relatively late addition to the Local Government Bill, being added at report stage in response to pressure from the councils of small urban districts and boroughs.
[1] It was further allowed that these parish councils would be entitled to be styled 'towns' and have 'town mayors', and retain other charter rights.
The original criteria for identifying "small towns" was that they should have fewer than 20,000 inhabitants, or less than 20 percent of the district's population.
Fifty-two towns in metropolitan districts wished to be granted successor status, of which ten were successful.
A similar number of towns in non-metropolitan districts also made representations, of which fifteen were favourably received.