<P> Between 1897 and 1914, applications were received from a number of other boroughs, but only one was successful: in 1905, Cardiff was designated a city and granted a Lord Mayoralty as "the Metropolis of Wales". </P> <P> The London Government Act 1899 abolished the existing local authorities within the County of London and replaced them with 28 metropolitan boroughs . Among the bodies to be dissolved was the Court of Burgesses of the City of Westminster . William Burdett - Coutts, one of Westminster's members of parliament, brought forward an amendment to rename the proposed borough of Greater Westminster to City of Westminster . This was intended to give "recognition to the title which the area...had possessed for over three and a half centuries". He felt that if the status was not retained for the new borough it "must necessarily disappear altogether". The amendment was rejected by the government, however, with the First Lord of the Treasury, Arthur Balfour, believing it would be "an anomaly which, I think, would be not unnaturally resented by other districts which are as large in point of population as Westminster, although doubtless not so rich in historical associations". The government eventually relented, with Balfour stating that "as soon as the necessary arrangements under the London Government Act have been completed, there will be conferred on the borough of Westminster, as constituted under the Act, the title of city, originally conferred in the time of Henry VIII". Letters patent were duly issued granting the title of "city" to the newly created Metropolitan Borough of Westminster . </P> <P> In 1907, the Home Office and King Edward VII agreed on a policy that future applicants would have to meet certain criteria . This policy, which was not at the time made public, had the effect of stemming the number of city creations . </P> <P> The 1907 policy contained three criteria: </P>

What does a city have to have to be a city