‘Councillors at the casino’

Abstract

Abstract Critical characterizations depict ‘councillors at the casino’ in England since 2010 taking risky gambles with public money and essential local services in a financialized setting. New, innovative approaches and arrangements different to tried-and-tested local government strategies and practices have been formulated and deployed by politicians and officers in attempts to make savings and generate income to balance budgets in response to the UK government’s austerity from 2010. Commercial finance actors have been drawn to reconstruct the local municipal finance market with new products and services. Situating the experience of local governments in England since 2010 in international perspective, emergent concerns are outlined about the purpose and financial strategies of local government, its use of taxpayers’ money, and implications for local public service provision and democracy. The alleged return of local governments in England to the casino is described and explained as evidence of the financialization of the local state. Addressing gaps in understanding, the book aims to develop local statecraft theory to explain how, why, where, and when local governments are—and are not—engaging the relations and process of financialization. This new theorization provides the framework to account for the experiences of local councillors, officers, commercial financiers, and external advisors navigating austerity and financialization in England since 2010.