Policy Review Section

Abstract

The contributions in this policy review each confront the question of management of local government in Britain in an era in which the term ‘fiscal crisis’ is increasingly applied. That such problems should arise in Britain, with previously so stable a pattern of central-local relations, seems at first surprising. These papers, however, demonstrate that the emerging crisis is an inevitable phenomenon resulting from the clash of local political priorities with central political priorities. In this clash, local authority treasurers and monitoring agencies, like the Audit Commission, have become central actors whereas previously treasurers largely responded to policy determined elsewhere. At the same time the Government is implementing radical changes in local revenue sources which will markedly change the pattern of geographical and personal payments for local services and their accountability. The contributions which follow address these issues and derive from a Regional Studies Association Conference held on 11 June 1987 which was convened and chaired by Professor R. J. Bennett (London School of Economics) who has also acted as guest editor for this issue of the Policy Review Section.