Spending Cuts or Local Tax Increases? An Analysis of Local Authority Preferences in England

1986 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
J P Sondheimer
Keyword(s):  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Consumer Theory ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
The Future ◽  
Government Grant ◽  
Spending Cuts

Local authorities in England have been set spending targets. If they exceed these targets, their central government grant is reduced, thus sharply increasing the local tax rate. The resulting spending decisions of local authorities have been analysed, in an attempt to explain their behaviour in terms of a model of rational spending behaviour in line with neoclassical consumer theory. Various families of indifference curves indicating preferences between expenditure and local tax rate increases have been tested for consistency with the actual spending decisions of the authorities, and evidence found to support such a model. Empirical results are presented. But there is evidence that other variables, such as past spending decisions and expectations about the future, also have a significant impact on spending decisions.

Local Authority Responses to Grants: Different Types of Response and Equilibrium

1989 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
M M Barrow
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Government Grants ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Game Theoretic

Game theoretic techniques are used to examine the case of local authorities facing a system of closed-ended central government grants. A diagrammatic exposition of the results from a previous paper is provided, and the results extended to cover alternative types of equilibrium. It is shown that local government behaviour may be Pareto inefficient in response to grants, the inefficiency being manifested in too high a level of local government spending. It is also shown that authorities which try to protect their local tax rate may be at a disadvantage relative to those which make a commitment to high spending.

Economic Development in Britain: A Vacuum in Central-Local Government Relations

1986 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Young
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Employment Goals

Local authority involvement in economic matters has become widespread since the early 1970s. Recent developments in the pattern of local economic activity have been the increasing use of section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972 to fund local programmes, the spread of local authority involvement from the Assisted Areas to the more prosperous regions, and the increasing interest shown by the smaller shire districts, often in rural areas. The portfolio of possible interventions has also changed, bringing a new diversity to the practice of local economic development. Whereas central government has in the past eschewed the temptation to exercise close controls over these activities, the new diversity of local economic initiatives presents it with new dilemmas. It can no longer be assumed that such initiatives will be supportive of central government's spatial or sectoral policies. This vacuum in central-local relations is unlikely to remain, and renewed pressures to grant specific economic development powers to local authorities can be expected. If these claims are accepted, central government will be drawn inexorably into local economic affairs by the need to develop the capacity of local authorities to intervene effectively in pursuit of economic and employment goals.

Laws as an Instrument of Policy: A Study in Central-Local Government Relations

1985 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Page
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Direct Reference ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
Local Services

ABSTRACTLaw is an instrument which can be used by central government to influence its environment, including other levels of government. This paper examines a number of fundamental questions about the nature of legal influence upon local authorities in Britain. Legislation affects local authorities in a variety of ways: through making direct reference to local authority organisations and the services they provide; through affecting all large organisations, public or private; and through affecting the organisations and individuals with which local authorities interact. In the 1970s a large proportion of legislation was concerned with the financial aspects of local services. Relatively few laws make substantive changes in the legal framework within which local authorities operate and much legislation can be categorised as ‘anodyne’. However, particular items of legislation can produce such substantive changes in public policies and in the powers of different organisations within government.

scholarly journals A reassessment of local government’s financial position and performance: The case of Ireland

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Gerard Turley ◽  
Rémi Di medio ◽  
Stephen McNena
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Financial Performance ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Performance Indicator ◽  
Operating Performance ◽  
Fiscal Sustainability ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Financial Position ◽  
And Performance

AbstractGiven the changes in the Irish economy since the economic crisis and, more specifically, reforms in the local government sector, this paper reassesses the financial position and fiscal sustainability of local authorities in Ireland. To do this we employ a local government financial performance framework that measures liquidity and solvency, but also operating performance and collection rates, for different sources of revenue income. Using financial data sourced from local council income and expenditure accounts and balance sheets, we report and analyse the financial position and performance during the 2007–17 period. The results indicate an improvement in the financial performance of local councils since the early 2010s. Cross-council differences persist, in particular, between large urban local authorities and smaller rural local authorities, albeit only for the liquidity and operating performance measures. Among the small rural councils, Sligo County Council’s financial position, although improving, remains a serious matter with ongoing consultation with and monitoring by central government. To help improve the measurement of local authority financial performance we recommend inclusion of this framework in the local authority Annual Financial Statement and also in the Performance Indicator Report with a view to making financial reports more accessible and transparent to citizens and taxpayers and, ultimately, to help improve performance and service delivery by the local authorities.

scholarly journals Ofsted and Children’s Services: What Performance Indicators and Other Factors Are Associated with Better Inspection Results?

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 850-867 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wilkins ◽  
Vivi Antonopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Clear Pattern ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
Senior Managers ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Children’S Services ◽  
National Reputation

Abstract ‘Failing’ an inspection of The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) has severe consequences on a local authority. Senior managers may lose their jobs and the workforce as a whole can be destabilised. In extreme cases, central government can decide whether the authority is no longer capable of running children’s services. On the other hand, receiving positive Ofsted judgements often brings with it a national reputation for excellence. This study reports the findings of an analysis of key performance indicators, expenditure and deprivation in relation to Ofsted inspections for eighty-seven local authorities in England undertaken between 2014 and 2016. Our aim was to examine the association between these factors and Ofsted judgements. Our findings suggest that for most of the factors we considered, there is no clear pattern of better or worse performance between local authorities with different Ofsted ratings. However, ‘good and outstanding’ authorities tend to outperform other authorities in relation to some procedural variables. By itself, the level of local authority deprivation was most clearly associated with the Ofsted rating, and expenditure was associated with the authority’s level of deprivation but not their Ofsted judgement. Comparisons are made with the concept of ‘value-added’ performance in relation to schools.

scholarly journals The future approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-167
Author(s):  
Steven Woolf
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Injunctive Relief ◽  
The Future ◽  
Local Residents

This Opinion considers a new approach that has been adopted by various local authorities who have successfully applied for injunctive relief to prevent ‘persons unknown’ from setting up encampments on any green spaces identified on a local authority map. It is suggested that the ‘preventative injunction’ is a better way to deal with traveller encampments on green spaces, as it is proactive rather than reactive. It is of particular benefit, when having regard to the huge sums of money that councils have expended on addressing the arrival of travellers in their areas. Local authorities have limited resources (time and money) and it is argued that this approach could instead help them to obviously spend the money saved to enhance the ‘quality of life’ of their local residents.

Being a Programme Authority: Is it Worthwhile?

1987 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meryl Aldridge ◽  
Christopher J. Brotherton
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
Health Authority ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Control Structures ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Set Up ◽  
City Policy

ABSTRACTNottingham is one of 23 local authorities designated as ‘programme authorities’ under the Inner Urban Areas Act 1978. Between 1983 and 1985 the authors carried out research into the formulation of inner city policy, its application to the Radford area in particular and the opinions of residents there about its impact. Interviews with a wide range of those involved with policy including local authority officers and members and representatives of the police, the health authority and regional Department of the Environment (DoE) revealed considerable institutional and political barriers to a joint inner city strategy in a shire district, even where the same party holds political control. Structures set up to liaise are cordial but clumsy, slow and very much removed from daily service delivery. As elsewhere, the local authorities are critical of lack of central government commitment to this part of the Urban Programme, but nevertheless work well with regional DoE. Paradoxically, however, despite their criticisms of a lack of central funds and of inappropriate spatial and other parameters, the local authority and health authority respondents are anxious for the Programme to continue as it provides both the resources and the justification for innovatory and redistributive projects which would otherwise have been financially and politically impossible.

Local Authority Spending Cuts and Local Political Control

1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vic Duke ◽  
Stephen Edgell
Keyword(s):  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Political Control ◽  
Local Autonomy ◽  
Expenditure Patterns ◽  
Mediating Factor ◽  
Spending Cuts

The aim of this Note is to examine recent local authority expenditure cuts in relation to Saunders's dual-state thesis. Saunders's model has important implications for the long-standing debates on local autonomy from central government and on the party effect in expenditure patterns. The extent to which local political control is a mediating factor in the nature and severity of spending cuts is analysed with reference to a case study of two districts in the Greater Manchester area.

Local Authority Expenditure Reactions to Losses in Grant Aid: The Case of the Metropolitan District Councils

1986 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
R R Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Local Authority ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Type Model ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Local Taxes ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Face ◽  
Real Value ◽  
The Government

This paper presents the results of an initial investigation into the expenditure responses of a group of local authorities in England to a loss in grant income. The Government has restricted grant aid to local authorities in an attempt to secure restraint in the expenditure of these authorities, but (until recently) local authorities have had the opportunity to make good any loss in grant income by increasing local taxes. A central issue is, then, how much restraint in local authority expenditure is secured by a given reduction in grant aid. Reduction in grant aid is measured in this paper in terms of its impact on the local tax rate (and the average local domestic tax bill) if a local authority is to maintain the real value of its spending. An incremental budgeting type model is developed and the empirical work is concerned with the financial years 1982–1983 and 1984–1985. It is found that in the later year local authorities have been less willing to reduce their expenditure in the face of loss of grant aid. It is also found that the response of the local authorities has become more political in the sense that a statistically significant difference has developed between the responses of Labour and those of non-Labour controlled councils.

scholarly journals Self-funders: Still By-Standers in the English Social Care Market?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Melanie Henwood ◽  
Jon Glasby ◽  
Steve McKay ◽  
Catherine Needham
Keyword(s):  
Support Services ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Care And Support ◽  
The Future ◽  
Market Shaping

The Care Act 2014 gave local authorities in England broad duties around wellbeing, and responsibility to ensure the availability of good quality, personalised social care and support services for people who need them. These responsibilities are for all people needing support, whether that is publicly or privately funded. In exercising their duties, councils have a responsibility for ‘market-shaping’: that is, understanding the supply and demand for care, and the types of services and support needed now and in the future, and steering the market accordingly. Changes to the implementation of the Care Act removed some of the levers that might have brought self-funders into the mainstream of local authority responsibilities. This article draws on sixty-four qualitative interviews undertaken as part of a larger study on market-shaping and personalisation of care, and reflects on the experience of self-funders and the approach to them adopted by local authorities and provider organisations. The findings indicate that self-funders are still largely bystanders to local authority market shaping strategies, despite being both impacted by those strategies and significantly influencing the markets in which they operate.

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