The Crisis in Local Government

Abstract

Local government in the United Kingdom is currently undergoing a profound shift in the way it organises its activities and the way it relates to the public it serves. The changes of the 1980s and the 1990s have catapulted local government from relative obscurity into a highly visible role at the centre of national political debates. Indeed, it is possible to argue that the public services in general and local government in particular have become the most consistently contentious sphere of politics in Britain in the period since 1979. Driven by pressures from consumers and citizens at local level, by a maelstrom of legislation emanating from Whitehall, and by new thinking within the political parties, local authorities are being forced to change as never before.