Budgeting in Local Government

This book explores how local authorities in the UK have been affected by the increasing pressures on public spending. Drawing on a wide range of recent research, and in particular on the Public Administration Committee`s comparative study of 17 local authorities, the authors consider how local authorities prepare their budgets and set their rate levels. Central government has repeatedly sought to control local authority spending and taxing decisions more closely. Against this background the authors examine the role of the political parties in the budgetary process and the changes in local authorities` formal and informal structures. They conclude that control over budgets has become increasingly centralized through the formation of informal groups rather than the formal committee structures of the authority. They consider the strategies adopted by local authorities to deal with demands for expenditure reductions; the outputs of local authorities and the attempts to get greater value for money in local government.
Finally, they argue that despite the many changes induced by the pressures of the last decade, local government budgeting is still chiefly a process of making incremental adjustments at the margins of expenditure.