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Drawing on fieldwork with 70 local authorities in England and Wales, this article builds on previous studies of austerity management by highlighting the importance of organisational cultures to achieving strategic objectives. It finds that, in line with their prevailing "belief system" of budgetary stewardship, local authorities in both countries are holding down input costs to deal with austerity. However, the scale of funding cuts means this strategy is unlikely to be successful over the longer term. Instead, they need greater freedom to generate revenue, in order to facilitate innovation and develop more sustainable business practices and service models. Democrats) began an austerity programme to significantly cut the UK's budget deficit through major public spending reductions, including for local government Eckersley, 2011, 2012; Ferry et al, in press).There is a large and growing public management literature examining how governments across the developed world are seeking to cope with austerity (see for example van Helden, 2000;Pollitt 2010;or Grossi and Cepiku, 2014 for an overview). Many of these studies seek to examine the potential link between a drop in government revenues and the application of private sector techniques that come under the loose heading of New Public Management (see Hood, 1995 for an explanation of this hypothesis), link strategies to the wider literature on responding to crises (Peters, 2011), or identify factors that influence the success of austerity programmes (Eckersley and Timm-Arnold, 2014). However, although these studies have provided a rich analysis of how public bodies are trying to cope with financial pressures, the theoretical tools they employ do not allow for a full appreciation of the contexts in which organisations operate, and therefore cannot give us a complete understanding of why some 3 strategies may (or may not) succeed. In particular, they do not sufficiently address how issues of organisational culture and scope can influence strategic direction.In order to provide a more rounded perspective on responses to austerity, as well as a better understanding of the potential shortcomings of existing approaches, this article employs Simons' (1995) levers of control framework. Simons' framework is particularly relevant because it takes an holistic approach to analysing corporate strategy, emphasising the importance of "belief" and "boundary" systems (in other words, the role of traditions and cultures in shaping organisational strategy, and the scope of the organisation's activity), alongside more traditional "diagnostic" and "interactive" methods (budgets and performance management systems, and corporate or community meetings). In this way, belief and boundary systems establish the organisation's strategic domain (Davila, 2005) by mapping out its activities and clarifying its working culture and reputation. By analysing these wider variables we build upon the rich public management literature by attempting to further identify why some responses to austerit...

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Municipal corporations wielded a vast amount of economic power throughout the period covered by this paper and, as a result, they were the subject of envy, suspicion and criticism. The question of whether depreciation should be charged could not be dismissed as a mere matter of book‐keeping. The inclusion of a charge involved the earmarking of an equivalent amount of money for future use, and the matter was therefore regarded as of fundamental importance for current levels of local taxation and long term financial stability. Public and private sector based accountants, municipal officers, town councillors, ratepayers and academics engaged in a debate which, although stirring strong emotions, was thoughtful, wide ranging and constructive. This paper examines the discourse and its outcomes.