Coping with the Cuts? The Management of the Worst Financial Settlement in Living Memory

Abstract

The scale of the cuts to local government finance, coupled with increasing demand for services, has led to unprecedented 'budget gaps' in council budgets. Arguably, two competing narratives of the trajectory of local government have emerged in which contrasting futures are imagined for the sector-a positive story of adaptation and survival and more negative one of residualisation and marginalisation. Drawing on case study evidence from three English local authorities, the paper distinguishes and provides examples of three strategic approaches to managing austerityefficiency, retrenchment and investment. It demonstrates how and why the balance of these strategies has shifted between the early and later phases of austerity and considers the extent to which the evidence of the case studies provide support for either the survival or marginalisation narrative. The paper concludes by arguing that a third narrative-responsibilisation-captures more fully the trajectory of local government in England.

Hybridizing the institutional logics of performance improvement and budgetary stewardship in English and Welsh local government

“…Moreover, demographic changes mean that local authorities in both countries face a significant rise in demand for services such as adult social care in the coming years, yet they will have fewer resources to meet this demand (Hastings et al, 2015). These factors have led to councils increasing their focus on financial reporting and 8 levels of revenue and expenditure.…”

City government in an age of austerity: Discursive institutions and critique

“…They are now extending outwards to mandatory services in a more comprehensive manner, such as social care, and focused more on actual 'retrenchment' (i.e. decreasing service provision) as the overall budget decreases, and which conforms to the results of Hastings et al (2015). For instance, in the financial year 2016/17 there will be a £3.75m reduction in spending for children and young people services, whilst a further £19.7m is being cut from 'base' budgets across various council services A critical task for senior politicians and managers has been to justify austerity measures to the broader council and local population.…”

“…The actual extent to which there is a focus on relative creativity is represented in the strong emphasis on revenue generating practices where 'some are predicated on relatively unproven or untested approaches', as deemed by another local authority chief executive (Dave Smith, quoted in [Anonymised newspaper], 2015). Such tendencies can firmly be situated within the context of urban entrepreneurialism, Hastings et al's (2015) emphasis on local government's greater 'responsibilisation' for economic growth and distribution, and Warner and Clifton's (2014) 'riding the wave' as local government seeks to become more market-orientated.…”

“…The role of these institutionalised bureaucratic values also work through 'transformational' programmes aligned with new strategic priorities and cost-saving exercises, and follow more general trends of organisational retrenchment as a consequence of austerity (Hastings et al, 2015;Overmann and Timm-Arnold, 2016). They are geared towards managerial principles of 'demand management', which emphasises greater understanding and responsiveness to citizen service demands, leading to changes in the behaviours of officers, but also seeking to change the behaviours of customers and, thus, representing greater sensitivity towards the demandside (see Osbourne, 2010).…”

“…The actual detail of how austerity is strategically and operationally implemented and managed is very much a devolved process to urban spaces and state agencies (Clarke and Cochrane, 2013;Hastings et al, 2015). For Peck (2012) these conditions are leading to 'a new operational matrix for urban politics' within 'austerity urbanism'.…”