The Modernization of UK Local Government: Markets, Managers, Monitors and Mixed Fortunes

Since 1997 UK central government has launched a bewildering array of new initiatives known collectively as the 'local government modernizing agenda' which represent an ambitious attempt to transform the performance and the politics of local authorities in the UK. The aim is to improve local services, enhance community governance and increase public confidence in the institutions of local government. Some of the key elements of this agenda, notably attempts to persuade authorities to make greater use of markets, to encourage strategic management techniques and the reliance on external monitoring, draw heavily upon the New Public Management and build directly upon previous reforms. Others, in particular the emergence of a more diversified approach to regulation of local government, signal a new and distinctive approach to public service improvement. The result is a combination of multiple drivers of change and paradoxical 'operating codes' which reflect both the politics of the modernizing agenda and our current lack of understanding about which approaches will prove most effective in enabling performance improvement in the public sector.