Policy implementation and central‐local government relations in England: The examples of the sale of council houses and area improvement

This paper considers the increasing emphasis given in studies of policy implementation to negotiative and bargaining behaviour between and within implementing organisations. It relates these developments to the question of policy implementation within the framework of central‐local government relations. Two case studies from the housing policy area in England are used to explore the process of policy implementation, first the requirement on local authorities to sell council houses under the 1980 Housing Act, and second, the introduction of area based improvement as an alternative to clearance and council house building. The conclusions draw attention to, inter alia, the problems faced by central government in obtaining compliance, the importance of intra‐organisational factors in shaping policy at local level, and the problems faced by the centre in making precise interventions which do not have consequences for ‘adjacent’ policy areas.