Public expenditure policies and the public library: changing the rules of the revenue game

Abstract

The period since 1972 has seen major changes in the administration of local government. During the same time central government has become increasingly concerned about the financing and control of local authority expenditure. The authors argue that while central governments have always sought to control local government expenditure a major shift in the balance of power between central and local government has occurred with the election of an administration ideologically committed to reducing public expenditure and willing to replace exhortation with enforcement.

The article reviews some of the major fiscal and administrative changes that have taken place since the early 1970s and discusses the practical, professional and managerial implications of the controversial rate capping legislation.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Quoted in Rates Bill fact pack. Basildon Council [1983?].

Richards, P.G. The local government system (New Local Government Series, 5). Allen & Unwin, 1983.

Sharpe, L J (ed.). The local fiscal crisis in Western Europe: myths and realities. Sage, 1981.

Greenwood, R. Pressures from Whitehall. In Rose, R , and Page, E (eds). Fiscal stress in cities. Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Buckley, N.A. Blasting a way through the town hall siege. Municipal Journal, 1984, 92 (25), 960-1.

Layfield Report. Local government finance (Cmnd 6453). Report of the Committee of Enquiry. HMSO, 1976.

Alternatives to domestic rates (Cmnd 8449). 1982.

Local Government Finance Act 1982.

See, for example, Guardian, 30 August 1984, 3.

10.

See, for example, Summary of the Audit Commission's report on the impact on local government of the block grant system. Internal document produced by Sheffield City Council, 1984.

11.

From the text of a government statement accompanying the White Paper.

12.

Quoted in Lothian 1981-84. Lothian Regional Council Branch, Nalgo, 1984.

13.

Geddes-Brown, L. How museums will make us pay. Sunday Times, 5 August 1984, 37.

14.

Report by the minister for the arts on library and information matters during 1983 (Cmnd 9109). 1984.

15.

See, for example, Usherwood, R.C. Public libraries and the threat of privatisation. In Public libraries and the threat of privatisation. Public Libraries Research Group Occasional Paper Number 1, 1984.

16.

Usherwood, R.C. 'Public libraries - a service in place of the market'. In press.

17.

See, for example, Usherwood, R.C. Libraries: a value judgement. In The nationwide provision and use of information (Aslib, IIS, LA Joint Conference, 1980, Proceedings). Library Association , 1981.