Local government accountability and transparency in a period of financial austerity

Accountability and transparency have been key areas for political focus in UK local government in recent decades. While there have been some valuable successes in improving them, it has also become clear that it is difficult to make local government more accountable. Indeed, the UK experience suggests that a range of balanced approaches is needed, rather than a single ‘magic bullet’. In particular, there is need for more collaborative and less hierarchical government, in which policies focus more on joint learning and joint action, rather than ‘command and control’ strategies, whether that ‘control’ is exercised by central government, or external auditors, or inspectors, or partners. Moreover, the role of citizens may be more important in holding local authorities to account, if the move to service user and community co-production of public services and publicly-desired outcomes continues to strengthen.

Cite as: Bovaird, T. (2017), “Local government accountability and transparency in a period of financial austerity”, Financial Management of Local Government (Chihou Zaimu), 761: 117-129.  (November 2017, Japan) ISSN 0916-9814.