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The Depths of The Cuts: The Uneven Geography of Local Government Austerity

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  • Mia Gray
  • Anna Barford
Abstract
Austerity, the sustained and widespread cuts to government budgets, has characterised Britain’s public policy since 2010. The local state has undergone substantial restructuring, driven by major budget reductions from central government. Hitherto, few studies of austerity in the UK have considered the interplay of national and local policies. We contribute a fine-grained spatial analysis of local authority budgets, highlighting their socioeconomically- and geographically-uneven impacts. We identify substantial variations between authorities in terms of funding, local tax-base, fiscal resources, assets, political control, service-need and demographics. We argue that austerity has actively reshaped the relationship between central and local government in Britain, shrinking the capacity of the local state, increasing inequality between local governments, and exacerbating territorial injustice.

Suggested Citation

  • Mia Gray & Anna Barford, 2018. "The Depths of The Cuts: The Uneven Geography of Local Government Austerity," Working Papers wp510, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp510
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Urban Austerity; State Rescaling; Great Recession; Territorial Injustice; Local Government Restructuring; Fiscal Disciplining;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management

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