Local government and the politics of public service improvement

1
Local government and the politics of public
service improvement

• Tony Travers
• LSE

2
Drivers of the politics of improvement

• The need to deliver better outputs/outcomes with
  limited resources
• Public expectations always run ahead of plausible
  tax/spend increases
• The business of government
• Whitehalls expectations of local government
• Complexity, reform

3
Government initiatives etc

• The government of the days interests, eg
• Best Value
• New Localism
• Gershon/efficiencies
• Procurement, Use of IT
• City regions/single tier LG
• Neighbourhoods and communities
• The quality of local government services
• Recent CPA suggests local government is now
  remarkably improved
• But, need to keep moving onwards..

4
Drivers of improvement

• England/Britain now has powerful agencies in
  support of improving local public services
• Audit Commission
• Inspection
• LGA
• IDeA Leadership Centre for LG
• DCLG research and publications
• Think-tanks etc
• Professional institutes etc

5
Contexts

• Taxation has reached a level no major party
  wishes to exceed
• Public expenditure up from 37 to 43 of GDP in 7
  years
• But, public demands for services rise with living
  standards
• Many of local governments services are not
  judged to be No 1 or No 2 public priorities
  (these being NHS, schools)

6
Improvement thus inevitable

• Need for 110-worth of services for 90, not
  100-worth for 100
• Swedens services with Americas taxes
• Efficiency and improvement are inevitable
  demands
• Though improvement is probably something all
  public services should aspire to
• Need to secure taxpayers willingness to pay
• Consistency and joined-up services
• IT as an element in delivery..

7
Britain compared to other countries

• Probably among the most efficient and effective
  public services in the world
• 30 years of efforts to improve them, leading
  to..
• Huge improvements in openness, transparency of
  decision-making and value for money
• Continuous debate about quality of provision and
  public/private boundaries
• Slight risk of too much attention to the subject?

8
Conclusions - 1

• Comprehensive Spending Review will start long
  period of zero growth in real local public
  spending
• White Paper could, at radical end of proposals,
  start modest decentralisation
• Need for major development in the way councils
  deliver services
• Effectiveness and efficiency

9
Conclusions - 2

• Change of PM during 2007
• Short, sharp, period of reform in autumn 2007
• General Election in 2009 or 2010?
• Most open election since 1992 or 1979
• Opportunities to push ideas into politics
• Demands for improvement and efficiency will,
  whatever happens, continue
• IT will be a key element in delivery

10
Local government and the politics of public
service improvement

• Tony Travers
• LSE