This chapter starts by looking at the 2010 Coalition Government's policies, which have inflicted an exceptional assault on local government. It then makes the case that the injustice caused by this assault harms everyone in society. It argues that the attack results from the domination of the interests of the market but that this is not inevitable. Councillors have some capacity to pursue alternative approaches; as the last chapter showed, they did so very actively during the Thatcher era. To drive forward other courses of action, it is necessary to develop alternative concepts and theories that support different policy approaches. The final section of this chapter looks at three such approaches that have been used and suggests that they all provide some insights. The case is made, however, for an ethical framework, which is developed in Chapter Four.

Current government policy

As Chapter Two made clear, the Localism Act 2011 and other reforms passed by the Coalition Government have simultaneously tightened central government's grip on local government and opened up new opportunities for local innovation and action. However, these reforms took place in the context of the immediate attack on public services following the accession of the 2010 Coalition Government to power. The local government expenditure reductions are dramatic and unprecedented. The cuts in the five-year period of the Coalition Government to 2014/15 were estimated in 2011 to be three times the level of the cuts in the UK between 1978 and 1985 and two-and-a-half times the level of those in the US in this earlier period (Jones et al, 2011; Talbot and Talbot, 2011). The local government sector experienced a real decline of income from central government of 11.8%, or £3.5 billion, from June 2010 to November 2011, and it was calculated that the sector would experience a 26% reduction in central government support by 2014/15 (Audit Commission, 2011, p 10). These cuts were increased in the autumn statement 2012 and an additional reduction in funding of £220 million was introduced for 2014/15 in the March 2013 Budget. The cuts had now risen to over a third of council budgets (LGA, 2012b). In May 2013, the Public Accounts Select Committee published a report warning that some 12% of local authorities may prove financially unviable (Public Accounts Select Committee, 2013, p 8).