Embedded Autonomy Financing a Resilient Local Government Effectively

This book addresses the sustained failure to properly fund local government in England. While there has been plenty of rhetoric and policy initiatives around devolution of power to local authorities in recent decades, continuing recently with the English Devolution Bill, there has been far less attention paid to how these endeavours will be practically delivered and, most importantly, funded. In this context, the motivation in this book is to consider how local government in England could be funded differently. How can the continual hand to mouth existence of local authorities, and those that work to support them, be improved? Drawing on a system-based analysis of international local government practice, the authors develop a new theory of embedded autonomy to help understand and frame how local government can be funded effectively in England.

Introduction.- Time for system thinking: a system wide perspective of local government finance.- Applying a systems perspective to local government finance.- Local government in England.- Local government in Germany.- Local Government in Italy.- Local government in Japan.- Reform in England: what if local government was funded differently in England.- Conclusion: redefining the magic money tree.

Kevin Muldoon-Smith is an Associate Professor in Strategic Public Sector Finance and Urban Adaptation at Northumbria University, UK. He is an established author and policy advisor investigating local government finance systems, regularly via international comparison and intersecting issues of governance, taxation, land, and property markets.

Mark Sandford is an Honorary Professor at the University of Bristol where he specialises in local government, devolution, local government finance and territorial identity. He has also been a research fellow at the Constitution Unit, University College London, and head of research at the Electoral Commission.

Greg Stride is a Researcher at the Local Democracy Research Centre at the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) where he has led projects on local government finance and electoral administration. Before joining the LGIU, Greg completed a PhD at the University of Exeter on electoral administration in England.

Andrew Walker is the Head of Research at the Local Democracy Research Centre at the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU). Andrew leads LGIU’s research programme and directs the activity of the Local Democracy Research Centre.