Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act three ‘accountability and audit arrangements’

Ferry, Laurence; Eckersley, Peter

doi:10.1080/09540962.2015.1027496

Cited by 48 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…Local authorities in both countries are characterised by their dependence on central government for funding (Ferry et al, 2015a;National Audit Office, 2013;Welsh Government, 2012), and their statutory duties to have regard to centralised initiatives such as performance management frameworks. Despite a recent reform of National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR), which allows English local authorities to retain half of the additional income raised locally on business properties, neither English nor Welsh authorities have much autonomy to generate their own income.…”

Section: Background To Local Government In England and Walesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This was part of a wider agenda of trying to ensure that a 'golden thread' exists between ministerial pronouncements and the activities of street-level bureaucrats (Micheli and Neely, 2010). Central government abolished this architecture of inspection and assessment in the 2011 Localism Act, when ministers gave local authorities the freedom to develop their own performance management arrangements (Eckersley et al, 2013;Ferry et al, 2015b).…”

Section: Background To Local Government In England and Walesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, since the Localism Act was passed at a time when funding was cut significantly, the overall capacity of English local authorities to act in the interests of their localities did not increase (Lowndes and Pratchett, 2012) because they had significantly fewer resources at their disposal. As discussed earlier, local government in England had very limited scope to raise revenue even before the austerity measures were introduced (Ferry et al, 2015a;Travers, 2006), and local authorities therefore, found it difficult to fund new initiatives and use these new powers. In addition, their ability to innovate is restricted by a traditional focus on input costs and an organisational culture that struggles to embrace risk.…”

Section: Use Of Boundary Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In April 2009 the Conservative Party leader (and future Prime Minister) David Cameron in a keynote speech to the Conservative Party Forum announced that the UK had reached an ‘Age of Austerity’, as he committed to ending an era of ‘excessive government spending’. Following on from this, and in the context of the ongoing fallout from the global financial crisis, on its formation in May 2010 following an inconclusive general election, the UK Coalition Government (Conservatives and Liberal Democrats) began an austerity programme to significantly cut the UK's budget deficit through major public spending reductions, including for local government (Ferry and Eckersley, , , ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Budgetary Stewardship, Innovation and Working Culture: Identifying the Missing Ingredient in English and Welsh Local Authorities’ Recipes for Austerity Management

Ferry¹,

Coombs²,

Eckersley

2017

Financ Acc Manag

Self Cite

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Drawing on fieldwork with 70 local authorities in England and Wales, this article builds on previous studies of austerity management by highlighting the importance of organisational cultures to achieving strategic objectives. It finds that, in line with their prevailing "belief system" of budgetary stewardship, local authorities in both countries are holding down input costs to deal with austerity. However, the scale of funding cuts means this strategy is unlikely to be successful over the longer term. Instead, they need greater freedom to generate revenue, in order to facilitate innovation and develop more sustainable business practices and service models. Democrats) began an austerity programme to significantly cut the UK's budget deficit through major public spending reductions, including for local government Eckersley, 2011, 2012; Ferry et al, in press).There is a large and growing public management literature examining how governments across the developed world are seeking to cope with austerity (see for example van Helden, 2000;Pollitt 2010;or Grossi and Cepiku, 2014 for an overview). Many of these studies seek to examine the potential link between a drop in government revenues and the application of private sector techniques that come under the loose heading of New Public Management (see Hood, 1995 for an explanation of this hypothesis), link strategies to the wider literature on responding to crises (Peters, 2011), or identify factors that influence the success of austerity programmes (Eckersley and Timm-Arnold, 2014). However, although these studies have provided a rich analysis of how public bodies are trying to cope with financial pressures, the theoretical tools they employ do not allow for a full appreciation of the contexts in which organisations operate, and therefore cannot give us a complete understanding of why some 3 strategies may (or may not) succeed. In particular, they do not sufficiently address how issues of organisational culture and scope can influence strategic direction.In order to provide a more rounded perspective on responses to austerity, as well as a better understanding of the potential shortcomings of existing approaches, this article employs Simons' (1995) levers of control framework. Simons' framework is particularly relevant because it takes an holistic approach to analysing corporate strategy, emphasising the importance of "belief" and "boundary" systems (in other words, the role of traditions and cultures in shaping organisational strategy, and the scope of the organisation's activity), alongside more traditional "diagnostic" and "interactive" methods (budgets and performance management systems, and corporate or community meetings). In this way, belief and boundary systems establish the organisation's strategic domain (Davila, 2005) by mapping out its activities and clarifying its working culture and reputation. By analysing these wider variables we build upon the rich public management literature by attempting to further identify why some responses to austerit...

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Section: Background To Local Government In England and Walesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Background To Local Government In England and Walesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Use Of Boundary Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Budgetary Stewardship, Innovation and Working Culture: Identifying the Missing Ingredient in English and Welsh Local Authorities’ Recipes for Austerity Management

Ferry¹,

Coombs²,

Eckersley

2017

Financ Acc Manag

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Spekle and Verbeeten (2014) conclude that effectiveness of the introduction of performance measurement systems in the public sector organizations thus depends both on contractibility and on how the system is being used by managers. Ferry and Eckersley (2015) stresses that the top-down accountability in public administration is mostly focused on fiscal compliance rather than on organizational performance management, while the bottomup responsibility is much more transparent; however, it is not strictly standardised thus may lead to the weakening of accountability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance improvements of tax and customs authorities. Case study: Latvia

Pētersone

Ketners

2016

9th International Scientific Conference “Business and Management 2016”

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Abstract. The aim of this paper is to investigate performance management of the State Revenue Service (SRS) of the Republic of Latvia in the context of effective public budgeting. This article investigates performance indicators in the context of process (activity) management in tax and customs authority and examines a number of practical issues with regard to the design of management practices. Several research methods, such as analysis of academic and professional publications and logical and comparative analysis, are applied in this research. The main findings are related to the analysis of activities of SRS and could be practically implemented at SRS.

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Co-assessment Through Citizens and Service Users in Audit, Inspection and Scrutiny

McKenna

2020

The Palgrave Handbook of Co-Production of Public Services and Outcomes

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Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act three ‘accountability and audit arrangements’

Cited by 48 publications

References 30 publications

Budgetary Stewardship, Innovation and Working Culture: Identifying the Missing Ingredient in English and Welsh Local Authorities’ Recipes for Austerity Management

Budgetary Stewardship, Innovation and Working Culture: Identifying the Missing Ingredient in English and Welsh Local Authorities’ Recipes for Austerity Management

Performance improvements of tax and customs authorities. Case study: Latvia

Co-assessment Through Citizens and Service Users in Audit, Inspection and Scrutiny

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