Local Government Modernization and the Views of Chief Financial Officers
| Author | John Wilson |
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.0033-3298.2005.00445.x |
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
RESEARCH NOTES
Public Administration Vol. 83 No. 1, 200 5 (221–232)
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2005, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street,
Malden, MA 02148, USA.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT MODERNIZATION AND
THE VIEWS OF CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICERS
JOHN WILSON
Since its election in May 1997, the Labour Government in the United Kingdom has
emphasized the need for modernization in the improvement of public services. For
local government, this emphasis has led to the introduction of a variety of measures
intended, primarily, to improve political management and service delivery. Two key
policies have been the introduction of Best Value and the Comprehensive Perform-
ance Assessment (CPA). CPA is used by the Audit Commission for measuring local
authority performance in England and has led to each authority being classified as
excellent, good, fair, weak or poor. Each authority’s classification has implications,
financially and in terms of its freedom to determine priorities and policies. In add-
ition, the structure of local government is being reviewed by central government,
alongside discussions as to the merits of establishing regional assemblies. In con-
sidering the justification for, and the impact of, changes, it is important to consider
the views of local government employees, not least professional groupings and chief
officers. This paper reports the findings of a national survey of chief financial officers
(CFOs) of the single tier and county council local authorities in England to establish
their views on key features of the Government’s modernization agenda.
INTRODUCTION
Since its election in May 1997, the Labour Government in the UK has priori-
tized the need to improve public services and, to this end, has emphasized
the importance of modernization. In the case of local government, local Pub-
lic Service Agreements (PSAs), involving numerous aims, objectives and
performance targets (agreed with the Treasury) have been introduced
alongside radical measures to change the political management arrange-
ments of local authorities (Department for Environment, Transport and the
Regions – DETR 1998a). Labour has also sought to ensure improvements in
John Wilson is Dean of the Teesside Business School, University of Teesside.
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