Although excessive transparency and accountability demands can have a counterproductive effect on organisational performance (Bovens 2005), longstanding hierarchical accountability structures to ensure financial conformance in English local government continue to endure. Interestingly however,...

This paper explains how the UK government sets its annual budgets within the context of multi-year spending reviews, yet was able to announce policies in the 2011 annual budget that sat outside the 2010 spending review framework. As such, it illustrates that the budget process remains an enabler...

Analysis of 60,000 contracts awarded by English councils between 2015–19 reveals that austerity constraints are a key predictor of councils outsourcing services to for-profit suppliers, regardless of their political control. Conservative Party-controlled councils are also more likely to...

We analysed 90,000 contracts involving UK local authorities between 2015 and 2019 to examine patterns and potential drivers of regional sourcing. We found councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are much more likely to select suppliers based within their regions compared with their...