LOCAL-GOVERNMENT IN LOCAL GOVERNANCE - THE 1994-95 RESTRUCTURING OF LOCAL-GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND

After more than a decade of central-local conflict, the British govern ment decided in the early 1990s on a wholesale restructuring of local government. Its goal was to replace the existing two-tier structures i n England, Scotland and Wales by a system of unitary, all-purpose auth orities, which it believed would be more efficient, accountable and ef fective. The goal was readily achieved in Scotland and Wales by legisl ative fiat, but in England a Local Government Commission was establish ed to review and make recommendations about the structure of local gov ernment in different areas, in the light of local opinion and communit y identity. The consultations undertaken by the Commission generated c onsiderable local struggle over the spatial form of the restructuring and the outcome was chaotic; the expected outcome was not delivered in most parts of the country because of little public support for the de tailed proposals and conflict between the two powerful vested interest groups representing the two tiers of the existing structure. The natu re of that conflict is illustrated here by a case study.