Austerity, political control and supplier selection in English local government: implications for autonomy in multi-level systems

Eckersley, Peter, Flynn, Anthony ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1755-7986, Ferry, Laurence and Lakoma, Katarzyna 2023. Austerity, political control and supplier selection in English local government: implications for autonomy in multi-level systems. Public Management Review 25 (1) , pp. 1-21. 10.1080/14719037.2021.1930122

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Abstract

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 contract with for-profit suppliers, although we found no link between Labour-controlled councils and not-for-profit suppliers, nor evidence that political or budgetary factors influence whether councils contract with providers based in their own region. We argue that centrally imposed funding cuts, and a belief that for-profit suppliers represent a cheaper option, could be overriding Labour Party councils’ ideological preference for not-for-profit providers.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
ISSN:	1471-9037
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	3 June 2021
Date of Acceptance:	7 May 2021
Last Modified:	04 May 2023 23:56
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/141691

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