New development: Redefining failure in English local government—Implications for research and practice

IMPACT
The current challenges facing English local government of austerity, structural changes, and increasing demand are well known and understood in practice and research. These issues have contributed to record levels of intervention and widespread use of exceptional financial support, with sector representative bodies warning that more councils will face these challenges in future. In this context the national Labour government has committed to resetting central–local relations and closed the recently established Office for Local Government. While there has been extensive research on state failure, scholars of public administration and statecraft have overlooked how ‘failure’ is represented and constructed at a sub-national level, and the impact this brings to central–local relations. This article analyses the current context of English local government to advance a broader conceptualization of failure for the sector, arguing that learning from recent experiences should be a prominent research agenda and priority in practice.

ABSTRACT
English local government has undergone an unprecedented wave of bankruptcies, requests for ‘exceptional financial support’, and central government ‘intervention’. These developments have made ‘failure’ a watchword in debate and practice. However, ‘failure’ is an ambiguous term with theories of state failure reserved largely to nation states. Reviewing the recent history of local government, this article puts forward a new conceptualization of local state failure based on the dilution of democratic controls through central government appointed commissioners/envoys; immediate financial solvency (through the issuing of Section 114 notices); and longer-term financial health through the awarding of exceptional financial support (EFS) and the capitalization of revenue budgets. This broader approach provides the opportunity to acknowledge the impact of wider relations of networks and tiers of government to provide a more dynamic and nuanced understanding. Building from this, the authors outline an emerging research agenda regarding state failure in a municipal context.