The Politics of Public Sector Reform: From Thatcher to the Coalition

The UK public sector faces an unprecedented long-term challenge. A decade of plenty in the public finances has been followed by a decade and more of austerity. Public services are undergoing long-term annual spending cuts even as demand rises from demographic change in health, education and adult care. Unless taxes rise substantially, which no political party advocates for fear of electoral oblivion, public sector managers and politicians, faced with a combination of major budget reductions and increasing demand, have a stark choice; either ‘decommission’ and remove services altogether or through increased productivity, reduction in overheads and new technology succeed in retaining them by lowering the cost of delivery. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.