The Heath Government and Local Government Reform

Jeffery, David ORCID: 0000-0002-9064-5544 (2021) The Heath Government and Local Government Reform. In: Policies and Politics Under Prime Minister Edward Heath. Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership, Part F . Springer International Publishing, pp. 165-187. ISBN 9783030536725, 3030536726

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Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to explore three interrelated issues: why reform of local government was necessary in the first place, what the Heath government’s reforms achieved, and how they were justified rhetorically. The chapter argues that the reform of local government undertaken by the Heath government—or more specifically by Environment Secretary Peter Walker, given the general lack of interference by Heath or the cabinet on the process—was driven more by party-political considerations than the stated concerns of moving power closer to local communities, rationalising local government or empowering local authorities. Instead, in a political context where the need for reform of local government was broadly accepted, but a previous unitary system recommendation had been poorly received by Conservative grassroots, the Local Government Act 1972 represented a party-political opportunity to restrict the power of the Labour Party over non-metropolitan Britain whilst also, in some cases, extending the power of the centre over the local—reflecting one of the oldest struggles in British (and its predecessors’) political history.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Political Science
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	14 Aug 2020 10:36
Last Modified:	23 Jul 2023 13:42
DOI:	10.1007/978-3-030-53673-2_8
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3097527