Introduction

Since 2010, English local government has been on the front line of the Conservative Party's austerity policy. Through the coalition government (2010– 15), and then Prime Ministers Cameron, May and Johnson, English local authorities have had their budgets cut by 49.1% (NAO, 2018) in real terms. At the same time as government funding has been significantly reduced, their responsibilities have increased, including for public health (2012) and homelessness reduction (2017). The primary block of central government funding for local government, the Revenue Support Grant (RSG), was tapered to zero by 2020, the Westminster ‘deal’ culture has tied funding to Whitehall project menus (Sandford, 2020) and local housing delivery funding has been centralised to a government agency – Homes England – which primarily supports private sector housing development. Local authorities were partners with central government in the delivery of the welfare state. They are now viewed by Whitehall as a sector to be managed and controlled. As we have seen in the response to COVID- 19, public health and primary care have been replaced by a privatised pandemic (Monbiot, 2020).

Local authorities have responded to austerity and these additional duties in a number of ways. Based on research undertaken by the authors, this book discusses how local authorities are drawing on their powers, resources, cultures and experiences to find ways to meet these austerity challenges and to promote their financial security for the future. While Prime Minister Boris Johnson may have indicated that the austerity period 2010– 20 has ended (Stone, 2020), local authorities have started to make their own preparations for the future, and considered the ways they can respond to the very real challenges of austerity and keep funding their vital work.

At the same time, there is commonly held to be a ‘housing crisis’ in England. Over recent years, the focus of central government has very much been on enabling and encouraging greater delivery of housing by the private sector as the apparent solution to this crisis. The local planning system has had its focus shifted to the provision of housing land for private developers, there has been planning deregulation and there are increasing concerns about the quality of the dwellings and the contribution they make to the places of the future.