Local government finance

This paper analyses the efficiency of Spanish local governments using non-convex frontier methods.

On 17 February 2003, one of the world's largest and most ambitious plans to tackle urban congestion began, with the introduction of a congestion charge for central London. It is hoped that this õ daily charge for many vehicles entering the Inner Ring Road charging zone will significantly reduce the level of congestion faced by those travelling into and out of central London both by private and by public transport. This Briefing Note aims to provide a guide to the workings of the London congestion charge.

This paper deals with local fiscal equalisation in Austria. The system of intergovernmental relations in Austria includes different regulations in order to equalise differences in the fiscal capacity of the municipalities.

The Greater London Assembly is considering the introduction of a congestion charge for central London. This paper looks at what the costs of such a charge might be for different income groups.

The report starts from first principles, asking whether there is any need for a benefit to relieve the council tax and identifying problems with the very structure of council tax benefit. It goes on to consider whether council tax benefit succeeds in leaving local tax bills affordable for low-income groups, using data from the FRS. Even after allowing for benefit, it is found that council tax bills pose an especially large burden for elderly people. Further, a widespread failure to take up entitlement to benefit is found to be preventing the benefit's cleverly designed rules from actually helping many of those in most need. The problems identified in the design and performance of council tax benefit motivate the consideration of several reforms, which range from outright abolition to minor simplification.

This commentary assesses the impact of capping on local service provision. In particular it addresses the following questions. What factors determine desired local spending? Did capping constrain spending by local councils? Which local services bore the brunt of any cuts? Did the quality of local services suffer as a result?

This report provides a response to the government's proposals. Is the current local government system likely to discourage "over-spending" by councils in the absence of capping powers? Will the government's proposals make the link between local spending decisions and Council Tax bills clearer to voters? Can measures to encourage councils to respond to the views of their residents be successful in making councils more accountable to local people?.

In this commentary, the authors examine public support for more local decision making and increased freedom for local councils to raise council tax levels. They also assess whether local voters would support higher spending on local services such as schools, housing and the police if they had to pay for it directly through higher council tax bills.

Over the last decade there has been a resurgence of interest in the possibility of some measure of devolution to regional governments for at least parts of the United Kingdom.

Devolution and regional government are once again at the centre of policy debate in Britain. This reports considers the economic issues in designing a system of regional government, and its fiscal implications for the residents of the regions of Britain.

The analysis of the expenditure decisions of English local authorities has assumed great importance as central government has sought to exercise increasing control over the activities of local government.

The national non-domestic rate was introduced in 1990 to replace a system of locally varying business rates which had lasted for almost four centuries. Five years after the. 1990 reforms, this report evaluates the operation of the present system and discusses various options for reform.

This report considers the issues involved in using sales taxes as a possible source of local government revenues in the UK.

In this commentary we describe in detail reforms taking place to local authority finances and analyse their effects on local authorities and local tax payers.

The increasing relative size of the local government sector over the last thirty five years is reasonably well known.