FINANCE

Whatever continuity of financial policy existed in the United Kingdom between 1974–5 and 1983–4, nationally or locally, was imposed by circumstances largely beyond the control, and certainly beyond the expectations, of any of the participants at the beginning of the decade. Looking back down the tunnel of collective experience, it is clear that the years between 1972 and 1974 were the wrong years in which to decide upon and prepare for the new golden age of reorganised local government; the years between 1974 and 1979 were the wrong years in which to try to convince the consumer that bigger really was better in terms of local government administration, and the years since 1979 have been the wrong years in which to be either employed in or dependent upon local government services.