The Implications of the Lyons Report into Local Government in England for Structural Reform in Australian Local Government

Abstract

The Lyons Inquiry into English local government presented its Final Report in 2007. It has significant implications for local government jurisdictions beyond England. This article considers the import of the Lyons Inquiry for reform to Australian local government. It is argued that the Lyons Inquiry adds weight to other work that questions the traditional reliance on amalgamation as the chief instrument of Australian local government reform. In particular, the “place-shaping” thesis developed in the Lyons Inquiry shows that the Australian emphasis on structural reform has been misdirected. Further, the Lyons Report offers a range of policy options besides municipal amalgamation.

Keywords:

• place-shaping
• structural reform
• local government

Notes

¹More specifically, Lyons notes that despite the Government's emphasis on local leadership in its 2001 White Paper Strong Local Leadership — Quality Public Service, a persistently high degree of central control led to some anomalous outcomes. For example the overall cost of the monitoring of local government by central government was £2 billion per year, where local authorities laboured under the demand of 566 performance items at a cost of £1.8 billion per authority, and where local government was responsible for 25 percent of funding but had 81 percent of central targets. In addition to this, Lyons noted that there were a range of “soft controls” placed upon local authorities.