Policy Press

Who Stole the Town Hall?

The End of Local Government as We Know It

By Peter Latham

Published

Mar 8, 2017

Page count

188 pages

ISBN

978-1447337270

Dimensions

198 x 129 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Mar 8, 2017

Page count

188 pages

ISBN

978-1447337294

Dimensions

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Mar 8, 2017

Page count

188 pages

ISBN

978-1447337300

Dimensions

Imprint

Policy Press
Who Stole the Town Hall?

In this provocative new book, Peter Latham argues that the UK Conservative Government’s devolution agenda conceals their real intention: to complete the privatisation of local government and other public services.

Using illustrative examples from across the UK, including the so-called ‘Northern Powerhouse’ and the Midlands, the book explains the far-reaching implications of the reorganisation of local government that is already affecting vital public services, including education, health, housing and policing.

Proposing an overhaul of the taxation system to include land value taxation, a wealth tax and more progressive income tax to fund an increase in directly provided services, the author argues that a new basis for federal, regional and local democracy is vital.

Dr Peter Latham is a sociologist whose thesis on Theories of the Labour Movement in the 1970s used Antonio Gramsci’s concept of the organic working-class intellectual to explain 20th-century rank-and-file movements in the British building industry. From 1999 to 2006 he was Treasurer and then Secretary of the Labour Campaign for Open Local Government. He is a member of the Communist Party of Britain's Economic Committee and the Labour Land Campaign and is a delegate to Croydon Trades Union Council.

Introduction;

The Localism Act 2011, Open Public Services and the neoliberalisation of councils;

Imposed ‘metro’ mayors: new wine in old bottles;

Police and Crime Commissioners: another half-baked' import;

Local government finance;

Towards a new basis for federal, regional and local democracy.