A Debate on Transforming Local Governance in the UK: Is Partnership A Better Way?

In order to overcome financial crisis, it is an international tendency to have the shift from a traditional government to local governance. Tony Blair’s New Labour Party came to power in 1997 committed to modernise a local government system to local governance via launching series of long-term action plans. This paper attempts to discuss the institutional transformation and the key policy in the government’s modernisational agenda for local government, i.e. the local strategic partnerships (LSPs). Moreover, the most important aim of this paper is to explore three neglected disadvantages of local governance. However, the local governance mechanism is by no means always a positive experience and a double-sided knife. On the one hand, the advantage is the flexibility and efficiency in service delivery and participation; on the other hand, there is the possibility of an increase in collaborative cost, unbalanced power relationship between these agencies and fragmented accountability.