The (re-) centralisation which was triggered by the Tory government has hardly abated under the New Labour government, but has,rather,been intensified by the introduction of the central government's performance indicator-based top-down 'performance management'.
The multi-function scope for action of traditional elected and politically accountable local government has been significantly reueced, while the scope of non-elected (in part centrally appointed) single purpose actor as well as ( ' marketised') private single purpose service providers has strongly expanded. 'The consequence is a transition from a unitary tp a multiple system for governing local communities-from local government to local governance' (Skelcher,2003:9).
The picture is somewhat ambivalent, inasmuch as initiatives have been undertaken by the New Labour government to revitalise the political model of local government by providing new institutional arrangements for effective local political leadership and to instil some 'new localism'.