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This study analyzes developments of intergovernmental relationships between the British central government and local governments in terms of working relationships as well as official relationships in order to cope with the changing circumstances. Results show that there has been a radical attempt to revise not only an official but also working intergovernmental relationship in recent years.
The British central government and the Local Government Association have signed an official document named as “Framework for Partnership” on the basis of which the central government and representatives of local governments are to meet three times a year on a regular basis. The name of the regular meeting between the central government and local governments is “Central-Local Partnership Meeting.” Three prominent policies, including Shared Priorities for Public Services between the Central Government and Local Government Association, Comprehensive Performance Assessment, and Local Public Service Agreement, have been created in the Central-Local Partnership Meeting. This is good evidence to prove that a new type of intergovernmental model has been applied in Britain. This model can be titled as “a governance model,” characterized by a parity between the central government and local governments.
The radical attempt to revise the intergovernmental relationships in Britain, presumably, has been due to the assumption that national competitiveness comes from mutual trust and interdependence between the central and local governments. For the 21st century, the British case analyzed in this study provides us with an implication for a different intergovernmental relationship between the central and local governments from the previous one, on the basis of mutual trust.
