| | State and local government plays a vital role in the social and economic well-being of most countries and is important in the development of new models for public service delivery. The challenges and opportunities faced are complex and demanding: developing and implementing economic regeneration strategies; developing sustainable and safe communities; educating children and adults; and achieving neighbourhood renewal. Cities and towns face challenges of management which, whilst often apparently unique, often have common drivers with the resulting opportunity for innovation and learning lessons across borders.
We've set out below some of our recent studies which we believe have relevance for state and local governments. | |
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June 2008 | Just Care? A system worth funding
What kind of care system does the UK want, why and for whom? This is the focus for a major new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) on the UK care system, supported by PwC. The report puts forward proposals for a new care system, looking across the range of services that support adults with care needs and their carers and families. The paper outlines how local services could be more personal and joined-up to enable all individuals, families and communities to flourish. The paper also suggests where the UK should go next on individual budgets, support for carers, and community engagement in services. | |
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Feb 2008 | Financial devolution for local growth
The UK Government, in both its 2007 Sub-National Review of Economic Development and Regeneration and 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, has proposed a range of new local financing tools that place a premium on local innovation in order to address its current infrastructure funding gap. We have been working with the Centre for Cities to explore how these and other new financial tools can help unlock greater infrastructure investment - which is critical to securing sustainable growth in our cities and towns. This new survey captures the market’s views and attitudes towards greater financial devolution in funding infrastructure investment. |  |
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Nov 2007 | The road ahead for public service delivery - Delivering on the customer promise
Public sector leaders around the world face a common set of challenges if their services are to meet the increased expectations of their customers – both citizens and businesses. This study identifies these challenges and shares lessons learnt, from examples around the world, to offer a structured approach in support of public sector leaders in their work to improve public services and deliver on the customer promise. | |
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Sept 2007 | City Solutions: Financing local growth. Towards a supplementary business rate Supplementary Business Rates (SBRs) have recently been proposed as a mechanism to allow cities to generate additional funds for infrastructure investment. This paper presents new analysis that illustrates their possible contribution and the main challenges that must be tackled by city leaders, business and central government if SBRs are to finance local growth. It is part of the joint City Solutions project we are undertaking in the UK with Centre for Cities.
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July 2007 | Capital ideas: incentives for Councils to build major infrastructure projects NLGN report
PwC supported a project with the New Local Government Network in the UK to develop proposals for improving how local authorities harness investment from Government, the private sector, the EU and RDAs for capital projects.The proposals are now published in a report which examines how to simplify the grant funding framework. It goes to the heart of the ongoing debate on new “localism” in the UK – how to enable local government to have the capacity and flexibility to meet the challenge of financing future economic development.
The study adopts a wide definition of economic development that covers all of the aspects that drive both the economic competitiveness of local areas and creating the sense of place required to deliver sustainable and inclusive communities.
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Apr 2007 | Investing in HOPE: lessons from the USA on mixed communities
The HOPE VI programme in the USA has pioneered a unique public-private approach to mixed communities that has resulted in housing developments that are viable, attractive to the market and third party investors, and sustainable over the long term. | |
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Mar 2007 | Cities of opportunity: business-readiness indicators for the 21st century
PwC worked with the Partnership for New York City (PfNYC) to co-develop this study, which analyses global cities and the opportunities they offer to businesses. In the study, titled Cities of opportunity: business-readiness indicators for the 21st century, we compare 11 cities -- Atlanta, Chicago, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, and Toronto -- using a consistent set of 32 variables that we believe are relevant to a global city of opportunity today. | |
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Mar 2007 | Economic outlook - largest city economies in the world in 2005 and 2020 Cities tend to be ranked in size according to their populations, but to assess the relative size of their economies we also need to take account of their average income per capita levels. Doing this in a consistent and comprehensive way at a global level is challenging, but in this extract from PwC's UK Economic Outlook - March 2007 we have combined data from a number of reputable sources (e.g. the OECD, the UN and the World Bank as well as national statistical agencies) to produce a ranking by GDP at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) exchange rates of the largest 100 urban economies in the world in 2005. | |
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Jan 2007 | Delivery on the double
Following the publication of the UK Government's White Paper, 'Strong and Prosperous Communities', PricewaterhouseCoopers has produced a commentary report Delivery on the double. Our analysis aims to take the local government debate further, towards the practical – and often difficult – delivery issues that will need to be tackled to make the policies outlined in the White Paper work. | |
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July 2006 | The journey to the interface
Demos report
Drawing on over 50 interviews with service innovators from the public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK The journey to the interface makes the case for a fresh approach to public service reform – an approach that is less about competition and contestability, and more about closing the gap between what people want and need, and what service organisations do. | |
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Apr 2006 | Pacing Lyons: forecasting the shape of local governance
NLGN report
The extension of the Lyons Inquiry to include the role and function of UK local government carries both opportunity and challenge. The opportunity is to tackle longstanding and fundamental dilemmas in local governance in circumstances where lasting reform is possible. The challenge is to ensure that the quality of thinking and debate created by the Inquiry can rise to this ambition. | |
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Mar 2006 | Cities of the future – global competition, local leadership
In the course of the year long research for Cities of the future – global competition, local leadership, senior figures from over 40 cities around the world were interviewed by PricewaterhouseCoopers. From these interviews emerged key trends which cut across the experience of all cities: globalisation, individualism, merging, acceleration, hi-tech, hi-touch, demographics, urbanisation and migration | |
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Sept 2005 | To the point: a blueprint for good targets
Social Market Foundation report
This report is a thorough examination of the UK Government’s use of targets in four public services: education, health, housing and the criminal justice system. The report sets out the design flaws in the current targets regime but concludes, however, that these flaws are the result of specific design problems. This report presents a range of practical proposals to improve the way in which targets are designed in the future. These are illustrated with a definition of a "good target", encapsulating the principles of how, and when, targets should be set. | |
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Sept 2005 | Shared services for even greater efficiency in local government
The pressure to achieve value for money is coming at UK local government from all sides. Central government is determined that public services have to become both more effective and efficient. Tax payers are reluctant to see their taxes increase. Competing demands for priority services such as education and social services mean that local authorities have to manage their resources to meet citizen expectations. | |
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