Local Policy-Making

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with policy-making in local authorities and housing associations. In terms of an interest in policy-making the key feature shared by councils and associations is that each is made up of two quite distinct groups: both have unpaid committee members who carry formal responsibility for policy decisions, and salaried officials whose primary formal responsibilities are to advise their committees and to carry out agreed policy. Chapter 9 put forward a view of the policy process which suggested that policy-making and implementation are not best understood as separate and sequential phases. However, for present purposes of understanding how members and officers relate to one another it is appropriate to focus on policy-making as a distinct activity.