ABSTRACT
During the 1980s the Thatcher governments embarked upon a concerted drive in Scotland to impose their policy agenda on a largely sceptical and unreceptive population. A key aspect of their approach was a desire to establish greater central control over local government. In the 1990s, the precise strategy of the Major governments was less certain, but once again policy adopted towards local government offers some insight into underlying thinking. A key element of Conservative policy on local government right across Britain was the reform of structure. Consequently, in seeking to explore the nature of the Major governments' approach towards Scotland, this chapter focuses on the restructuring experience in Scotland, in which a two-tier system of regions and districts was replaced by a single tier of unitary authorities. The discussion is presented in four sections. The first focuses on the rationale for reform, initiated by the last Thatcher administration and echoed by the succeeding Major government, critically examining two of the essential claims made for the shift towards unitary authorities, the clarification of accountability and the removal of the friction inherent in the two-tier system. Section two critically assesses further government claims that restructuring would foster a greater sense of community identity with local government. Section three then develops the argument that restructuring was essentially an exercise in achieving greater central control over local government, without seriously engaging with the concerns of other key players with an interest in the outcome, notably the local communities themselves. This suggests a continuity in the approaches of the Thatcher and Major governments towards local government, and in the policy of assimilating Scotland to English norms that broadly characterised the substance of Conservative government after the 1987 election (see Chapter 4). A conclusion, nevertheless, argues that in practice the attempt to improve the capacity for imposing a Conservative policy agenda through local government restructuring created new problems in terms of centre-local conflicts, although public responses remained uncertain.
