ABSTRACT
Margaret Thatcher and her colleagues were at best impatient with the bureaucratic deadweight which they perceived to be at the heart of much local government. In London and some of the other great cities the feeling was one of more active loathing for the antics of so-called 'loony-left' councils, whose extreme political views pitched them into head-to-head conflict with central government, while the local services for which they were responsible descended into a shambles of incompetence, inefficiency and, in some cases, overt corruption. The revolution affecting local education authorities was not limited to schools. Local education authorities had started to lose other powers and responsibilities from 1988 when the Education Reform Act led to the removal of higher education colleges and polytechnics from local government control. Local government had already lost the power directly to levy a rate on local businesses and was now responsible for raising only about a quarter of its revenue from local taxation.
