2015 sees the fiftieth anniversary of the London boroughs, the thirty-two subdivisions of Greater London laid out to facilitate public services. Professor Tony Travers provides some explanatory history as to why London's government is so fragmented, along with a section on each borough. London's Boroughs at 50 includes an analysis of how London has changed from 1965 to 2015, going from 'swinging' London to 'global' London. Along the way, it looks at some of the personalities who have led London's boroughs or had an impact upon them, including Ted Knight, Ken Livingstone, Dame Shirley Porter and, of course, Boris Johnson.

England is unusual in relying so heavily on central government to finance its social services. Citizens expect to be able to access services of similar standards wherever they live. This raises difficult theoretical and practical issues. How are the needs of different areas to be measured? How are the different costs of providing services in very different parts of the country to be assessed? This book reviews the economic theory that underpins thinking about the problem. It then traces the way governments have distributed resources from the end of the last century until today. It critically analyzes current methods for three services - the National Health Service, schools, and housing. This book is intended for scholars and students of political science, British politics, public policy and administration, public management, development management, and policy-makers and analysts interested in government and public service spending.

Based on two years of unprecedented access to the inner workings of Whitehall, this book by a leading team of scholars reveals the reality of regulation inside government. It examines the army of inspectors, auditors, grievance-chasers and other bodies devoted to oversight of public organizations. It documents the remarkable growth of such regulators over the two decades when public bureaucracies were being cut back substantially and explores the way they work in five different domains.