<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Shared services are now established as a core delivery model in local and regional governance arrangements. Shared services have emerged as a ‘common sense’ delivery vehicle with attendant efficiency and effectiveness gains. There is, however, a more complex intellectual provenance to a reliance on shared services. In essence, shared services are the logical outcome of the deliberate turn to neo-liberal thinking and the various iterations of the new public managerialism methodology which has progressively established itself in local and regional governance over the past thirty years or so. This paper explores the neo-liberal provenance of shared services and considers the consequential vulnerabilities to austerity, administrative reform and reduced public sector budgets. The central proposition of the paper is that while neo-liberal ideas have created the justification for shared services, this has embedded a set of systemic tensions in the delivery model.</p></abstract>

Shared services are now established as a core delivery model in local and regional governance arrangements. Shared services have emerged as a ‘common sense’ delivery vehicle with attendant efficiency and effectiveness gains. There is, however, a more complex intellectual provenance to a reliance on shared services. In essence, shared services are the logical outcome of the deliberate turn to neo-liberal thinking and the various iterations of the new public managerialism methodology which has progressively established itself in local and regional governance over the past thirty years or so. This paper explores the neo-liberal provenance of shared services and considers the consequential vulnerabilities to austerity, administrative reform and reduced public sector budgets. The central proposition of the paper is that while neo-liberal ideas have created the justification for shared services, this has embedded a set of systemic tensions in the delivery model.

Shared services – shared necessity: Austerity, reformed local government and reduced budgets<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn1_w2aab2b8b6b1b7b1ab1aaAa"><sup>1</sup></xref>

Emeritus Professor of Urban Planning, Ulster University

Administration

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Shared services – shared necessity: Austerity, reformed local government and reduced budgets

Shared services are now established as a core delivery model in local and regional governance arrangements. Shared services have emerged as a ‘common sense’...

Shared services – shared necessity: Austerity, reformed local government and reduced budgets¹

Published Online: Dec 30, 2015

Page range: 27 - 40

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/admin-2015-0019

Keywords
Shared services, governance, neo-liberalism, tensions

© 2015 Greg Lloyd, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Shared services – shared necessity: Austerity, reformed local government and reduced budgets1

Published Online: Dec 30, 2015

Page range: 27 - 40

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/admin-2015-0019

KeywordsShared services, governance, neo-liberalism, tensions

© 2015 Greg Lloyd, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Shared services – shared necessity: Austerity, reformed local government and reduced budgets¹

Keywords
Shared services, governance, neo-liberalism, tensions