New (new) public management

Public services need to be turned on their head, so they start from people and their needs rather than universal entitlements. A year from the general election, the coalition's policy programme has pretty much run its course, and the longest and deepest recession for generations has ended. Living standards have been squeezed as never before while public spending austerity will continue for the rest of the decade -- with 60% of the cuts still to come, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The Local Government Association estimates that at least 56 councils could cease to be financially viable after 2015, and that the funding shortfall for local government will be L14.4 billion by 2020. The population of Britain's core cities has grown by nearly 10% in the last decade. Globally, cities are driving growth and 70% of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2050. And climate change remains the world's greatest challenge.