THATCHER ROLL BACK

Question 1

What did rolling back the state require? and why?

Answer 1

1. Reducing size of local and national government

Thatcher wanted a reduce because it was responsible for 10% of all gov spending

Question 2

What were some local governments attempting to do while Thatcher was ‘rolling back the state’?

Answer 2

Expand their services and increase spending

Question 3

What did Thatcher call these local authorities that were trying to defy the government?

Answer 3

Socialists who brought in ‘socialist policies’

Question 4

What measures were put in place to make sure local governments were ‘rolled back’?

Answer 4

1. cut local government funding from £44m in 1979, to £39m by 1990.

Question 5

Who was the minister responsible for local government in 1981? and did he introduce?

Answer 5

Michael Heseltine

‘targets and penalites’ Local government was set maximum targets for spending and those that exceeded the targets would have their funding reduced.

Question 6

What was the Rates Bill of 1984?

Answer 6

gave the central government power to impose a cap/limit on local government taxation

Question 7

Which councils openly defied the ‘Rates Bill’ and set illegally high rates? who led

Answer 7

the Liverpool Council led by Derek Hatton

“Militant Tendency”= extreme left wing group

evetually gave into cap

Question 8

What did the Local government act 1985 abolish ? and why?

Answer 8

seven metropolitan councils- e,g, ‘Red’ Ken Livingstone’s Greater London Council.

Thatcher feared their attempts to form ‘urban socialism’ through high rates and high public spending (politically motivated)

Question 9

What did the Local government act 1988 force local councils to do?

Answer 9

‘buy in’ services from private contractors,

local councils to accept the most competitive offers.

Question 10

What did the Local government act 1988 encourage?

Answer 10

private companies to compete for contracts, such as rubbish collection

Question 11

What did the Local government act 1988 lead to?

Answer 11

significant reduction in the size of local government with over 400,000 local government employees made redundant 1979-1990

Question 12

What did the local government finance act 1988 introduce?

Answer 12

‘Community Charge’ (or ‘Poll Tax’) into Scotland (1989) and England (1990)

replace the old system of ‘rates’=flat rate’ of tax which would be the same for every adult.

Thatcher believed it was unfair that homeowners should have to pay relatively higher rates for services that they would never need

Question 13

Between 1979-90 how had local goverment spending change?

Answer 13

increased by 15%

Question 14

How did the proportion of gov spending change?

Answer 14

spending fell from 10% to 8.7%.

Question 15

what did thathcer had to increase in order to enforce changes?

Answer 15

power of the central government

role of state

Question 16

how did thathcer want to shift the responsibility for housing?

Answer 16

shift the responsibility for housing into the private sector

to reduce overall size state

Question 17

what two acts passed for achieveing her goal for housing?

Answer 17

Housing Act (1980

Housing Act (1986)

Question 18

what was the housing act 1980?

Answer 18

gave council tenants who had lived in their home for three years the ‘right to buy’ at a 33% discount from the market rate,

r 20 years of a 50% discount

Question 19

how popular was the housing act 1980? and why

Answer 19

very popular

500,000 people bought their council home every year from 1980-1989.

1980 – 1997, over 5 million council homes were sold.

Question 20

the housng act 1980 had a dramatic impact on what?

Answer 20

reducing the size of the public sector:

Question 21

vetween 1980-97 how many councul homes were sold as a result of what aact

Answer 21

over 5 million

housing aact 1980

Question 22

how did the proportion of state owned houses in Britain fall

Answer 22

31.5% to 23.6% by 1989

Question 23

what act reduced local council budgets and explicitly banned local authorities from using the money earned from the sale of council houses on new housing projects.

Answer 23

Hosuing act 1986

rapid decline in the number of council houses being built.

Question 24

how did Thatcher view her housing policies?

Answer 24

great success

‘largest transfer of assets from the state to the family in British history.’

Question 25

Thatchers feelings towards civil service? and why

Answer 25

did not trust or like the civil service.

civil service had grown too large, was inefficient, = needs to be reduced

become a powerful elite - should be more directly by the state.

Question 26

3 ways T attempted to reduce the size of the civil service thus educe the overall size of the state

Answer 26

Efficiency Unit’ to find ways to make the civil service more efficient;

‘Management Information System’ to monitor and reduce civil service costs

Next Steps’ report that recommended that each civil service department be given specific targets to improve efficiency.

Question 27

by 1989 how much did the gov achieve in efficiency saving

Answer 27

more than

£1 billion

Question 28

by how much had the number of civil servenats been reduced

Answer 28

25%