IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/loceco/v30y2015i6p609-626.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Passing the buck without the bucks: Some reflections on fiscal decentralisation and the Business Rate Retention Scheme in England

Author

Listed:
  • Kevin Muldoon-Smith
  • Paul Greenhalgh

Abstract

In an era of continuing Local Government austerity and enhanced urban financialisation, Local Government in England is increasingly reliant upon decentralised methods of urban finance (typically based on ‘new economic growth’ extracted from non-residential property development) to fund public services, economic development and urban regeneration. Opportunities for greater territorial governance and economic development often frame fiscal decentralisation, yet, critical appraisals of this agenda are less common. Reflecting upon this issue, this paper critically appraises the underlying method of ‘localist’ finance in England, the Business Rate Retention Scheme. In doing so, it describes a picture of geographical variegation in England, one that suggests that the Business Rate Retention Scheme could lead to splintered urban development, based on the necessity (and underlying viability) for new development. The paper concludes that a minority of ‘premium locations’, characterised by buoyant property market characteristics, could outperform more numerous ‘stranded’ and ‘redundant locations’. The result is that those areas most in need of investment, that exhibit some kind of market failure and geographical disadvantage, could be less able to generate new development in order to fund the Business Rate Retention Scheme. Under these conditions, rather than correcting incidences of spatial inequality, fiscal decentralisation could further polarise uneven development.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Muldoon-Smith & Paul Greenhalgh, 2015. "Passing the buck without the bucks: Some reflections on fiscal decentralisation and the Business Rate Retention Scheme in England," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 30(6), pages 609-626, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:loceco:v:30:y:2015:i:6:p:609-626
    DOI: 10.1177/0269094215599724
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269094215599724
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0269094215599724?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Patsy Healey, 2013. "Circuits of Knowledge and Techniques: The Transnational Flow of Planning Ideas and Practices," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5), pages 1510-1526, September.
    2. Paul C. Cheshire & Christian A. L. Hilber, 2008. "Office Space Supply Restrictions in Britain: The Political Economy of Market Revenge," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(529), pages 185-221, June.
    3. Rachel Weber, 2010. "Selling City Futures: The Financialization of Urban Redevelopment Policy," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 86(3), pages 251-274, July.
    4. Paul Greenhalgh & Mary Lou Downie & Peter Fisher & Mike Barke, 2003. "Grease to the Wheel or a Spanner in the Works? An Investigation of Office and Industrial Occupier Displacement and Property Market Filtering in Tyne and Wear Using the Chaining Technique," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 381-394.
    5. Andy Pike & Jane Pollard, 2010. "Economic Geographies of Financialization," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 86(1), pages 29-51, January.
    6. Peck, Jamie, 2012. "Constructions of Neoliberal Reason," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199662081, Decembrie.
    7. Rachel Weber, 2010. "Selling City Futures: The Financialization of Urban Redevelopment Policy," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 86(3), pages 251-274, July.
    8. Susan Christopherson & Ron Martin & Jane Pollard, 2013. "Financialisation: roots and repercussions," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 6(3), pages 351-357.
    9. Kevin Fox Gotham, 2009. "Creating Liquidity out of Spatial Fixity: The Secondary Circuit of Capital and the Subprime Mortgage Crisis," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 355-371, June.
    10. Sebastian Schipper, 2014. "The Financial Crisis and the Hegemony of Urban Neoliberalism: Lessons from Frankfurt am Main," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 236-255, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philip Ashton & Marc Doussard & Rachel Weber, 2016. "Reconstituting the state: City powers and exposures in Chicago’s infrastructure leases," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(7), pages 1384-1400, May.
    2. Erica Pani & Nancy Holman, 2014. "A Fetish and Fiction of Finance: Unraveling the Subprime Crisis," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(2), pages 213-235, April.
    3. Emanuele Belotti & Sonia Arbaci, 2021. "From right to good, and to asset: The state-led financialisation of the social rented housing in Italy," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(2), pages 414-433, March.
    4. Shenjing He & Mengzhu Zhang & Zongcai Wei, 2020. "The state project of crisis management: China’s Shantytown Redevelopment Schemes under state-led financialization," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(3), pages 632-653, May.
    5. Alan Walks, 2014. "From Financialization to Sociospatial Polarization of the City? Evidence from Canada," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 90(1), pages 33-66, January.
    6. Michelle Buckley & Adam Hanieh, 2014. "Diversification by Urbanization: Tracing the Property-Finance Nexus in Dubai and the Gulf," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 155-175, January.
    7. Kate Gasparro & Ashby Monk, 2020. "Demystifying “localness†of infrastructure assets: Crowdfunders as local intermediaries for global investors," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(5), pages 878-897, August.
    8. Paul Langley, 2018. "Frontier financialization: Urban infrastructure in the United Kingdom," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 172-184, June.
    9. Frances Brill, 2020. "Complexity and coordination in London’s Silvertown Quays: How real estate developers (re)centred themselves in the planning process," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(2), pages 362-382, March.
    10. Stephanie Farmer, 2014. "Cities as Risk Managers: The Impact of Chicago's Parking Meter P3 on Municipal Governance and Transportation Planning," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(9), pages 2160-2174, September.
    11. Rachel Weber, 2021. "Embedding futurity in urban governance: Redevelopment schemes and the time value of money," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(3), pages 503-524, May.
    12. Kevin Fox Gotham, 2016. "Re-anchoring capital in disaster-devastated spaces: Financialisation and the Gulf Opportunity (GO) Zone programme," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(7), pages 1362-1383, May.
    13. Chris Muellerleile, 2013. "Turning Financial Markets inside Out: Polanyi, Performativity and Disembeddedness," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(7), pages 1625-1642, July.
    14. Matthias Bernt & Laura Colini & Daniel Förste, 2017. "Privatization, Financialization and State Restructuring in Eastern Germany: The case of Am südpark," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 555-571, July.
    15. Ludovic Halbert & Katia Attuyer, 2016. "Introduction: The financialisation of urban production: Conditions, mediations and transformations," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(7), pages 1347-1361, May.
    16. Julie Pollard, 2023. "The political conditions of the rise of real-estate developers in French housing policies," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(2), pages 274-291, March.
    17. Chen, Yawei, 2022. "Financialising urban redevelopment: Transforming Shanghai’s waterfront," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    18. Nikos Kapitsinis, 2019. "A review of the current business rates scheme in Wales and the effects of a potential local retention," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 34(1), pages 10-32, February.
    19. Jiang, Yanpeng & Mohabir, Nalini & Ma, Renfeng & Zhu, Pengyu, 2017. "Sorting through Neoliberal Variations of Ghost Cities in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 445-453.
    20. Jeroen Klink & Vanessa Lucena Empinotti & Marcelo Aversa, 2020. "On contested water governance and the making of urban financialisation: Exploring the case of metropolitan São Paulo, Brazil," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(8), pages 1676-1695, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:loceco:v:30:y:2015:i:6:p:609-626. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/index.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.