Measuring the fiscal pressure on English local authorities under the block grant system

It is widely accepted that local authorities in England have been placed under increasing fiscal pressure during the 1980s by the block grant system combined with the rising level of grant penalties. Controversy surrounds the question of which local authorities have been worst treated by the new system. In this paper it is shown how the measurement of relative fiscal pressure has become much more complex than under the previous grant system, and published results on a suggested measure of fiscal pressure between 1980/81 and 1984/85 are presented.