The Treasury and Whitehall: The Planning and Control of Public Expenditure, 1976-1993

With unique access to treasury Expenditure Controllers and senior financial officials in the main spending departments, the authors of this work provide a detailed and authoritative account of the roles, relationships, and inter-actions of the key players in Whitehall Expenditure Community as they confront each other in annual rituals of the Expenditure Survey. Thain and Wright explain how the rules of the expenditure game were re-drawn in the 1980s in the relentless search for cuts, greater economy and efficiency in the design and delivery of public services, and the creation of a more enterprising administrative culture.