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The changing architecture of the UK welfare state

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  • Hills, John

Abstract

This article looks at the way in which the role of the state has evolved within different aspects of welfare activity (broadly defined) in the United Kingdom since 1979 and forward to the possible impacts of the plans of the Coalition government that took office in 2010 for changing that role through reform and fiscal retrenchment. Even as governments restrained the growth of public social spending, total public and private activity grew by more than 150 per cent in real terms between 1979-80 and 2007-8, and from 34 to 42 per cent of GDP. If state services have not grown rapidly enough, some have paid more privately for the services they want, and in other cases governments have ended up financing activity through indirect routes. There has always been a 'mixed economy' of welfare in terms of the balance between public and private provision, finance, and control. Changes in this balance have been slow, with the largest growth being in the 'pure private sector' (with private provision, finance, and control), but with some growth in publicly financed services that are contracted out to the private sector. The experience suggests that the Coalition government's initial ambitions for radically transforming the overall structure of public-private boundaries may be hard to realize.

Suggested Citation

  • Hills, John, 2011. "The changing architecture of the UK welfare state," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 42937, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:42937
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/42937/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Hills, 2007. "Ends and Means: The future roles of social housing in England," CASE Reports casereport34, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    2. Nicholas Barr & Alison Johnston, 2010. "Interest Subsidies on Student Loans: A Better Class of Drain," CEE Discussion Papers 0114, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
    3. Hills, John, 2004. "Inequality and the State," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199276646.
    4. Tania Burchardt, 1997. "Boundaries between Public and Private Welfare: a typology and map of services (publ.as Private Welfare and Public Policy, Burchardt, Hills and Propper, Rowntree Foundation, Jan 1999)," CASE Papers case02, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    5. Le Grand, Julian, 1991. "Quasi-markets and Social Policy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(408), pages 1256-1267, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Daniel Edmiston, 2011. "The Shifting Balance of Private and Public Welfare Activity in the United Kingdom, 1979 to 2007," CASE Papers case155, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    2. Mark Fransham & Ruth Patrick & Aaron Reeves & Kitty Stewart, 2020. "Did the introduction of the benefit cap in Britain harm mental health? A natural experiment approach," CASE Papers /221, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    3. repec:ehl:lserod:43901 is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    education; health; housing; private provision; public sector; social security; welfare state;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General

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