The United Kingdom and the pandemic: problems of central control and coordination

Abstract

The UK policy response to Covid-19 illustrates the problems arising where (1) a central government faces few countervailing political pressures as in Westminster systems; (2) the design of intergovernmental relations (IGR) mechanisms of coordination and conflict resolution fails to cope with the realities of a severely, asymmetric devolution settlement; and (3) local government faces serious collective action problems in influencing and mobilising resistance to a dominant central government. Firstly, the UK policy response illustrates the UK core executive’s serious problems in governing strategically and coordinating services across entrenched departmental and multi-level boundariesdespite government ministers enjoying a largely unchecked capacity to initiate major departmental reorganisations with significant IGR implications. Secondly, Westminster ministers resisted pressure from the three UK devolved nations and English city-region mayors to rebalance UK and English IGR mechanisms. Thirdly, the central response illustrates how the UK government, as the ‘English’ central government, maintained its control of local government through financial controls and outsourcing services.