Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act one 'the Comprehensive Spending Review'

After the 2008 financial crisis, recession and subsequent collapse in government revenues, the UK's public deficit reached levels not seen since the Second World War. It had to deal with gearing by borrowing one pound for every four it spent. Before the 2010 election, all of the major parties agreed that tackling the deficit was a priority, and that spending reductions would play a major part. However, they did not agree over the timing and depth of cuts. The Comprehensive Spending Review had been used for planning in times of certainty when Whitehall's strategic ambition was growth and centralisation was omnipotent. In contrast, in 2010 the Government's spending plans were set out for the next four years with the spending review process now being used for planning in times of uncertainty when the ambition is deficit reduction and localism is being favoured. In public sector accounting research, little is known about how accounting for organisation changes occur in the spending review in periods of certainty, let alone uncertainty. The purpose of this paper is to briefly consider the phoney war that took place after the financial crisis and how within the impending uncertainty the comprehensive spending review was used to provide a framework for a long term planning approach, which the annuality of the budget can take place within