Measurements for municipalities 2006

Measurements for municipalities 2006 (Maten voor gemeenten 2006) presents a national picture of the performance delivered by local authorities and the costs of doing so. The analyses relate to the period 1999-2004. This is the fourth time this quantitative and integrated picture has been presented of municipalities as producers of services.
The report shows that total local authority spending in the period studied increased after adjustment for inflation by an average of 0.8% per annum. The growth was held back by a flattening off in 2003 and a substantial downturn in 2004. The latter was partly due to spending cuts and partly to the privatisation and granting of financial autonomy to a number of public transport operators. After the peak year 2002, which saw strong growth in both spending and staff numbers, this therefore suggests a delayed reaction by local authorities in 2003 and 2004 to the economic downturn in the private sector which began in 2001.
In the same period, municipal output fell slightly. As a result, the trend in the performance of municipalities trailed the real increase in expenditure by 0.9% per annum. This was because prices of public services rose more quickly than prices in the private sector. For municipalities, this can be explained partly by pay trends and an increase in staffing levels, capital charges, material spending and outsourcing.
If the hiving off of tasks is left out of consideration, output shows growth of 0.4% per annum. This implies that municipal services in the period considered lagged behind the growth in the population, even after this correction for changes in tasks. Although other sectors have also felt the impact of the economic downturn, in the slightly longer term spending and output by the private sector and public services in fields such as education and care are rising more rapidly than those of municipal services.