You are at: Home / Publications / Summaries by year / Summaries 2011 / Measurements for municipalities

Measurements for municipalities

Original title: Maten voor gemeenten

Local authorities in the Netherlands are today playing an ever more prominent role in the delivery of services to the public, with central government devolving responsibility for more and more tasks to municipal level. In 2009, Dutch local authorities together spent a total of € 45 billion on the delivery of public services. What do citizens receive for this money?
This publication analyses local authority expenditure and output for the period 2004-2009. It emerges that local authority spending rose over that period by 1.9% per annum, whereas the output of services remained virtually unchanged. In other words, local authorities had to spend more and more money in order to provide citizens with the same services. What is the background to this trend? Our study suggests that citizens feel that the quality of the services they receive has generally improved.

This edition of Measurements for municipalities (Maten voor gemeenten) devotes special attention to youth care services, which will be transferred entirely to local authorities from 2014. Spending on these services has grown substantially, and more young people also make use of them. Given the limited availability of resources, local authorities face a challenge in keeping youth care spending under control.

 

Evert Pommer is head of the Public Services Sector research group at SCP. Ingrid Ooms, Saskia Jansen, Jedid-Jah Jonker, Hetty van Kempen and Klarita Sadiraj are researchers within this research group.