Causes, consequences and possible resolution of the local authority audit crisis in England

Abstract

The article analyses the impact of audit reform in the local public sector in England by relating the concept of collibration to the territorializing, mediating, adjudicating and subjectivizing roles of accounting. It uses public domain documentation and interviews with senior actors to examine evidence of the existence of audit crisis in the local government sector in England, its causes and consequences. There is then consideration of possible resolutions, drawing on the Redmond Report of 2020, and navigating political constraints on their feasibility.