Premium
Bypassing Barnett: The comprehensive spending review and public expenditure in Wales
Author(s) -
Bristow Gillian
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
economic affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1468-0270
pISSN - 0265-0665
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0270.00308
Subject(s) - treasury , devolution (biology) , public expenditure , public economics , government (linguistics) , order (exchange) , public spending , economics , population , government spending , public administration , business , public finance , finance , political science , geography , macroeconomics , law , market economy , medicine , environmental health , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , politics , welfare , human evolution
Under UK devolution, public expenditure is distributed to the devolved administrations by means of the population‐based Barnett formula. However, in the July 2000 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) the Treasury bypassed the operation of the Barnett formula to determine public expenditure levels in Wales. This was necessary in order to enable Wales to access European Objective 1 funds for economic regeneration. In so doing, the UK government has set a precedent which is destined to accelerate demands for a thorough and independent review of regional public expenditure needs.