Managing municipal austerity: mitigation of social risks

The overarching objective of this article is to stimulate debate about how local authorities could and should manage their austerity measures because the speed, scale and aggregation of the UK public spending cuts risk adversely affecting already disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, exacerbating social exclusion and leading to higher costs for councils in the future. It presents the results of research conducted during 2011–2012 focusing on if and how five Scottish case study councils attempted to mitigate social risks. It found that they were using equalities impact assessment (EIA) procedures in their decision-making. However, EIAs are not fit for purpose as a risk mitigation tool and fail to take account of all groups which may also be adversely affected by service cuts. Hence, this article recommends a more innovative approach in local decision-making processes based on a social risk impact assessment (SRIA) model within a preventative approach to social policy.