Abstract
This paper examines the recent financial and service delivery history at Northamptonshire County Council. Drawing on institutional isomorphism, it demonstrates long-term inadequacies in the governance and management of the council and weaknesses in its collaborative working with key partners including the district councils in Northamptonshire. It suggests this contributed to the government’s decision to reorganise local government across Northamptonshire rather than focus on the organisational recovery of the County Council. It also helps explain why this radical intervention uniquely generated comparatively little public or political opposition.