@PowerCrazy Also, while some local councils are intentionally neoliberal, most are just trying to survive.

Central government does of course force them to take the neoliberal solutions you describe. Because all other options are prohibited, impractical, or cannot be funded, due to the rules set down by central government.

Local government can be corrupt (so can central government), it can be incompetent (ditto).

But the villain here is the tories. It’s always the tories. And while they tend to control rural councils, they don’t control most of the cities.