Professor Steve Martin

Board Member
Professor of Public Policy & Management & Director of the Centre for Local & Regional Government Research, Cardiff University

Educated at Oxford, Aston and Marseilles Universities, he has led a series of major studies on local government policy over the last twenty five years which have been funded by Research Councils, central government departments, the European Commission and a range of other agencies.

He was appointed as the Lead Member of the UK Government’s Expert Advisory Panel on Local Governance in July 2009. He has been a member of the board of the Improvement and Development Agency since 2001 and has served as an adviser to numerous select committees and official inquiries including Sir Jeremy Beecham’s Review of Local Service Delivery in Wales, the Lyons Inquiry and the Council of Europe’s Committee on Local Democracy.

His current and recent research projects include:

  • An independent evaluation of the first year of the CAA on behalf of the Audit Commission
  • A long term evaluation of the Welsh Assembly Government’s policies for local government
  • A comparative study on the development and impact of performance improvement frameworks in the UK funded under the ESRC’s Public Services Programme
  • A meta-evaluation of the local government improvement agenda, commissioned by Communities and Local Government
  • A think piece on the future of local government performance improvement, commissioned by the IDeA
  • An independent assessment of Best Value Audit process, commissioned by Audit Scotland
  • A study of the use of competition and contestability in public services, funded by the Audit Commission
  • A review of international lessons in local and regional governance, funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
  • An evaluation of the impact of inspection on local government, funded by the Rowntree Foundation.

Steve has published more than 60 articles in academic journals, 35 book chapters and around 100 official reports commissioned by government departments and other agencies. His latest book Public Services Inspection in the UK was published by Jessica Kingsley in 2008.

www.cardiff.ac.uk