The article outlines the assumptions on which traditional management in British local authorities was based. It argues the those assumptions were grounded in the conditions of the postwar period, but outlines developing critiques. In recent years societal changes and economic and financial pressures have challenged the basis of traditional management and reinforced the critiques. The legislative program of the Conservative Government on local government is presented as one response to the need to build a new management, with its own strengths and weaknesses.