Building the new local: looking to 2026
As I step into the role of New Local Interim Chief Executive, and as we begin 2026, I find myself reflecting on how far the shared work of building a new local – grounded in power, prevention and place – has come in a relatively short space of time.
It was less than a year ago that we published our vision for just that, although, of course, our understanding builds on deep work in places and with partners who have been developing their approach for many years.
Nevertheless, over the past year, that vision has begun to feel less like an aspiration and more like a lived reality across our membership. We are seeing the new local take shape through the growing power of communities and participation, a sharper focus on prevention and deeper, place-based collaboration between local partners. Within this, the VCSE sector continues to play a vital and distinctive role, helping to anchor change in the everyday relationships and institutions that make places work.
Meanwhile – as momentum grew in places across the country – 2025 also seemed like the year that central government was finally paying attention. June’s Spending Review set out three principles for public service reform – service integration, a stronger focus on prevention and the greater devolution of power – offering a clear statement of intent, even as the practical implications were still emerging.
Over the course of the year, that renewed attention showed up in a number of separate but related developments. The Cabinet Office launched its £100m Test, Learn and Grow programme, creating space for central and local government to collaborate in testing new approaches to tackling local challenges and exploring how the state itself might need to change. In health, the NHS Ten Year Plan shifted emphasis away from national solutions, placing neighbourhood-based prevention more firmly on the agenda.
Elsewhere, Pride in Place was announced, aiming to put communities in greater control of regeneration in deprived areas. Devolution also continued to progress, with the Autumn Budget announcing Total Place-style integrated budget pilots across five mayoral strategic authorities.
At New Local, we are pleased to be able to bring the learning from our members and partners in places across the country into many of these national initiatives, helping to ensure that policy and practice are shaped by what is actually working on the ground.
We are delighted to be one of three national delivery partners for Test, Learn and Grow, leading on the design and facilitation of the learning offer and creating space for insights from place to be shared, challenged and built on collectively across local and central government. We will also be supporting neighbourhood development with NHS partners, working alongside the NHS Leadership Academy, and – following our joint campaigning with others for a return to Total Place-style local integrated budgeting – will be co-convening a national Total Place symposium in March to keep pushing this thinking further, informed by the real experiences of councils, strategic authorities and communities.
We’re positive about the opportunities these national efforts can create for our partners in places across the country, and we know there are many good people – both politicians and officials – leading the way within central government (not least my predecessor, Jess, following her move to Number 10).
All of that said, we’re mindful that, in practice, this attention can add to the pressures local government is already managing in a complex environment, shaped by rising demand, uncertainty from the Fair Funding Review and significant cuts for some councils.
Local leaders are also dealing with community tensions, political volatility and a decline in standards in public life. Cuts and changes to ICBs and the abolition of PCCs are impacting partnerships in which people have invested time and energy in recent years, and all of this comes with a background of disruption across large parts of the country in the form of local government reorganisation (LGR) and the creation of new strategic authorities.
My hope, then, is that the Christmas and New Year period has offered you a (well earned) chance to draw breath, because 2026 will be a year with a great deal at stake and real opportunities to shape what comes next.
Over the coming months, we will explore some of these opportunities in further blogs, starting soon with LGR. In the meantime, we enter 2026 knowing that local government is resilient, able to drive change through uncertainty, endlessly creative and always looking to make the most of both challenges and opportunities for the benefit of local communities. Help and support from central government is needed and very welcome but the best of local government will continue to show the way – and we’ll be right there beside you.
Join our mailing list