A digital approach to reimagining democracy   

Last month, New Local announced its partnership with Demos on Waves – the largest trial of digital democracy in Britain to date.

The Waves project aims to create a digital democratic process that can be used by local government. The programme will enable deep, large-scale, end-to-end deliberation with residents over decisions that affect their lives. All for a lower cost and with less complexity than is found in traditional deliberation practices.

Citizens’ relationships with government are in a fragile state.

The latest finding from the British Social Attitudes report revealed that only 12% of people trust governments to put the country’s interests before their political party’s.

Calls to change the voting system continue to gain momentum, with 60% of respondents supporting electoral reform.

After one of the lowest voter turnouts in history for the General Election in 2024, we need to think more deeply about why UK residents’ instinct to participate in democracy is weakening. 

We believe there is an emerging opportunity for councils across the country to reimagine how democracy can be done better through local government reorganisation.

Polling from earlier this year shows that a large proportion of the public recognises the critical role of councils in influencing their lives, above that of the national government. This is incredibly powerful, and if local government reorganisation is done well, councils have a powerful role to play in revitalising democracy.

A democracy where deliberative practices have been designed into the council at all levels so that the relationship between residents and local government feels more collaborative, transparent, and meaningful. 

At New Local, we regularly explore ideas around participative democracy, community engagement, and cohesion-building in our pursuit of embedding community power into public service. Over the years, we have worked with and heard from leaders at councils across the country who are implementing innovative approaches to bring the voices of the community into decision-making.

In 2021, we joined the We’re Right Here campaign as a partner to advocate for a Community Power Act that would enhance the involvement of local communities in decisions that positively impact them. 

With Waves, we aim to deepen our exploration of these themes and discover how technology and artificial intelligence can help scale participatory decision-making across a community. Ahead of our first Learning Network event on Waves, scheduled for July 8th, we’ve compiled links to interviews, think pieces, and blog posts we’ve published that bring these lines of inquiry together. We hope this serves as a useful resource when you are considering different approaches, tools, and new ways of engaging in participatory democracy.   

Examples of deliberative practices in councils  

• Waltham Forest ran the UK’s first citizens’ assembly on hate crime, bringing 45 residents together to listen, reflect, and shape real change: How We Did It: The first citizens’ assembly on hate crime   
• Wakefield Council trained 100 community conversationalists to spark over 1,300 face-to-face dialogues, building a truly inclusive vision shaped by voices from every area: How We Did It: Building intentionally inclusive community conversations  
• Test Valley Council transformed local engagement through hands-on pop-ups, collaborative planning, and a bold commitment to putting community voice at the heart of every decision: “Everything we do is driven by our communities”: Inside Test Valley’s ground-breaking approach to community engagement   
• Newham’s Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz is reshaping local democracy through participatory budgeting, citizens’ assemblies, and radical community involvement at every level: “If we don’t involve our people, then what’s the point?” The community-powered mayor

Driving innovations in community engagement  

• Discover how a bold, large-scale conversation about the NHS created space for communities to share their experiences and shape future health services: Platform for change: Hosting the biggest ever conversation about the NHS – New Local  
• Explore how shifting council culture unlocks genuine community partnerships and transforms engagement from tokenism into real collaboration: How culture change equips councils for better community engagement – New Local

New Local’s thinking   

Here at New Local, we’ve been exploring the ways local democracy is being reimagined. From breathing new life into Area Forums, to an emerging ‘new local’ built around power, prevention, and place, the pieces below explore these themes and more:  

• Democratic Dreaming: How to Shake the Dust off Area Forums    
• What is the ‘new local’? Power, prevention and place

What’s next?

From July 2025 to September 2026, we’ll be bringing together those who have long-standing community engagement and participatory practices, along with others who are newly establishing this way of working in councils, as part of our Learning Network   

Over four sessions, participants will test ideas and share best practices and lessons learned from past experiences with embedding deliberative practices in councils across the country. This will also be the first place where insights and learnings on how the Waves programme is working will be shared from Camden and South Staffordshire, the two councils that will be trialling Waves.

Join us on 8 July for the first Waves Learning Network event – we’d love to have you there!  

If you are not from a council but you are also interested in these themes, please reach out for a discussion on ways we can partner on a research or practice project. We’re always keen to chat with those working on or curious about innovative ways to bring community power to life.  

Image credit: Phil Scroggs on Unsplash

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