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Our latest blogs, long-reads, videos and podcasts about all-things community power, local government, public services, and more.
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How to maintain a strong local identity through place leadership in the age of devolution
A strong sense of place is core to the mission and purpose of local government. Our role is to act as anchors, stewards, and conveners of the local system, supporting...
By Robin Tuddenham, Chief Executive, Calderdale Council/President, Solace
16th September, 2025
Calderdale Council • English Devo Bill • Robin Tuddenham • Strategy and leadership • Vision 2034
Back To School: How Surrey County Council answered the call of parents and guardians
September is our contact centre’s busiest time of year without a doubt. Surrey County Council manages the admission of nearly 160,000 pupils to more than 350 state-funded schools. And...
By Eleanor Brown, Assistant Director of Customer Experience, Surrey County Council
19th August, 2025
Call Centre • Future Councils • Strategy and leadership • Surrey County Council
Co-designing Waves: Insights from the project so far
It's been three months since we launched Waves. This is the first in a series of blogs where we’ll share what we’ve discovered, how our thinking has evolved and...
6th August, 2025
AI • Community Power • Digital Democracy • Future Councils • Waves
Designing Strategic Authorities: culture, capability and a compelling story
Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) have never truly been designed; they’ve evolved. Greater Manchester — the starter culture for all MCAs — looked like a reasonably recognisable set of shared...
By Steve Skelton, Director, Question Factory
21st July, 2025
Community Power • English Devo Bill • Future Councils • Mayoral Combined Authorities • Steve Skelton • Strategic authorities
Local Government Reorganisation and the art of the possible
‘If you were going to design English local government from scratch, you wouldn’t have come up with this.’ Versions of this observation will be familiar to many in and...
By Anna Randle
18th July, 2025
Community Power • English Devo Bill • LGR • Local Councils • Place-Based Public Service Reform
Beyond the ‘what’: How local governments are pioneering mission-led approaches
It’s been a year since Labour came into power, bringing with them a commitment to a different way of ‘doing’ government centred around five missions for national renewal. One...
By Isadora Spillman-Schappell
9th July, 2025
Future Councils • ICC • Mission-Led Governing • Place-Based Public Service Reform • Strategic authorities • Strategy and leadership
How We Did It: Bridging the digital divide – keeping communities connected
Nicol McConnell on Sunderland City Council’s work towards making Sunderland a fully digitally inclusive city.
2nd July, 2025
Community engagement • Community Voices • Digital • Sunderland City Council
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...
26th June, 2025
Community Power • Demos • Digital Democracy • Future Councils • Waves
Where People Meet: Our research process unpacked
Where People Meet: How to Celebrate, Sustain and Reimagine Community Centres’ was commissioned by the Rayne Trust, to explore the distinct and valuable part that community centres play in...
24th June, 2025
Birmingham • Bradford • Community centres • Community Power • Rayne Trust • Stroud
How We Did It: Transforming your council to identify climate risk and embed resilience
Emma Bull, Local Partnerships and Emily Bolton, Cambridgeshire County Council give insight into best practices for embedding climate resilience across council operations
23rd June, 2025
Cambridgeshire County Council • Climate change • Local Partnerships • Net Zero • Strategy and leadership
Celebrating Community Power: Stronger Things 2025
What do you get when you combine collective expertise, healthy debate, and optimism? You get Stronger Things 2025, of course!
12th June, 2025
Community Power • Georgia Gould MP • Local government • Stronger Things
Five reasons the Government should launch Total Place 2.0
John Denham and Jessica Studdert set out five reasons why now is the time for Total Place 2.0.
By John Denham
29th May, 2025
Community Power • Local government • Spending Review • Total Place
Developing community power standards with Manchester City Council
Laura Billings tells us how TPXimpact developed community power standards with Manchester City Council.
By Laura Billings, head of design strategy, TPXimpact
15th May, 2025
Community Power • Manchester City Council • Strategy and leadership • TPXimpact
How mission based working is empowering our communities and driving change for the better
Achieving change within a council can sometimes feel like being a mountaineer, writes Mike Greene, Chief Executive of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council.
By Mike Greene, Chief Executive, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council
13th May, 2025
Community Power • Mike Greene • mission-based • Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council
Who We Are: Bridges Outcomes Partnerships Edition
Grace Duffy, Director of Policy, Influencing and Engagement at Bridges Outcomes Partnership, tells us about their work with local authorities and partnerships they have developed to build better outcomes...
By Grace Duffy, Director of Policy, Influencing and Engagement, Bridges Outcomes Partnerships
13th May, 2025
Community Power • Local government • Partnerships • Public Services
Councils must modernise, save money and design good lives
The biggest redesign of public services in a generation lies ahead. As councils try to work out what new model could adequately respond to the complex demands on them,...
By Ruth Luscombe, Director, Inner Circle Consulting
8th May, 2025
“This is the place”: The case for investing in community centres
Community centres have long stood as pillars of local life, but we are losing these spaces at pace and at scale. Summer Simpson explores why this matters.
7th May, 2025
Community assets • Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care
How We Did It: Moving towards a neighbourhood strategy
Alice Black, Sophie Taylor and Sue Sheehan explain how the London Borough of Camden is embracing neighbourhood ways of working.
22nd April, 2025
Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Strategy and leadership
A new leadership model is transforming local government
Jessica Studdert shares four fundamental shifts that are taking local government leadership into new territory and explains why the changing sector landscape demands a common understanding of leadership.
20th March, 2025
Devolution and reorganisation • Leadership • Local government • Strategy and leadership
How We Did It: Unlocking empty properties to tackle the housing crisis
Steve Grimshaw explains how Kent County Council brought more than 8,000 empty properties back into use over 20 years through its No Use Empty project.
19th March, 2025
Design Thinking, Digital Divides and Radical Decision Makers: An Interview with Ben Unsworth
In a career spanning councils, digital agencies and central government, TPXimpact’s Ben Unsworth has been at the forefront of reshaping local government. We speak to him about why councils...
By Ben Unsworth
19th March, 2025
Design Thinking • Digital • Leadership • Local government • Strategy and leadership
“Decline is Not Inevitable”: How Councils Can Bring High Streets Back to Life
Croydon Labour councillor Rowenna Davis explores why some town centres thrive while others decline - and what councils can do to turn the tide.
By Rowenna Davis
26th February, 2025
Economy and business • High Streets • Inclusive Economy • Local economies • Regeneration
How We Did It: Using outcomes focused relational working to reduce demand on statutory services
Graham Beamish and Marie Pye explain how Suffolk and Norfolk County Councils have saved 1000 years’ worth of care days for children and young people.
17th February, 2025
Childrens' Services • Local government • Partnerships • Prevention • Public Services
Social Care Solutions: Leading Essex’s Commission for Change
Cllr Beverley Egan is a councillor for Thundersley in south-east Essex. In 2023, she was appointed to chair of Essex Council’s Caring Communities Commission, an ambitious two-year look at...
5th February, 2025
What is the ‘new local’? Power, prevention and place
As the Government’s agenda for local government, devolution and public services takes shape, a ‘new local’ is emerging, built on the principles of power, prevention and place.
27th January, 2025
Community Power • Local government • Place-based budgets • Politics • Prevention • Public Services
New Local response: English Devolution White Paper
New Local response to the English Devolution White Paper
16th December, 2024
The roots of a more radical shift
The government needs an overarching strategy for public service reform that dispenses with traditional Whitehall ‘business as usual’ assumptions, writes Jessica Studdert.
13th December, 2024
Central government • Community Power • Local government • Public Services • Strategy and leadership
Platform for change: Hosting the biggest ever conversation about the NHS
As the NHS grapples with significant challenges, a new approach to public consultation is giving citizens and healthcare staff the power to shape its future. In the largest-ever conversation...
4th December, 2024
Where We’re At: Vale of Glamorgan Edition
Rob Thomas, Chief Executive of Vale of Glamorgan Council, tells us about the council’s deepening partnership approach, why there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to delivering vital local...
By Rob Thomas, Chief Executive, Vale of Glamorgan Council
26th November, 2024
Community Power • Local government • Strategy and leadership
New Local Appoints Jessica Studdert as Chief Executive
New Local has appointed local government and public service reform expert Jessica Studdert as its new Chief Executive
19th November, 2024
How We Did It: Community Wealth Building – using council power for communities
Caroline Wilson, Director of Inclusive Economy and Jobs at Islington Borough Council, explains how the council’s approach to community wealth building has emerged and deepened, how it’s helping to...
11th November, 2024
Community engagement • Community Power • Economy and business • Local government
Addressing the structural weakness at Whitehall’s heart
The new Government has an opportunity to shift the institutions at SW1 to actively seek insight beyond its small postcode, says Jessica Studdert.
11th November, 2024
Central government • Community Power • Devolution and reorganisation • Local government • Policy • Public Services
Cradle to Career: How place-based collaboration is transforming North Birkenhead
In North Birkenhead a unique programme is joining up services and putting community priorities at the heart of decision making, creating impact that could be a model for national...
7th November, 2024
Community Power • Local government • Public Services • Social Care • Total Place
What does local government need from the Autumn Budget?
Jessica Studdert identifies three shifts local government needs from the first fiscal event of the new Parliament.
23rd October, 2024
Budgeting • Central government • Local government • Politics • Public Services
How We Did It: Using our equalities strategy to address power imbalances between council and communities
We put Hal Khanom in our ‘How We Did It’ hot seat to hear how the London Borough of Barnet has developed its equalities strategy, A Fairer Barnet.
17th October, 2024
Community engagement • Community Power • Equality • Local government • Strategy and leadership
Embedding meaningful participation through devolution
Devolution should move beyond technocratic functionality and embed meaningful participation and dialogue in decision-making, says Jessica Studdert.
14th October, 2024
Devolution • Local government • Public Services • Strategy and leadership
Three spending shifts: How the Government can propel person-centred funding
The traditional siloed model of public services is ineffective for complex societal problems. But three public spending shifts can change this.
By Grace Duffy, Bridges Outcomes Partnerships
20th September, 2024
Central government • Local government finance • Person-centred funding • Policy
Where We’re At: Wealden Edition
Matthew China, Policy, Insight and Communications Manager at Wealden District Council tells us about Wealden’s ambition to become a community-powered council, how it’s building on strong foundations to take...
By Matthew China, Policy, Insight and Communications Manager at Wealden District Council
10th September, 2024
Community Power • Local government • Place building • Strategy and leadership
Total Place ‘Pilots Plus’ could help break the public service doom loop
With the Autumn Budget in sight, Former Secretary of State John Denham and New Local’s Jessica Studdert make the case for Total Place 2.0.
By John Denham
9th September, 2024
Devolution and reorganisation • Local government finance • Place-based budgets • Political reform • Public Services • Total Place
10 leadership practices which empower communities
Enfield Council’s Grace Murray shares ten pointers for community-powered leadership.
By Grace Murray, Volunteer and Involvement Lead at Enfield Community Hubs
5th September, 2024
Community Power • Leadership • Public Services • Strategy and leadership
How can services and communities collaborate to improve wellbeing? Lessons from Wales
By listening to and valuing the insights of communities, the public sector can build better services, improve outcomes and use limited resources more wisely. But what are the essential...
By Charlotte Morgan, Wales Centre for Public Policy
14th August, 2024
Collaboration • Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Public Services • Wellbeing
Labour’s way forward? More lightning
After a bold start, the Government has an opportunity to pursue a test and learn approach to place-based service reform, says Jessica Studdert.
12th August, 2024
New Local statement on racist and Islamophobic violence
We at New Local condemn the racist and Islamophobic violence that black, Asian and migrant communities have been subjected to over recent days.
8th August, 2024
How Local Authorities Are Thinking Differently Under Unprecedented Financial Pressures
Councils are facing reduced funding, rising demand and increasing costs. New Local and IPPO's research project explores how local authorities are responding and what we can learn.
By Urte Macikene, Kezia Pugh and Jessica Studdert
31st July, 2024
Local government • Local government finance • Public Services
“When people believe they have power, magic starts to happen”: Katie Kelly on Radical Leadership
New Local Chair Katie Kelly talks to Shaheen Warren from our practice team ahead of our brand-new Radical Leaders event in September. Expect topics from leadership icons to Damascene...
29th July, 2024
Community Power • Leadership • Local government • Public Services • Strategy and leadership
Leadership Lucky Draw: Kath O’Dwyer, St Helens
Kath O'Dwyer has spent the last 40 years making her mark in public service, most lately as the chief executive of St Helens Council. Picking questions at random, she...
22nd July, 2024
Community engagement • Leadership • Leadership Lucky Draw • Local government • Northern England • Strategy and leadership
Community Power in an Age of Division
Sometimes even the most well-meaning idea can be turned into a source of polarisation and anger. How can deliberative and consensus-building approaches be used to take the heat out...
By Steph Draper, Misbah Malik, Samuel Augustine, Eve Holt
22nd July, 2024
Community Cohesion • Community engagement • Community Power • Stronger Things 2024
Nine things national government can learn from local government
New MPs have arrived for their first day on the job, the Cabinet is in post, and the wheels of government are turning once more. Catriona Maclay puts forward...
11th July, 2024
Central government • Community Power • Local government • Politics • Public Services • Strategy and leadership
How We Did It: Measuring the impact of community-led approaches
Lydia Hutchings and Beth Kilheeney explain how the Greater Manchester Better Outcomes Partnership works with young people to prevent homelessness and how the project is being evaluated.
11th July, 2024
Community Power • Homelessness • Measurement and Evaluation • Public Services • Young people
Democratic Dreaming: How to Shake the Dust off Area Forums
For many councils, area forums are at the heart of democratic engagement. But despite nobel intentions, some have drifted away from their purpose. How do we reimagine them?
1st July, 2024
Area Forums • Community engagement • Devolution and reorganisation • Practice work • Strategy and leadership