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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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The pandemic asks big questions of our economy. Now is the time to answer them.
Adam Lent argues we need to start thinking now about a post-pandemic plan focused on building stronger communities and a resilient economy. As is often the case with a...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
20th March, 2020
Covid-19 • Economy and business • Employment • Public Health
Who cares? Women, work and community power
Women do the vast majority of unpaid care, and are often at the heart of community work. But can community empowerment help create a more egalitarian approach to paid...
By Grace Pollard, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
9th March, 2020
Community Power • Employment • Health and social care • Women
Elinor Ostrom: The Economist who Proved Community Power Works
Simon Kaye explores the legacy of Elinor Ostrom, the first female Noble-prize-winning economist, who proved that communities can successfully take charge of the assets around them. It’s work that...
By Simon Kaye, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
8th March, 2020
Community Power • Economy and business • Ostrom • Public Services
“We’re doing work that really matters.” An interview with Julia Unwin DBE
To mark International Women’s Day 2020, we speak to Julia Unwin DBE, whose remarkable career has seen her lead the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and lead an inquiry into the...
6th March, 2020
“We need to unlock everyone’s disrupting power.” An interview with Kajal Odera
Kajal Odera ran campaigns for Youth Parliament, Crisis and Macmillan before joining Change.org – an online petition website with over 240 million users worldwide. She became the UK Executive...
6th March, 2020
How data and tech could unleash community power
As part of their partnership with our Stronger Things event, Tim Pitts from digital technology provider Agilisys explores the potential of technology, data and creative thinking for local government....
By Tim Pitts, Managing Partner, Agilisys
27th February, 2020
Big Society 2.0? What sets our Paradigm apart
In July 2010, during his honeymoon period as Prime Minister, David Cameron unveiled what he called his “great passion” – the Big Society agenda. Built around principles of localism,...
By Luca Tiratelli, Policy Researcher
26th February, 2020
Don’t underestimate communities – support them to take control
Head of Communications Katy Oglethorpe responds to the Centre for Local Economic Strategies’ critique of the Community Paradigm , by arguing that communities – working in partnership with government...
By Katy Oglethorpe
24th February, 2020
A neighbourhood nudge: Four ways behavioural science can create thriving spaces
With the new government committed to building ‘places we want to live in’ by giving communities more say on development, and the upcoming NLGN conference in March looking at...
By Clare Delargy, Senior Advisor, Behavioural Insights Team
18th February, 2020
Growth cannot be inclusive without heeding the environment
The last few years have seen scores of councils publish inclusive growth plans – a radical admission that the economy, as presently constructed, is failing to deliver for millions...
By Luca Tiratelli, Policy Researcher
15th February, 2020
Economy and business • Environment • Inclusive Growth • Strategy and leadership
Finding love in a local place: the case for compassionate public services
On 14 February, Camden Council is celebrating Valentine’s Day in a rather disruptive way. 130 people from across the country and from a range of organisations are coming together...
By Becca Dove and Tim Fisher - Camden Council
14th February, 2020
Animation: How Local Government can Create Inclusive Growth
Between 2010 and 2020, the UK experienced something unprecedented in recent history – a decade without a recession. Yet, somehow, this period also saw the lowest levels of wage...
By NLGN Team
12th February, 2020
Economy and business • How to guide • Inclusive Growth • Strategy and leadership • Video
NLGN’s new framework helps councils cultivate inclusive growth
Is a growing economy something to celebrate when the benefits it brings are out of reach to many? While the economy grew as a whole in the 2017/18 financial...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
11th February, 2020
Inclusive Growth • Research Reports • Strategy and leadership
The DWP is failing ill and disabled people. Could community power be the way forward?
Millions of people in communities across the country find it difficult, or even impossible, to work because of the impact of a disability or long-term health condition. These disabilities...
By Tom Pollard, independent researcher
7th February, 2020
Community Power • Disabilities • Employment • Public Services
Why its time for the government to get serious about inclusive growth
The realities of the way in which the elecatoral map was redrawn in December mean that Conservative politicians are starting to talk about the economy a little bit differently....
By Luca Tiratelli, Policy Researcher, NLGN
5th February, 2020
A guide to English devolution
What on earth is devolution, what’s held it back & what might come out of the new government White Paper? This animation accompanies this handy FAQ by New Local...
By NLGN Team
30th January, 2020
Why Labour needs to keep talking about community power – vote winner or not
If any main theme has emerged in the Labour Party’s leadership contest so far, it is community empowerment. Almost all the candidates have at least mentioned the importance of...
By Luca Tiratelli and Simon Kaye, NLGN
24th January, 2020
A guide to devolution and why it matters
English devolution is back in the spotlight. As the Government prepares to publish a White Paper to set out its “offer for enhanced devolution across England”, we at NLGN...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
24th January, 2020
Community Power and the Triple Crisis of the New Decade – Part 1:
The Climate
Adam Lent argues that our intensifying climate crisis requires a political, economic and cultural revolution rooted in the empowerment of communities. @adamjlent We enter this new decade in the...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
20th January, 2020
Climate change • Community Power • Environment • Public Services
Rural areas are England’s ‘land of opportunity’
The North-South divide is the trope most commonly used by policy-makers to highlight the problems of regional inequality in England, but it is by no means the country’s only...
15th January, 2020
Australia is burning: so is it time for a new environmental politics?
So, the new decade begins with Australia literally on fire. Unsurprisingly, many of us are feeling the moral imperative for climate action more strongly than ever, and yet a...
By Luca Tiratelli, Policy Researcher, NLGN
6th January, 2020
The low paid need power as well as money
The PM may have given minimum wage earners a cash boost but Adam Lent argues only bringing the low paid into the heart of power will make a long-term...
By Adam Lent, Director
31st December, 2019
Democracy • Economy and business • Employment • Public Services
The Conservatives are victorious – but their blindness to reform may undo them
In theory, a Conservative government with a very strong mandate should prove a tasty prospect for the local government sector. The party’s manifesto commits the government to a devolution...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
13th December, 2019
Community Power • Conservatives • Democracy • Public Services
Can budgeting be a transformation tool? Three Tips from our Innovation Exchange
Many of us in the local government sector are all too well acquainted with you the negative side of the budgeting process. As demand seems to consistently rise, money...
By Rich Nelmes, Head of Network and Events, NLGN
4th December, 2019
Budgeting • Commissioning and Procurement • Strategy and leadership
With budgeting, the only certainty is that nothing is certain
Local authorities experience considerable difficulties as they budget to keep vital services going whilst facing uncertainty about their future finances, and this is exacerbated when they are unsure when...
By Martin Forbes, Strategic Director (Local Government), Local Partnerships
4th December, 2019
Budgeting • Commissioning and Procurement • Public Services • Strategy and leadership
Manifesto analysis: what do they say about local power?
With this Community Paradigm front and centre in our minds, here’s our take on the highlights from each party’s manifesto and what these say about their vision for local...
By Grace Pollard, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
27th November, 2019
Our Response: Community Power Act is Unavoidable if We Really Want to Shift the System
In response to the debate about a Community Power Act, Adam Lent argues that culture change is vital but alone it is not enough to transform a highly centralised,...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
26th November, 2019
How councils can think bigger about climate change
The environment has been skyrocketing up councils’ agendas in recent years, but local government still faces significant challenges in how to respond.
By Luca Tiratelli, Policy Researcher, NLGN.
25th November, 2019
How looking abroad could help tackle the crisis on our streets
The number of people spending the night on the streets is increasing all over the world, as nations struggle with their own housing crises or have difficulties funding the...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
25th November, 2019
How are councils future-proofing through prototyping?
Given the increasingly stretched resources in councils, prototyping provides a sensible and low-cost approach to test new ideas and obtain buy-in along the way.
By Pawda Tjoa, Senior Policy Researcher
22nd November, 2019
Learning through Prototyping
In this briefing, we’re exploring the benefits and opportunities that arise when we create the time and space to bring prototyping practices into our work.
By Rob Bates, Creative Director, FutureGov
22nd November, 2019
An uncommon revolutionary: Why Elinor Ostrom holds the answers for our times
NLGN is working to empower communities in this bid to take back control with our overarching Community Paradigm agenda, and our latest project is an investigation into the research...
By Simon Kaye, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
15th November, 2019
Delivering Local Inclusive Growth – What We’ve Learned
Inclusive growth is a buzzword in local government these days, but how can it be delivered in practice?
By Luca Tiratelli, Policy Researcher, NLGN
12th November, 2019
Economy and business • Inclusive Growth • Strategy and leadership
Speaking with Donna Hall CBE – the force behind the Wigan Deal
Donna Hall CBE discusses leadership, the Wigan Deal, and what drew her towards NLGN and its vision of a world where communities hold the power.
By NLGN Team
11th November, 2019
Community Power • New Local Board • Strategy and leadership • Video
Why we urgently need a Community Power Act – and what should be in it
NLGN's Director makes the case for a new law that would shift power from public institutions and into the hands of citizens.
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
11th November, 2019
How can councils transform their cultures?
This October, I had the pleasure of participating in an NLGN Innovation Exchange for the first time.
By Angie Ridgwell, Chief Executive, Lancashire County Council
6th November, 2019
How economic optimism is declining amid Brexit
This month’s NLGN Leadership Index report reveals that councils are even less hopeful about the impact of Brexit on their local economy than they were two years ago.
By Pawda Tjoa, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
31st October, 2019
The Impact of Brexit Uncertainty on Councils: Three take-aways from NLGN’s latest Leadership Index Survey
Uncertainty is bad for the economy. Yet the events of recent days and weeks have revealed even greater lack of clarity for local government when it comes to Britain’s...
By Pawda Tjoa, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
29th October, 2019
Brexit • Economy and business • Leadership Index • Public Services
Not enough revolution in government’s devolution plans
So, Her Majesty told us yesterday that her counsellors will be launching another round of devolution. It won’t happen of course unless Boris Johnson marches back into Downing Street...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
16th October, 2019
Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation • Political Systems
Dame Sally Davies: Getting it fundamentally wrong on obesity
No one can doubt the sincerity of Dame Sally Davies’s parting shot as Chief Medical Officer. Her report on child obesity crackles with frustration and fear at the horrendous...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
10th October, 2019
Health and social care • Public Health • Public Sector Voices • Public Services
It’s politics Jim, but not as we know it
There is no need for another blog to articulate the complete chaos that the British politics system finds itself in at the present time. As of today, the government...
By Claire Kennedy Co-founder & Managing Partner, PPL
26th September, 2019
The missing piece of the children’s services puzzle
The number of children in care has never been so high, rising by 4% over the last year alone and by 2025, the funding gap for children’s services is...
By Pawda Tjoa, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
11th September, 2019
SOWING THE SEEDS OF CHANGE IN CHILDREN’S SERVICES
The number of looked after children has reached a thirty-year high, with spending in this area accounting for over half of spending on children’s services in 2018-19. Despite the...
By Pawda Tjoa, Senior Researcher
9th September, 2019
Why the narrative on children’s services need to change
Last week’s Spending Review announcement provided something of a proverbial crutch for children’s services, but offered few reassurances for the medium to long-term sustainability of what many see as...
By Olly Swann, Director, IMPOWER
9th September, 2019
MPs can’t just defend democracy in this crisis, they must deepen it too
Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings have got MPs exactly where they want them: defending Parliament. They may cast this right now as a battle between an executive that wants...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
28th August, 2019
We need to talk about violent youth offending
Levels of violent youth crime on our streets have never been so high. Over the last four years, the number of these offences has increased by 34%. This is...
By Pawda Tjoa, Senior Researcher, NLGN
21st August, 2019
A call to join the Community Wealth Fund
Support the community commissioning agenda and transform the way local authorities interact with communities For almost a decade, local authorities have struggled to manage increasing demand for public services...
By Rob Day, Policy Intern, Local Trust
13th August, 2019
Citizens’ assemblies could offer popular support for climate action
A week ago, the UK reached its hottest recorded temperature. Over the weekend half a month’s rain fell in one hour. On Tuesday, major flooding hit Yorkshire. And yesterday,...
By Adam Lent, director, New Local Government Network
1st August, 2019
Climate change • Democracy • Environment • Participation and co-production
Four Ways for Councils to Give Power away
Since publishing The Community Paradigm in February, a question I get asked more than any other is what community-led services look like in practice. Clearly, there is a hunger...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
10th July, 2019
Turning Communities into Catalysts for Change
A new vision for public services in which communities are placed at the heart of delivery was set out in NLGN’s report The Community Paradigm, published in February this...
By Trinley Walker, Senior Policy Researcher
9th July, 2019