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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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Economic confidence might be slumping, but community power is on the rise
Throughout the pandemic central government has worked against the grain of local energy, but hope can be found in our communities and councils, writes Jessica Studdert. Councils’ confidence in...
By Jessica Studdert, Deputy Director, NLGN
28th May, 2020
CONFIDENCE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19: 3 TAKE-AWAYS FROM our LATEST LEADERSHIP INDEX SURVEY
As the COVID-19 crisis unfolded, we asked leaders in local government how their councils are coping with the challenges of this crisis. Here are the three things we’ve learned...
By Pawda Tjoa, Senior Researcher
28th May, 2020
Councils and COVID-19: The Response Edition #9
18/5/20 – 22/5/20 Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
21st May, 2020
Councils and COVID-19: The Response Edition #8
11/5/20 – 15/5/20 Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
15th May, 2020
Child protection social work in a pandemic: Turning towards the community?
“Disasters shake things loose. And the things that we regarded as fixed and unchangeable can suddenly be changed” (Solnit, 2020) Rebecca Solnit has become the ‘go to’ writer for...
By Brid Featherstone
12th May, 2020
How to Lead Partnerships to Transform Place
‘Place transformation’ has become a well-used term, as the principles underpinning the positive transformation of place are becoming better understood and established. But does this mean we know what...
By Simon Bandy, Strategic Director, Local Partnerships
11th May, 2020
Councils and COVID-19: The Response Edition #7
04/5/20 – 08/5/20 Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
7th May, 2020
Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services
Councils and COVID-19: The Response Edition #6
27/4/20 – 01/5/20 Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
1st May, 2020
Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services
Five reasons targets are a terrible way to do government
Under pressure following criticism of his approach to testing for Covid-19, at the start of April Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced a new target: the government would be carrying...
By Jessica Studdert, Deputy Director, NLGN
29th April, 2020
Community Power • Leadership • Local government finance • Strategy and leadership
The Government doesn’t just need an exit plan, it needs a strategy for recovery – and future resilience
Adam Lent, Director of the New Local Government Network, says we urgently need a post-pandemic recovery strategy for the public as well as the private sector. While the UK...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
27th April, 2020
People with disabilities will be further from work after COVID – it’s time to reform the system
If you live in the UK today and have a disability, you are twice as likely to be unemployed than someone who is not disabled – a fact so...
By Pawda Tjoa, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
24th April, 2020
Councils and COVID-19: The Response Edition #5
20/4/20 – 24/4/20 Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
24th April, 2020
Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services
New Research: How local gov can mobilise communities
Today, there are more councils than ever who realise that they can’t do it alone. That their best work, and most robust decisions, come from working hand-in-hand with the...
By Luca Tiratelli, Policy Researcher, NLGN
21st April, 2020
Elinor Ostrom and Community Power in the UK – Presentation
Who was Elinor Ostrom? What were her key arguments? How are they relevant to localism, public services, and politics in the UK? This presentation serves as an introduction to...
By Simon Kaye
20th April, 2020
Community Power • Ostrom • Politics • Public Services • Video
Councils and COVID-19: The Response Edition #4
Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support the most vulnerable...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
17th April, 2020
Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services
Feeling Keynes? Why crisis economics needs to look beyond the 40s
After years of enforced slumber, the state is starting to stir. The signs of this were there even before the pandemic hit in full, with Rishi Sunak’s March budget...
By Luca Tiratelli, Policy Researcher, NLGN
14th April, 2020
Councils and COVID-19: The Response Edition #3
Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support the most vulnerable...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
9th April, 2020
Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services
Councils and covid-19: The response Edition #2
Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support the most vulnerable...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
3rd April, 2020
Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services
By spreading blame for covid-19, we forget where the real power lies
These are unsettling times – there is much to fear and much to lament. But of all the developments of the last few weeks, the one that I’ve found...
By Luca Tiratelli, Policy Researcher, NLGN
27th March, 2020
Councils and covid-19: The response Edition #1
Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support the most vulnerable...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
27th March, 2020
Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services
With every part of our lives facing upheaval, the only certainty is uncertainty
It feels like only a cliché will do as a title for this article. Maybe this tells you something about my writing ability – but, maybe, just as love-songs...
By Luca Tiratelli, Policy Researcher, NLGN
24th March, 2020
Defenders of democracy need to wake up urgently to the threat posed by another crisis
A deep global slowdown is a gift to the authoritarians. Adam Lent argues democrats need to unite around a vision of politically empowered communities to see them off. @adamjlent...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
24th March, 2020
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
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
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
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