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A Labour Vision for Community Power: Participation, prevention and devolution

Labour council leaders set out a route for Labour to deliver its objectives in government, starting with giving communities meaningful power and influence. A Labour Vision for Community Power...

26th September, 2023

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Community agency, control and wellbeing

Produced in partnership with What Works Centre for Wellbeing, this report reviews the evidence related to community agency, control and power and their effects on community wellbeing.

22nd June, 2023

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Designing Out the Most Severe Forms of Hardship in Local Areas

Urgent action is needed in response to the growing number of people affected by deepening poverty in the UK. Developed in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, this report...

10th May, 2023

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Fiscal Devolution: why we need it and how to make it work

We explain what fiscal devolution is, bust myths that it will lead to higher taxes, explore different ways to do it, and recommend how to make it happen.

26th April, 2023

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How We Lost Sight of the Point of Public Services

In the first instalment of our New Thinking series, Alex Fox, chief executive of Mayday Trust, and Chris Fox, Professor of Evaluation and Policy Analysis at Manchester Metropolitan...

2nd March, 2023

Community Powered Edmonton

In Enfield, the Edmonton area has some of the worsthealth outcomes and greatest inequalities and as a result, Community Powered Edmonton was created, using local assets to understand the...

6th January, 2023

Taskforce on Inequality in Islington

The Inequality Taskforce was established to develop recommendations for how Islington Council can go about addressing inequality, poverty and deprivation. It is a key part of the Let’s Talk...

2nd December, 2022

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Community Calling: People want more influence

Communities want to have more influence over the issues they face, the challenges they want to overcome, and the services they use. This report sets out the passion for...

4th August, 2022

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A Community-Powered NHS

As the NHS faces ever-rising demand, its founding principles are under threat. But there is a solution: a radical shift towards a healthcare system focused as much on preventing illness...

12th July, 2022

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Introducing: The Community Power Act

We’re calling for a Community Power Act, a major piece of legislation which would fundamentally change where power lies in this country. The Act would: Create three new community...

13th May, 2022

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Housing Beyond Markets and State

It’s not NIMBYs preventing housing being built – it’s a system that creates conflict by design.

17th November, 2021

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Communities vs Climate Change: the power of local action

Local action is the ‘missing piece’ of plans to fight climate change.

20th October, 2021

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Trusting the People: the case for community-powered conservatism

New Local and the New Social Covenant Unit are pleased to co-publish this report by 10 Conservative MPs.

2nd October, 2021

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The Community Paradigm: Why public services need radical change and how it can be achieved

Combining policy analysis and insights from leading edge practice, The Community Paradigm sets out a new vision and policy agenda for the future of public services. It forms the...

4th March, 2021

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Community Power: The Evidence

Community Power: The Evidence is the first research to take a comprehensive view of what community power looks like - featuring examples from across the UK and internationally....

23rd February, 2021

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Shifting the Balance: Local adaptation, innovation and collaboration during the pandemic and beyond

Shaped by conversations with public and third sector leaders across England, Wales and Scotland, Shifting the Balance explores how councils and communities joined together to fight Covid-19. And it...

27th January, 2021

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No Strings Attached: How community-led devolution would transform England’s skills sector

With huge employment and economic challenges on the horizon, Charlotte Morgan argues that local partnershiops of councils, colleges and communities could transform post-16 education in England - if they...

26th November, 2020

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This Isn’t Working: reimagining employment support for people facing complex disadvantage

Over 2 million people are out of work due to health conditions and disabilities. But each year, only 4% move into employment. This Isn't Working, argues that support for...

27th October, 2020

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Think Big, Act Small: Elinor Ostrom’s radical vision for community power

Exploring the ground-breaking work of economist Elinor Ostrom, the intellectual hero of community power. And asking what it could mean for the UK today.

21st October, 2020

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Towards Resilience: Redesigning our systems for a better future

The paper identifies five pillars that need to form the centre piece of any approach: economic resilience, public sector resilience, community resilience, environmental resilience and workforce resilience.

12th October, 2020

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Community Mobilisation: Unlocking the Potential of Community Power

This report offers a how-to guide for organisations interested in this process, illustrating a range of potential strategies to build active, networked and powerful communities.

29th July, 2020

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Communities vs. Coronavirus: The Rise of Mutual Aid

This report argues that the Mutual Aid phenomenon is a powerful demonstration what’s possible when communities come together.

13th July, 2020

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Leadership Index Surveys:
Edition 1-10

The Leadership Index was for chief executives, mayors and leaders of local authorities in the UK and was designed to present a unique barometer of the UK’s economic health...

9th July, 2020

How is COVID-19 changing the relationship between communities and public services?

This report summarises findings from an event held with the New Local Government Network (NLGN) on the changing relationship between communities and public services during and beyond COVID-19.

9th June, 2020

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Cultivating Local Inclusive Growth: In Practice

This report looks at how the concept of inclusive growth is being interpreted by practitioners in the field and work backwards towards understanding, rather than attempting a new theoretical...

11th February, 2020

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The Land of Opportunity: England’s Rural Periphery

England’s rural periphery is the UK’s Land of Opportunity. The national economy will only become rebalanced if the policy corridor ceases to exist, which makes a renewed emphasis on...

15th January, 2020

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Cities in Action 2: Rough Sleeping

This report focuses on learning from international examples to prevent and eradicate rough sleeping. It proposes that the UK and devolved governments work with mid-sized cities and places to...

25th November, 2019

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From Tiny Acorns: Communities Shaping the Future of Children’s Services

This report makes a case for a future of children’s services that is led by children and families. It argues that to ensure the future sustainability of children’s services,...

9th September, 2019

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Community Commissioning: Shaping Public Services through People Power

This report makes a convincing case for why the process needs to be led by citizens and service users not public sector professionals. Importantly, it also explains in detail...

8th July, 2019

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Cities in Action 1: Workplace Automation

This report highlights ideas and best practice successfully implemented by countries, regions and cities around the world in response to similar challenges faced by places in the UK.

3rd July, 2019

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From Transactions to Changemaking: Rethinking partnerships between the public and private sectors

The role of the private sector in the delivery of public services has been under intense scrutiny of late. However, the manner in which this debate is framed as...

17th October, 2018

Rebalancing the power: Five principles for a successful relationship between councils and communities

With financial resources likely to be under pressure for the foreseeable future, councils will increasingly need to become a supporter and enabler of communities ready to solve their own...

20th September, 2018

Creating Healthy Places

Factors as varied as employment, transport, housing, and green space all affect people’s health. And over the last four years, councils have undertaken a variety of innovative work with...

5th June, 2018

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Key Cities: Ready to Meet the UK’s Biggest Challenges

NLGN has been commissioned by the Key Cities Group to undertake research into how mid-sized cities can contribute to resolving the big national challenges that the UK currently faces....

5th June, 2018

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Culture Shock: Creating a Changemaking Culture in Local Government

Increasingly councils are recognising that it is organisational culture not structure that drives impact. But what is the culture of local government? Why is changing it important? And how...

18th April, 2018

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Place-based policymaking after Brexit: In search of the missing link?

This report explores the dividing lines that drove 2016’s decision to Leave. This report reveals the Brexit vote was a visible expression of the diverse economic trajectories, experiences and...

23rd January, 2018

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Reaching Out: Influencing the Wider Determinants of Health

Government must acknowledge health as an economic asset that boosts workforce productivity Over 85% of senior public health officers surveyed1 found that economic development departments are not as engaged...

28th November, 2017

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Building Bridges: Building Councils, Communities and Independent Funders into Dialogue

Civil society is composed of highly varied but distinct elements, which work together towards a common outcome: improving people’s lives. For this reason, a healthy civil society has always...

10th July, 2017

A Changemaking Vision for Local Government

At a time of intense financial pressures and when central government’s mind is on other things, many are asking themselves where local government goes next. In a think-piece launching...

1st July, 2017

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Social Value in Procurement

The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires commissioners in public authorities to have regard to economic, social and environmental well-being when buying public services. Public bodies are now...

8th May, 2017

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Producing the Goods: Collaboration as the Next Frontier of Productivity

Kindly supported by: Councils should focus their energies on understanding how the motivations of the public can be harnessed to help councils to be more productive, and then use...

29th March, 2017

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Building Homes, Growing Communities

To help councils build the hundreds of thousands of new homes that are needed, NLGN has published a practical guide, Building Homes, Growing Communities, to help ensure that the...

23rd March, 2017

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Tomorrow’s Places: How councils can harness smart capabilities

Technology is always evolving. However over the last decade our ability to harness the data it can generate and the connections it can bring has undergone a step-change. Using...

17th March, 2017

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Could a robot run a council?

At a time when councils are facing unprecedented financial pressures, the development of new robotics technology has the potential to help, according to participants in a roundtable debate convened...

28th February, 2017

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Outside the Box: The Council Workforce of Tomorrow

Local government needs to engage its current and future workforce to make sure they are ready to take on the challenges of tomorrow’s council. This report uses original research...

8th December, 2016

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Unlocking the Power of Local: Reflections on the new Place Leaders

As our economy becomes increasingly globalised, our public policy response needs to become more localised. To ensure places are not buffeted by outside forces and are able to create...

15th November, 2016

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A common interest: The role of asset transfer in developing the community business market

DOWNLOAD NLGN RECOMMENDATIONS AND ACTIONS NLGN were commissioned by Power to Change in March 2016, to provide the most comprehensive possible mapping of asset transfers from local authorities to...

2nd November, 2016

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Work it out: Creating Local Systems of Employability Support

Kindly supported by: Local government should have more powers to help tackle persistent unemployment: 98% of councils think that employment and skills provision should be locally commissioned. 80% of...

20th October, 2016

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Securing a Resilient Future: Capital spending for social value

Local government is revenue poor, but capital rich. While revenue budgets have fallen considerably over the past five years, capital spending has actually risen in cash terms. In 2014/15,...

17th September, 2016

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The Four Forces That Make Cities Successful

Many cities offer people tangible opportunities for discovering economic security for themselves and their families. And some of the world’s largest cities offer the greatest opportunities if they are to...

14th September, 2016

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