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  • Themes

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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Devolution Revolution: The next steps to deliver outcomes

Central Government need to be much clearer about what they want from devolution and much more willing to create the conditions to achieve it. This is the key finding...

13th July, 2016

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Smarter, Not Harder: How devolution can make places more productive

Cities across the UK must be given control over a third of corporation tax to help them fix the country’s underperformance on productivity, a new report by think tank...

6th July, 2016

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Leaders who collaborate, collaborators who lead

In spring of 2016, NLGN and Veredus held two discussion events on the theme of collaborative leadership. The participants were council chief executives: the first event representing some northern...

10th May, 2016

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Devolution in Practice

In early 2016 NLGN partnership with Weightmans, held a roundtable in Leeds to discuss the status and progress of devolution deals. Leaders and Chief Executives were brought together from combined...

6th May, 2016

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Get Well Soon: Reimagining Place-Based Health

This final report moves the debate into practical territory by focussing on actions rather than structures, and the wider resources of places rather than the organisational boundaries of institutions.

17th March, 2016

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Picking up Signs, Not Pieces

Supported by: In collaboration with Action for Children, NLGN hosted three roundtable discussions on the role of local government in supporting parents. The first two discussions were held with...

10th December, 2015

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Fire Works: A Collaborative Way Forward for the Fire and Rescue Service

The fire and rescue service (FRS) has a critical choice to make about its future. Severe budget cuts in the Revenue Support Grant and limitations on council tax income...

30th July, 2015

Children’s Services: Roundtable write-up

NLGN hosted a roundtable in partnership with Prospects in March 2015 to discuss changing delivery models for children’s and youth services. This paper outlines the key themes from this...

14th July, 2015

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Demystifying Data: The Data Revolution and What it Means for Local Government

data is not just a financial asset, but equally that it is the key that unlocks council’s ability to fully integrate and transform the services they offer local people...

23rd April, 2015

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A Design for Life: How Councils and Housing Associations can Collaborate for Impact

Local authorities, housing associations and the health sector are natural partners. There is significant overlap between the people they work with and the challenges they face. This report examines...

24th March, 2015

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Healthy Dialogues: Event Write-up

It is now eighteen months on from the transfer of public health from the NHS to local authorities, and one year on from the publication of the NLGN report...

27th January, 2015

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CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH

In November 2014, NLGN hosted a roundtable discussion in partnership with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and MindEd to consider how local government can prioritise...

22nd January, 2015

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Smart Budgeting: Integrating Financial and Strategic Planning for Outcomes

Councils should adopt “smarter” approaches to budgeting which make sure the strategic value of every pound goes towards meeting outcomes. They should no longer simply follow the patterns of...

1st December, 2014

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As Tiers Go By: A collaborative future for counties and districts

This research shows that the spectre of unitary status is still holding back the potential for local collaboration, as local partners focus on the potential for nationally imposed reorganisation...

29th October, 2014

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The DIY Ethic: Business models for community integration

This research outlines a clear pathway to an integrated future for public services. A new report from NLGN has outlined business models that councils can adopt to...

17th September, 2014

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On with the Show: Supporting Local Arts and Culture

Local authority funding for the arts and culture has fallen by 19 per cent* in the last 3 years and organisations around the country are feeling the effects. Local...

24th July, 2014

Right Tier, Right Now

The future of two tier local government is one of most vexed questions facing the sector as a whole. It is quite clear that the current division of labour...

2nd July, 2014

Break on Through: Overcoming Barriers to Integration

This report focuses on what local areas can do themselves to transform, and how central government can support this. What we really need is radical change of relationships at...

6th May, 2014

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Smart People, Smart Places: Realising Digital Local Government

Digital technology provides local authorities with huge opportunities to transform the services that they provide and the way they interact with communities. In a time when councils have to...

19th March, 2014

Healthy Dialogues: Embedding health in local government

This report looks at the challenges, difficulties and solutions that public health teams have experienced during, and since, the transfer. It also examines the extent to which public health...

12th December, 2013

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Future Councillors: Where next for local politics?

What will the councillors of the future look like? This paper starts with a short futures exercise which explores the styles of political leadership that are likely to emerge...

16th July, 2013

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The History Boys: Lessons from local government’s past

This collection brings together four essays on the history of local government. Bermondsey, Birmingham, Liverpool and London provide the stage and politicians from each of the major political parties...

3rd July, 2013

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LGA Conference Journal: If I could change one thing in local government…

We invited a selection of NLGN members to contribute their thinking. Deliberately we chose a question to focus the mind. To zero in on a single alteration that one...

2nd July, 2013

Towards a Healthy Democracy: An NLGN essay collection

The return of public health to local government is probably the biggest single transfer of new responsibilities for decades. Many in the sector are justifiably excited by the change...

22nd May, 2013

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Gaming the Cuts: Anyborough in 2018

A new report shows that Leisure and education services across the country face the axe as councils struggle to deliver cuts that could amount to 50% of their real...

16th April, 2013

The Road Not Taken: New Ways of Working for District Councils

District councils need to step into the role of place leaders if barriers to sustainable growth are to be overcome across the UK. NLGN’s new report, The Road Not...

7th March, 2013

Great Expectations: The next steps for a new generation

Young people face a widening ‘expectation gap’ as their dreams of a stable career, home and family become ever more unattainable, localism think tank NLGN warns today in its...

23rd January, 2013

The Next Generation: The values, attitudes and behaviours of Britain’s future citizens

NLGN, with the support of Zurich Municipal, set out to investigate the risks to the next generation that the economic downturn has generated. While the immediate impact of the...

26th October, 2012

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More Light, More Power: Reimagining public asset management

The Treasury’s limited view of the value of public assets is crippling local authorities’ ability to drive local growth and meet deficit targets. A new NLGN report, has found...

20th September, 2012

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Healthy Places: Councils leading on public health

The government’s radical public health reforms could stall unless new Health and Wellbeing Boards are given greater legislative clout, localism think tank NLGN warns today. To succeed, the new...

15th May, 2012

Anticipating the Future Citizen

The new age of austerity risks creating a reclusive society characterised by public affluence and private squalor, localism think tank NLGN warns today. In a provocation paper setting out...

29th February, 2012

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Retail Therapy: Local capital finance and the retail bond market

English councils are prepared to use retail bonds to pay for crucial improvements to schools and highways – but only if the price is right. New research from localism...

21st February, 2012

Delivering Distinctiveness: The future for district councils

NLGN has launched Delivering Distinctiveness a new essay collection edited by Daniel Goodwin, Chief Executive of St Albans City and District Council. The publication explores the future for district...

14th December, 2011

Capital Futures: Local capital finance options in an age of recovery

Councils could save vital school and highway projects by looking to a new market in municipal bonds, according to research from localism think tank NLGN. The new Capital Futures...

7th December, 2011

Commissioning Care in the 21st Century

The new NLGN report, jointly commissioned by the ALDS Forum and the LDC, Commissioning Care in the 21st Century, argues that the only way to ensure that personalised services...

22nd November, 2011

The Devil in the Detail: Designing the right incentives for local economic growth

The Devil in the Detail: Designing the right incentives for local economic growth, a new white paper issued this week by NLGN, presents a timely response to the recent...

11th November, 2011

The Next Question: The future of local leadership

Local Government Minister Bob Neill MP, writing in a new essay collection from NLGN, states that government will be looking to local leaders to help deliver its decentralisation agenda....

12th September, 2011

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Realising Community Wealth: Local Government and the Big Society

A new report from localism think tank the New Local Government Network (NLGN) will this week show which areas of the country are most ready to benefit and most...

29th June, 2011

Localist Capital Finance: The challenges ahead

In a new research paper, NLGN warns that the decision to increase the cost to councils of borrowing from government could threaten local authorities’ ability to boost local economic...

18th May, 2011

Changing Behaviours: Opening a new conversation with the citizen

The financial situation means that public services have to develop a new relationship with citizens, whether that is to discuss which functions to cut back or, more positively, to...

19th April, 2011

Show Me the Money: Accounting for Localism

As Communities Minister Grant Shapps launches plans for the future of local government audit, a new report from localism think tank the New Local Government Network (NLGN), challenges government...

4th April, 2011

Power and Money: How local economies can benefit from renewable energy

NLGN have called on councils to try and cushion some of the current financial pressures they face by making greater use of green energy subsidies – with an estimated...

16th February, 2011

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Communities in Charge: Decentralisation and differentiation of charges and fees

A new report, published today, is calling on councils to be given new powers to charge for local services. The report, from the New Local Government Network think tank,...

31st January, 2011

Next Localism: Five trends for the future of local government

A new report by localism think tank NLGN has set out a vision for more sustainable local public services beyond the current financial settlement and the aims of the...

26th January, 2011

Room for Manoeuvre? Ensuring a fair and sustainable future for local government pensions

In a new report the New Local Government Network (NLGN) suggests setting a longer time horizon for the closure of the Local Government Pension Schemes’ (LGPS) historic deficit, which...

11th August, 2010

Capital Momentum: financing options for locally driven capital investment

With investment in public building projects decreasing by 50% over the next four years, a new report recommends using the Local Government Pension Fund (LGPF), municipal bonds and council...

29th July, 2010

Scanning Financial Horizons: Modelling the local consequences of fiscal consolidation

Analysing figures from the recent Budget, NLGN is predicting that this could leave councils with a funding reduction of over £12 billion, which could lead to services being cut...

7th July, 2010

Councils and Community Banking

Polling published by NLGN show strong support from local government leaders for new measures to tackle financial exclusion. With figures showing[1] that more than a third of low earners...

29th March, 2010

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