Category: Articles

The Government’s recent cabinet statement lays out a bold and comprehensive set of plans for devolution and public service reform that will fundamentally change where power lies in our country. […]

26th August, 2026

Central government • Community Power • Public Services

Across local government, there is growing interest in working at the neighbourhood scale as a way of delivering more relational, preventative and community-powered public services. In recent months, we’ve been […]

24th August, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Neighbourhood Working • Neighbourhoods • Neighbourhoods in Practice

Emily Brook from Care City CIC and Elspeth Paisley from Community Resources work together in Barking and Dagenham as part of the BD Collective, a member-led co-operative CIC which recognises that we’re better […]

17th August, 2026

Community Power • Health and social care • Neighbourhood Health • Neighbourhoods

Following the London Boroughs Women’s Network’s win at the LGC Awards 2026, members of the Chair Committee share the story behind its growth and explain how they’ve built cross-borough collaboration […]

12th August, 2026

Community Power • Leadership • Partnerships

In this guest blog, Ian Adams, Chair of Public Voice CIC, argues that public services need to move beyond consultation towards co-production, treating residents as partners in designing services, shaping […]

3rd August, 2026

Community Power • Devolution and reorganisation • Public service reform • Public Services

29th July, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Neighbourhood Working • Neighbourhoods in Practice • Public Services

This article was first published in The New Statesman on 20 July 2026. The best-known achievements of Burnham’s Manchester are economic. Its most enduring legacy may end up being institutional. […]

28th July, 2026

Central government • Community Power • Devolution • Public service reform

“This must become a country where every community feels listened to and respected, where every neighbourhood is a place to feel proud of, a place to call home.” The closing […]

16th July, 2026

Community Power • Neighbourhood Health • Neighbourhoods

In this guest blog, Malvern Hills District Council shares how a growing network of local venues is helping shift wellbeing support from a distant, reactive service into something rooted in […]

14th July, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Neighbourhood Health

Supported housing provides invaluable housing and support for disabled people, homeless people, people with mental health problems, people who have experienced domestic abuse and many others who need it to live independently. Yet years of […]

8th July, 2026

Community Power • Practice • Strategy and leadership • Supported housing

In this guest article, Mike Barker, Deputy Chief Executive at Oldham Council, reflects on where public service reform is right now. There was a time when ‘community power’ and ‘place-based […]

1st July, 2026

Community Power

Across local government, there is growing interest in neighbourhood working as a way of delivering more relational, preventative and community-powered public services. Over the coming months, we will be sharing how councils in our network, […]

22nd June, 2026

Community Power • Local government • Neighbourhood Working • Neighbourhoods in Practice • Public Services

Over the last decade, community power has become increasingly important to discussions about the future of public services, local government and democratic renewal. Ahead of his keynote speech at Stronger […]

16th June, 2026

Community Power • Public Services

This article was first published in The MJ on 11 June 2026. Next week, while some eyes will be on the political power struggles unfolding in Makerfield, others will be […]

12th June, 2026

Community Power • Stronger Things

This article was first published in the LGC on 9 June 2026 and previews themes from Sir David Robinson’s keynote address at Stronger Things 2026. As local government grapples with rising […]

11th June, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Public Services

Describe your typical working day in 2-3 sentences. No two days are quite the same, but each typically involves strategic thinking, problem-solving, and translating complex policy into something actionable. The most […]

5th June, 2026

Community Power • What We Do

Cate McLaurin is a Senior Director at Public Digital, and on June 16th she’ll be joining us on the Stronger Things Big Ideas Stage for our ‘Building to learn’ session. Ahead of that conversation, drawing on her […]

2nd June, 2026

Community Power • Public Services • Strategy and leadership • Stronger Things

Petra Roberts and Emma Winch from Hackney Council discussing their work around embedding community services within libraries in the Borough

1st June, 2026

Community Power • Libraries • Trust

This article was first published in The MJ on 26 May 2026. It’s time to seize the opportunity of Total Place 2.0 to help bring about the public services we […]

28th May, 2026

Place-Based Public Service Reform • Public Services • Total Place

This article was first published in The MJ on 21 May 2026. Speakers at next month’s Stronger Things will imagine how future local governments could use missions to galvanise partners […]

26th May, 2026

Community Power • Local government • Missions • Stronger Things

Noel Hatch from Adur and Worthing Councils discussing their work around rebuilding trust and connection within their communities.

12th May, 2026

Community Cohesion • Community engagement • Community Power

To read in Welsh click here. Over the last 15 years, accelerated by austerity, demographic changes and the impacts of the pandemic, community and voluntary organisations across Wales have played […]

9th April, 2026

communities • community organisations • Community Power • Policy • Policy development • Wales

In this guest blog, Northumberland County Council share how their County Partnership and twenty-year mission for generational change is bringing together partners, communities and data to tackle inequality through long-term, […]

8th April, 2026

anchor institutions • Community Power • Inequality • Missions • Northumberland

Our latest podcast looks at an ambitious, community-powered programme to tackle health inequalities and improve population health in North East Sheffield. The North East Neighbourhoods programme was set up by […]

30th March, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Participatory Budgeting • Place-Based Public Service Reform

Participatory budgeting (PB) is rightly celebrated as a way to give communities influence over funding decisions — from neighbourhood grants and service priorities to whole area budgets. When it works […]

17th March, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Participatory Budgeting • Place-Based Public Service Reform

Across the UK, high streets have become symbols of loss, with shuttered shops and declining footfall. When Stockport Council purchased Merseyway Shopping Centre in 2016, it faced this same reality. […]

9th March, 2026

Community Power • Stockport Council • Stockroom • Strategy and leadership

New Local is delighted to announce the appointment of Anna Randle as its new permanent Chief Executive. Anna is a long-standing champion of bold and creative local government and community […]

23rd February, 2026

Anna Randle • Community Power

Right now, everyone is talking about neighbourhoods. From the ambition for a neighbourhood health service in the NHS 10 year plan, to Pride in Place, this new spirit of intent […]

5th February, 2026

Community Power • Neighbourhoods • Place-Based Public Service Reform

Claire Norman from Westmorland and Furness Council discussing their strategy ‘Together we are powered by communities’.

5th February, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Participation and co-production • Strategy

Tell us about a typical working day at Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council As Strategic Lead for Fairer Stockton-on-Tees and Community Engagement, my role centres around strong partnership working and driving forward initiatives that make […]

15th January, 2026

Working with leaders who have been engaged in local government reorganisation (LGR) over the past year has been an exercise in wrestling with paradox. The process is both a huge […]

13th January, 2026

LGR • Strategy and leadership

Andre Johnsen on the applied training Change Maker programme developed by Westminster City Council

5th January, 2026

Community engagement • Participation and co-production • Strategy and leadership • Westminster

As I step into the role of New Local Interim Chief Executive, and as we begin 2026, I find myself reflecting on how far the shared work of building a […]

2nd January, 2026

Community Power • LGR • Local Councils • Place-Based Public Service Reform • Power

Last week, I had the privilege of hosting a New Local member session on LGR and digital. As our final member event of the year, it offered not just insight, […]

17th December, 2025

Digital • LGR • Strategy and leadership

As we close off our formal member sessions for 2025, our Head of Network, Laura Payne, reflects on a year of learning through change and complexity. 2025 has asked a […]

17th December, 2025

Community Power • Digital • LGR • Local Councils • Neighbourhoods • Place-Based Public Service Reform • Prevention

This Innovation Explored focuses on our second Waves Learning Network session on digital democracy.

17th December, 2025

AI • Digital Democracy • Innovation • Waves

As 2025 draws to a close, it is a natural time to reflect on the year’s milestones, say Rob Thomas, chief executive of Vale of Glamorgan Council and Tom Bowring, […]

15th December, 2025

Rob Thomas • Strategy and leadership • Tom Bowring • Vale of Glamorgan Council • Well-being of Future Generations Act

Tell us about a typical working day at Brent Council My day is usually a combination of meetings with my team and stakeholders to update priorities and keep things running smoothly. […]

11th December, 2025

We sat down with Nipa Shah, programme director of Brent Health Matters, to find out how this emergency response initiative, which began in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, […]

3rd December, 2025

Brent Council • health inequalities • Nipa Shah • Strategy and leadership

In a guest post for New Local, co-founder of Stories of Change, John Hitchin, shares his thoughts on the future of place-based work. Local government is all about work in […]

18th November, 2025

John Hitchin • Place-Based Public Service Reform • Strategy and leadership

Liz Jarmin on Leeds City Council’s locality work in wards across the city of Leeds

14th November, 2025

Community engagement • Community Voices • Leeds • Neighbourhood • Place

Tell us about a typical working day at Westmorland and Furness Council It’s a varied role. The work areas I cover include Community Grants, Community Power, Social Enterprise, the Community […]

12th November, 2025

Claire Notman • Community Power • Westmorland and Furness Council

When marketing expert Zoe Ashford and charity leader Tim Simmans approached Adur & Worthing Councils with a new idea for unlocking the potential of grassroots community projects, their timing was […]

11th November, 2025

Adur & Worthing • Community Funding • Community Power • Community Project • Kitchen Table

Lora Botev, Regional Manager at Go Vocal, talks to us about their work as a digital participation platform, working with local authorities and different organisations.

29th October, 2025

Community Power • Future Councils • Go Vocal • Lora Botev

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 elected […]

16th September, 2025

Calderdale Council • English Devo Bill • Robin Tuddenham • Strategy and leadership • Vision 2034

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 as […]

19th August, 2025

Call Centre • Future Councils • Strategy and leadership • Surrey County Council

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 what we’re finding challenging.

6th August, 2025

AI • Community Power • Digital Democracy • Future Councils • Waves

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 functional […]

21st July, 2025

Community Power • English Devo Bill • Future Councils • Mayoral Combined Authorities • Steve Skelton • Strategic authorities

‘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 around […]

18th July, 2025

Community Power • English Devo Bill • LGR • Local Councils • Place-Based Public Service Reform

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 year […]

9th July, 2025

Future Councils • ICC • Mission-Led Governing • Place-Based Public Service Reform • Strategic authorities • Strategy and leadership