Category: Articles
The issues crying out for solutions in this election remain woefully unaddressed. For years the UK has struggled with a rapidly ageing population, an unbalanced economy and a mess of a housing market. Politicians of every party have promised...
16th May, 2017
The links between problems like homelessness, substance misuse, mental ill health, violence,domestic abuse and extreme poverty often go unrecognised by services and systems mostly designed to deal with one issue at a time. As such, people rarely get the...
10th May, 2017
After years in the offing, the election of the first wave of new metro-mayors means this once theoretical tier of governance has now become a group of six actual human beings. Their coming into being has not been without...
5th May, 2017
We need to talk about fiscal devolution. Fiscal devolution is an issue that national politicians won’t touch even with someone else’s bargepole. So scared are they of the electorate getting a whiff of the prospect of a tax increase,...
28th April, 2017
Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation • Finance • Local government finance
Since Theresa May took over as Prime Minister, local councils have increasingly understood that their future now resides in their own hands. The devolution agenda, once driven by the former Chancellor, has severely lost energy. Instead, the new Government...
24th April, 2017
Finance • Local government finance • Politics • Public Services
Yesterday NLGN hosted a roundtable with senior local government executives and a handful of academics to discuss ‘place based policy’ after Brexit. The starting point of the discussion was work by Will Jennings and Gerry Stoker of the University...
21st April, 2017
One entirely unforeseen consequence of last year’s referendum was the brakes being put on the devolution locomotive. Despite Government protestations to the contrary, May and Hammond have shown little of the true-believer enthusiasm exhibited by Cameron and Osborne. As...
19th April, 2017
Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation • Political Systems
Like it or not this will be the Brexit Election: a strange sort of quasi-referendum on the decision made in a previous referendum and everything that has happened since. But if that’s all this election ends up being about,...
18th April, 2017
Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation • Political Systems
NLGN’s recent Place-based Health conference brought together many experts in local and national healthcare to discuss the need to move away from reactive health services, towards holistic, place-based systems – and the practical changes needed to make this happen....
6th April, 2017
We recently published our report on improving the productivity of councils, with a focus on collaboration. It’s been an interesting time to look at productivity in local government. Councils are at a point where they’ve already taken many of...
30th March, 2017
The letter has been sent. The deed is done. But today is really just the beginning. Whether you are watching today’s events begrudging, jubilantly, with denial, or even boredom it is impossible to ignore the forceful eruption of a...
29th March, 2017
In recent years, the word ‘place’ has become a bit of a buzzword in the local government sector. Terms like ‘place-leadership’, ‘place-branding’ and ‘place-building’ are now ubiquitous in strategy documents and comms plans – used to imply a more...
27th March, 2017
At Essex County Council we are passionate about making a positive contribution to the lives of Essex residents and businesses. It is what we exist for. The qualities of the places around us play an important role in our...
23rd March, 2017
Local government faces a funding gap of £5.8 billion by 2019/20. At the launch of NLGN’s latest research report Tomorrow’s Places, Theo Blackwell, Councillor at LB Camden, stated “Technology will help us balance the books if we do it...
22nd March, 2017
Most councils indulge in partnerships, but how many actually achieve what they were set up to do? As a county council, our oldest partnership is with our unitary city and our 8 districts and boroughs, both separately and collectively....
16th March, 2017
On International Women’s Day this year, we celebrated the role of women in the local government workforce, and the importance of diversity in policy-making. We made three short films full of advice and experiences from women across the country,...
16th March, 2017
I know someone who’s renowned for his scepticism. The only problem is, he’s now so sceptical that he doesn’t feel able to trust anything. People who post videos on YouTube seem to have as much, or little, credibility as...
15th March, 2017
“Too many areas of policy covered by local government are male dominated – infrastructure, highways, planning… the most important thing is to put women in positions of responsibility in those areas, leading by example, reflecting the needs of their...
14th March, 2017
Cities are largely designed by men, and for men. There is nothing unusual in this – we instinctively design, plan and make policy that reflects our own experiences and biases. However, this has led to places that don’t work...
10th March, 2017
The Chancellor’s first Budget, and the first following the UK’s decision to leave the EU, needed to shore up the domestic economy, particularly against structural challenges of weak productivity and our ageing population. So how do the announcements affect...
8th March, 2017
Finance • Local government finance • Policy • Politics • Public Services
It is true that instead of being a hierarchical old boys’ club in the same way as many industries, local government has become significantly more open and approachable, reducing hierarchy and making a greater effort to reflect the community...
8th March, 2017
Disruptive, cognitive technology will be a major driver of change in our economy over the next decade, as Artificial Intelligence becomes more accessible to UK organisations, very quickly. This has wide-ranging ramifications for the productivity of the UK workforce...
28th February, 2017
Yesterday’s NLGN Annual Conference came with a painful sting in the tail. The day was dominated by talk of creativity and collaboration – bursting with ideas about how technology, new approaches to the workforce, co-operation between public sector agencies...
22nd February, 2017
Budgeting • Finance • Local government finance • Public Services
Firstly, I would like to thank the City of London Corporation for hosting our conference in the fantastic surroundings of the Guildhall. I also want to offer very special thanks to Norse and the Municipal Journal for partnering on...
21st February, 2017
Few would deny the need for change, or even what needs to happen to improve our care system. From reaction to prevention, services to systems and institutions, to people and place, the theory is there. But how do we...
14th February, 2017
What happens to council leaders after they leave their leadership role? How do they adjust? Do they stay in politics? What employment do they find? I suspect that you have little idea other than the anecdotal. Few do given...
10th February, 2017
If solving the housing crisis was a simple case of fixing legislation or introducing incentives for builders, the housing crisis would have been fixed ages ago, or never reached this magnitude at all.
10th February, 2017
If ever there was an area of healthcare where place-based care could have a major impact on local public health gains it is the identification and treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients. However the same reasons that...
9th February, 2017
This was not a housing white paper that would see the chancellor in a hard hat being gleefully greeted by a happy major house builder. The narrative is markedly different to that of previous governments, and lays responsibility for...
8th February, 2017
England’s health and social care crisis is not only financial – it is a challenge to politics and society too. It represents a crisis of confidence about doing what needs to be done for citizens over the long term...
2nd February, 2017
Councils are changing. Prompted by the funding cuts of the last decade, they have had to transform. No longer just seen as service deliverers, they are becoming collaborators, place leaders, commissioning councils, commercial councils and cooperative councils. But ambitious...
1st February, 2017
For many years national politicians have avoided the question of ‘British Identity’ as connected to a set of values or principles. Instead, ‘we’ have known ourselves through economic terms, comparative to other nations, on the basis of our financial...
1st February, 2017
Homelessness receives a lot of media and policy attention this time of year, as the effects of sleeping rough are all too apparent. As it gets colder, and floods and snow are frequent, councils will be working hard with...
25th January, 2017
Local government officials and to a degree local politicians are often praised for their realism. For example, in the light of sustained spending cuts local government since 2010 local government it is claimed has kept things going. Its key...
24th January, 2017
It’s a chilly January day, and the government has just broken with its previous laissez-faire approach and announced a bold, interventionist plan to boost the UK’s economy at a time of great uncertainty. But instead of it being Theresa...
24th January, 2017
Having announced the fact of the Industrial Strategy almost as soon as she assumed office, this week we finally got the first proper detail of the centrepiece of the May Government’s domestic economic strategy. That the devo-ally Greg Clark...
23rd January, 2017
Councils are changing. No longer just seen as service deliverers, they are collaborators and place leaders, commissioning councils, commercial councils and co-operative councils. But while the purpose and priorities of a local authority have transformed, the structure of councils,...
18th January, 2017
Some may remember when the phrase ‘commissioning’ entered the local government lexicon. It meant something different to almost everyone; yet it evolved into a way of working rather than a process. Perhaps the same can now be said of...
1st January, 1970
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 have put together some FAQs to give you the devo-lowdown...
1st January, 1970
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 people in our communities, and hold information that keeps local...
1st January, 1970
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 people in our communities, and hold information that keeps local...
1st January, 1970
Councils operate in an increasingly complex and challenging environment. The pressure to deliver and innovate simultaneously is more intense than ever. NLGN has been working with councils for over 20 years helping them address their challenges by becoming more...
1st January, 1970