Category: Articles

Lydia Hutchings and Beth Kilheeney explain how the Greater Manchester Better Outcomes Partnership works with young people to prevent homelessness and how the project is being evaluated.

11th July, 2024

Community Power • Homelessness • Measurement and Evaluation • Public Services • Young people

For many councils, area forums are at the heart of democratic engagement. But despite nobel intentions, some have drifted away from their purpose. How do we reimagine them?

1st July, 2024

Area Forums • Community engagement • Devolution and reorganisation • Practice work • Strategy and leadership

Imran Hashmi outlines three principles for local authorities to strengthen their support for community businesses.

17th June, 2024

Community Power • Cost of Living Crisis • Economy and business • Local government • Resilience

Local Trust’s CEO Matt Leach shares three key takeaways from Stronger Things 2024.

17th June, 2024

Community Power • Stronger Things • Stronger Things 2024

Community Catalysts' Nick Sinclair and Helen Allen share 10 key lessons from Stronger Things.

12th June, 2024

Stronger Things 2024

Reflections on Stronger Things 2024 by Brendan Martin, Public World.

7th June, 2024

Community Power • Local government • Public Services • Stronger Things

Five reasons why we think Stronger Things might just be the most valuable eight hours of your year.

20th May, 2024

Community Power • Local government • Public Services • Stronger Things

Kathy O'Leary is the Chief Executive of Stroud in Gloucestershire. We dig into Kathy's leadership secrets as she picks questions at random from our lucky draw - from how her upbringing shaped her, to what she most regrets about...

15th May, 2024

Community Power • Leadership • Leadership Lucky Draw • Strategy and leadership

As she steps into an interim CEO role, Jessica Studdert puts forward three proposals for the next government, at a critical time for councils.

13th May, 2024

Central government • Devolution • Local government • Local government finance • Place-based budgets • Total Place

In his last week as chief executive of New Local, Adam Lent ditches sensible moderation and describes the change we really need: radical integration, radical devolution and radical community power.

2nd May, 2024

Community Power • Devolution and reorganisation • Local government • Politics • Public Services

On local election day we're celebrating some of the many ways councils are transforming their places with the help of community power.

2nd May, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Democracy • Local government • Politics

Labour lacks a strategy for a public sector under unprecedented pressure. The solution can be found on the frontline, says Adam Lent.

8th April, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Politics • Public Services

Adam Lent tackles some of the most common questions about community power in the public sector, from its benefits, to real-life examples, to its why its time has come in today's 'permacrisis'.

8th April, 2024

Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Politics • Public Services

Adam Lent reflects on New Local’s fourth Radical Leadership session with local government leaders.

4th April, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Culture • Leadership • Local government • Public Services • Strategy and leadership

Mari Roberts-Wood, Managing Director at Reigate and Banstead Council tells us about what makes the council unique and what you can expect to find along Banstead’s majestic Narnia Trail (complete with a lion, a witch and a wardrobe).

27th March, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government

Summer Simpson speaks to Lucy Colbeck, programme manager at Playing Out, about the benefits of street play for local communities, growing support for the movement in local and central government, why residents should stay in the driving seat and...

26th March, 2024

Community Cohesion • Community engagement • Community Power • Community-led • Local government • Wellbeing

From giving residents a blank sheet to determine the council’s priorities, to making statutory consultation processes interactive and fun, Test Valley Borough Council is pushing the envelope on community engagement.

20th March, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Public Services • Strategy and leadership

The suffocation of local government leaves Britain profoundly weaker just as the world becomes more hostile, says Adam Lent.

14th March, 2024

Local government • Local government finance • Public Services

As Depute Chief Executive of Scotland's East Aryshire council, Katie Kelly was a leading part of some of the most radical power sharing done by any UK council. Now as Chair of New Local, she takes a random pick...

14th March, 2024

Community Power • Leadership • Leadership Lucky Draw • Local government • Strategy and leadership

New Local’s senior practice lead Catriona Maclay explains how Barnet Council is supporting staff to embed community power across the borough and shares six lessons from the journey so far.

11th March, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government

The chief executive of Ealing council takes a chance on our Leadership Lucky Draw, exploring topics from how to get things done, to why Ealing is taking a positive slant on immigration, to how to turn around a negative...

7th March, 2024

Leadership • Leadership Lucky Draw • Local government • Strategy and leadership

Jo Fitzpatrick and Jim Leyland explain how Wakefield Council had a Big Conversation with residents, training 100 ‘conversationalists’ to have over 1,300 face-to-face conversations with people across the district to find out what they like about their area and...

4th March, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services

Anthony Okereke is the Leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. He took on New Local's leadership lucky draw.

29th February, 2024

Leadership • Leadership Lucky Draw • Local government • Politics • Strategy and leadership

The leader of Manchester City Council takes on our Leadership Lucky Draw, answering questions ranging from dream dinner party guests to how her upbringing shaped her.

22nd February, 2024

Leadership • Leadership Lucky Draw • Local government • Manchester • Strategy and leadership

Social entrepreneurs Brendan Martin and Cormac Russell share their take on Adam Lent’s recent blog about radical public service leadership developed with key figures in our network.

20th February, 2024

Community Power • Leadership • Local government • Public Services • Strategy and leadership

We're living in a permacrisis. How should public service leaders adapt to this landscape? We sat down with some of them to come up with a plan.

7th February, 2024

Leadership • Strategy and leadership

New Local's senior practice lead Catriona Maclay explains how Wealden District Council is charting its path to community power using transparent, collaborative self-evaluation.

6th February, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Practice work

Eleanor Brown shares three lessons from piloting designing thinking at Enfield Council, and makes the case for problem solving from the outside in.

1st February, 2024

Community engagement • Local government • Public Services

The intent behind Michael Gove's announcement was not to improve productivity – and it won’t, writes Adam Lent.

31st January, 2024

Central government • Local government • Local government finance

The best policy that almost was? Former Secretary of State John Denham & New Local's Jessica Studdert discuss their new paper calling for a come-back for place-based budgeting as we saw in the Total Place pilots of 13 years...

31st January, 2024

Devolution and reorganisation • Local government finance • Place-based budgets • Political reform • Total Place

A tech engineer by training, Omezzine Khelifa left a life in France to work in the Tunisian transition from dictatorship to democracy. Today she is the executive director of the Apolitical Foundation Accelerator programme, helping equip a new type...

23rd January, 2024

Community Power • International Examples • Leadership • Politics

Dr Gillian Orrow is a GP and co-founder of Growing Health Together, an East Surrey initiative which helps Primary Care Networks collaborate with community members and local organisations to improve health and prevent disease. She reflects on three years...

16th January, 2024

Community Power • GPs • Health and social care • Healthcare

Our board member, Samira Ben Omar, has dedicated her career to addressing inequalities in health and other spheres. She talks about why the NHS needs to relate differently to communities, her groundbreaking work with health champions and what brought...

9th January, 2024

Community Power • Health and social care • Strategy and leadership

Adam Lent takes a look back at the ups and downs of 2023, shares his hopes for the year to come (and channels Marilyn Monroe).

19th December, 2023

Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services

Alongside the drive for growth, tapping into the wealth of insight, energy and tangible assets in communities will help us solve our most formidable challenges, writes Adam Lent.

13th December, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Economy and business • Local government • Local government finance

Five brilliant examples of what communities can achieve when money and decision-making power are in their hands.

11th December, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government

We explore the positive health and wellbeing impact of the Big Local programme - a hyperlocal community-led initiative.

11th December, 2023

Community Power • Health and social care • Healthcare

A vibrant community set around an ancient village on the edge of Darlington, Haughton and Springfield has its challenges. But a wealth of local pride and a strong voluntary network knits people together, say Darlington Borough Council’s Chris McEwan...

6th December, 2023

Community engagement • Health and social care • Local government

Helen Chicot from Rochdale Council introduces a three-year project which has used Good Help principles to tackle the council’s most pressing challenges, transforming the way the way it works and its relationships with residents.

24th November, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services

Mila Lukic from Bridges Outcomes Partnerships spells out the problem with centralisation and why we need to think about service design and delivery in a very different way.

16th November, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services

How can we tackle the growing crisis in the NHS? TPXimpact’s Iain O’Neil says shifting towards community-led approaches can protect the NHS’s future and improve health for all.

15th November, 2023

Community Power • Health and social care • Stronger Things • The NHS

Fife Council's Mike Enston tells us about the challenge of growing inequalities, the council’s ambitions to redistribute power to the community and why you can’t visit Fife without enjoying some award-winning fish and chips.

9th November, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Interview • Local government • Public Services

Radical devolution was a key talking point at Labour party conference, but Keir Starmer's speech didn't deliver on the detail, writes Katy Oglethorpe.

23rd October, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Devolution • Labour • Local government • Politics

Lorinda Freint from Richmond and Wandsworth Councils and Bex Trevalyan from Platform Places introduce a new process to unlock town centre buildings and explain how they got started in Wandsworth Town.

17th October, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government

TPXimpact's Charlotte Obijiaku shares highlights from our recent workshop showcasing six stories of community power, and makes the case for deeper collaboration.

6th October, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Stronger Things

Our public finances are in crisis. The next government will need to focus on making better use of existing money if it is to ensure better outcomes for local neighbourhoods. Jessica Studdert introduces A Labour Vision for Community Power...

26th September, 2023

Community Power • Local government • Local government finance • Public Services

Tiernan Mines, CEO and Co-founder of Hello Lamp Post shares five key benefits of using technology in community engagement and explains how it empowers individuals and organisations to create positive change.

20th September, 2023

Built on the power of relationships, this project brought together local residents with lived experience of poverty and key decision makers in the public, private and third sectors to identify solutions to poverty in Trafford.

13th September, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Community Voices • Interview • Local government • Poverty and inequality • Public Services

Local government must look beyond conventional consultation approaches to drive forward the environmental agenda that Westminster is so easily abandoning, writes Adam Lent.

13th September, 2023

Climate change • Community engagement • Community Power • Local government

There are signs that community power could be becoming a political reality. We speak to TPXimpact’s Claire Hazelgrove on the imperative of seizing the moment.

11th September, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Interview • Local government • Stronger Things