Category: Articles

Community businesses can reap huge dividends for local areas. But how do we unlock their potential? And what role can local government play in this? Power to Change's Chief Executive Tim Davies-Pugh sets out his stall.

21st June, 2023

Community business • Community Power • Economy and business • Local economies

Radical change in public services is still an uphill struggle. National and local leaders need to make sure they are enabling not blocking the innovators.

8th June, 2023

Community Power • Culture • Leadership • Stronger Things

Community power calls for a new mould of leader. But what does this actually look like in practice? We asked some of our Stronger Things audience for their insights, advice and ice cream flavours.

1st June, 2023

Community Power • Leadership • Stronger Things

In collaboration with The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, we have developed a framework to support local areas to make progress towards designing out the most severe forms of hardship.

10th May, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Local government • Participation and co-production • poverty • Public Services

How wealth is distributed and how much power local areas have over spending is fundamental to growing the economy. Here's how to make fiscal devolution work.

26th April, 2023

Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation • Explainer • Local government finance • Local government reform

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

21st April, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services • Stronger Things

Leading under pressure needs to become a discipline in itself, argues Adam Lent.

17th April, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Leadership • Local government • Public Services

In recent years we’ve seen a continued and increasing link between health and economic outcomes, brought into sharp focus by COVID-19. Imran Hashmi and Laura Charlesworth examine what this means for the UK labour market and for levelling up.

14th March, 2023

Covid-19 • Disabilities • Economy and business • Employment • Health and social care • Inequality • Mental health • Public Health

Ahead of the Spring Budget, Joe Sarling makes the case for a new economic vision with resilience at its heart.

13th March, 2023

Budgeting • Central government • Economy and business • Finance • Local government finance • Policy • Public Services • Resilience

Imran Hashmi unpacks the relationship between economic growth and wellbeing, arguing that local people should be at the heart of decisions about economic policy in their area.

9th March, 2023

Community Power • Economy and business • Local government • Policy • Wellbeing

In the first instalment of our New Thinking series, Alex Fox and Chris Fox examine the state of public services in the UK today, and make the case for whole system reform.

2nd March, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Local government reform • Public Services

Polly Lord sets out five lessons for England from the Welsh Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.

28th February, 2023

Devolution • Public Services • Wales • Wellbeing

The centre has lost its ability to govern and radical change is needed, writes Adam Lent.

14th February, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Devolution • Local government

New Local’s Polly Lord and Tom Chigbo from TPXimpact share some of the learnings from their research on innovative community engagement, carried out with the LGA.

7th February, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Innovation • Participation and co-production • Whole Council Approach

Drawing on recent work in Edmonton, North London, Nicola Steuer charts an impactful and cost-effective route for Integrated Care Systems to tackle health inequalities.

17th January, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Community Voices • Health and social care • Participation and co-production

Labour need to think beyond the boundaries of normal institutional reform and turbocharge the imaginative change already happening on the ground, writes Adam Lent.

17th January, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Engagement • Local government

Polly Lord outlines what's needed in any Take Back Control Bill to make it meaningful for communities.

13th January, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Devolution

What is the Community Wealth Fund, and what would it mean for local authorities? Polly Lord talks to Matt Leach, CEO of Local Trust, about the campaign.

16th December, 2022

Community Power • Local government • Local government finance

Dr Simon Duffy takes a look at the benefits of trusting citizens to support each other as shown by the COVID pandemic.

8th December, 2022

Central government • Community Power • Powerful Communities

Adam Lent argues the former prime minister has produced the most radical devolutionary programme from either of the two big parties in decades, but far less ambitious plans than this have become lost in the weeds of internal party...

7th December, 2022

Community Power • Devolution • Local government • Local government reform

Jessica Studdert reacts to Labour’s latest proposals to reform the UK constitution.

6th December, 2022

Community Power • Devolution • Local government

How can councils turn town centre buildings into vibrant community-led hubs that benefit local people and strengthen the local economy?

2nd December, 2022

Asset transfer • Council Voices • Innovation • Place building

Laura Charlesworth unpacks what the Autumn Statement means for a health and care system in crisis.

18th November, 2022

Budgeting • Central government • Health and social care

Adam Lent argues that without a much smarter approach, the quality of public services will continue to deteriorate rapidly. The consequences will be profound.

18th November, 2022

Budgeting • Central government • Local government • Public Services • Social Care

Here’s our snapshot on what the Autumn Statement means for local government.

17th November, 2022

Budgeting • Central government • Local government • Public Services • Social Care

Ahead of the Autumn Statement, Polly Lord examines the potential human impact of cuts to our public services.

16th November, 2022

Budgeting • Economy and business • Local government • Public Services

Ahead of the Autumn Statement, Adam Lent argues that we need a bold, national ‘invest-to-save’ programme for public services funded by taxes on the wealthiest.

14th November, 2022

Budgeting • Central government • Economy and business

Adam Lent argues that in a permacrisis era, it is the privately owned that is proving fragile not the public and the common.

11th November, 2022

Community Power • Economy and business • Ostrom

With trust in national politicians reaching new lows, Polly Lord argues that councils are stepping up (again) to lead their local areas through the current crisis.

8th November, 2022

Community engagement • Community Power • Leadership • Local government

One year on from the spending review, Polly Lord looks at the current picture of public service funding ahead of anticipated cuts in the Autumn budget

27th October, 2022

Budgeting • Central government • Community Power • Economy and business • Local government finance

How do people from post-industrial areas – and other economically disadvantaged communities – feel about being labelled ‘left behind’? What could a more inclusive, representative vocabulary look like? James Morrison shares his take on why the language of inequality...

13th October, 2022

Community Voices • Levelling Up • Narrative building

As MPs return to Parliament, and in the wake of an economic orthodoxy overhaul, Polly Lord examines the ‘tragedy of the commons’ phenomenon - arguing that the real tragedy lies in the assumptions made at Westminster and the failure...

7th October, 2022

Community Power • Ostrom • Place building • Politics

Adam Lent argues that in an era of repeated crises, Chancellors will ultimately have to focus more on delivering resilience than growth.

6th October, 2022

Budgeting • Central government • Climate change • Economy and business

Building a community-powered NHS that is capable of supporting good health in neighbourhoods and reducing demand pressures on hospitals has never been more needed. But it goes against all the instincts of our top-down system of managing healthcare, writes...

4th October, 2022

Community Power • Community Voices • Health and social care

We know the diagnosis: the NHS is at risk from ever-increasing demand. We need a new approach to healthcare that makes prevention a reality – by putting communities first.

4th October, 2022

Community engagement • Community Power • Explainer • Health and social care • Video

Joe Sarling explains how the relentless focus on economic growth with central interventions at the expense of communities erodes the very things that would foster resilience, growth and thriving places.

30th September, 2022

Budgeting • Central government • Economy and business • Levelling Up • Local government

In response to the Chancellor’s Growth Plan, we set out some of the key announcements that could impact councils up and down the country.

23rd September, 2022

Budgeting • Central government • Economy and business • Health and social care • Levelling Up • Local government

In the latest of our ‘How We Did It’ event series, Claire Vibert shares her experience of setting up and running a complex and collaborative Poverty Truth Commission in Trafford, Greater Manchester.

20th September, 2022

Community engagement • Community Voices • How to guide • Interview • Poverty and inequality

The current cost-of-living crisis adds to the urgency to not only mitigate the impact of poverty, but to fundamentally rethink how systems can prevent people falling into the deepest forms of hardship. Together with Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), New...

23rd August, 2022

Community engagement • Participation and co-production • poverty • Public Services

At a time when debates are polarised, politics feels stale, and the country is looking for answers to big challenges, it is clearer than ever that we need to think differently about public services and policy development. No matter...

4th August, 2022

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government

Jessica Studdert on a new way of treating healthcare: one that puts communities – and therefore prevention – first.

12th July, 2022

Community engagement • Community Paradigm • Community Power • Health and social care

Community power is growing as idea and a movement. But what does it mean in practice? What are its implications for policy? And what's next for this new paradigm? New Local Chief Executive Adam Lent tackles some of the...

28th June, 2022

Community engagement • Community Power • Explainer

How does a council rebrand its place, building a story and narrative that helps it to thrive? We explore how it was done in York and Hackney.

19th May, 2022

Council Voices • Innovation • Local government • Narrative building

In our latest How We Did It event, we spoke to Zoe Sharratt of Gateshead Council. They've passed around 45 buildings and spaces to communities.

18th May, 2022

Asset transfer • Council Voices • Events • How to guide

How can we measure long-term change in an area? Lily O’Flynn shares tools and advice for evaluating place-based change.

16th May, 2022

Monitoring and Evaluation • Place building • Public Services • Strategy and leadership

Our new polling finds widespread public support for the idea of community power - including to tackle the cost of living crisis.

9th May, 2022

Community Power • Levelling Up • Politics

Meet the UK's first Community Heath Workers, local people attached to a GP's surgery who check-in on the health of the neighbours. And who are already showing a different possible future for primary care.

25th April, 2022

Health and social care • Public Health

The new Shared Properity Fund promised a lot - slashing bureaucracy, giving local control, creating wealth. So why does it so closely replicate dumped EU funding? Joe Sarling finds a severe case of centralised civil service-ese.

14th April, 2022

Central government • Finance • Levelling Up • Local government finance

A round-up of some of the most notable take-aways from New Local’s festival of community power.

13th April, 2022

Community Voices • Events • Politics • Strategy and leadership • Stronger Things

The NHS is embarking on the biggest reforms of a generation - creating an integrated system that should usher in joined-up care and improved outcomes for patients. As new guidance on local partnerships is published, Prof Donna Hall diagnoses...

12th April, 2022

Health and social care