Category: Articles

Here are six ways we found community power is having a positive impact for people, communities and public services, and some of the brilliant examples that show this in practice.

23rd February, 2021

Community Power • Community Power The Evidence • Monitoring and Evaluation

Community power produces far-ranging benefits. But an ‘evidence paradox’, hard-wired into our policy-making system, is holding back its potential. As we launch our latest report, Community Power: The Evidence, co-author Jessica Studdert addresses the counteractive way we measure success...

23rd February, 2021

Community Power • Community Power The Evidence • Monitoring and Evaluation

Danny Dorling is a social geographer speaking at Stronger Things 2021.

19th February, 2021

Community Power • Economy and business • Strategy and leadership

When Children England asked young people to lead their own inquiry into how to create a welfare state that’s fair for children, they focused on local community-led solutions. Chloe Darlington looks at their ideas, from community health hubs to...

17th February, 2021

Childrens' Services • Health and social care • Welfare

The pandemic has shown the powerful ways communities, civil society and the public sector can come together in response to local challenges. But this kind of cooperative local problem solving – what we call community power – has much...

16th February, 2021

Community Power • Health and social care • Research Reports • Third sector and civil society

How do you try to solve a problem like homelessness? By working with Bridges Outcomes Partnerships, Kirklees Council focused on asking people what they wanted to achieve. How a community-led and ‘asset-based’ approach made a difference.

15th February, 2021

Community Power • Housing

As the vaccine rollout widens, how can local services reach eligible people who remain hesitant to make an appointment? In this how-to guide, the experts from the Behavioural Insights Team look at how to nudge more people to get...

10th February, 2021

Behavioural Insights • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Health and social care • Local government

Covid-19 has had a severe impact on the social, economic and mental wellbeing of young people. Through a new Listening Project, we'll explore how to build 'cultural communities' for, and with, younger generations. And you're invited to join us....

2nd February, 2021

Childrens' Services • Community Power • Covid-19 • Events • Inequality • Young people

The Covid-19 pandemic has shone a light on how the UK functions: how decisions are made and by whom; the interlocking - or isolated - roles of health care, local government and the private sector - and the 'heroic'...

1st February, 2021

Central government • Covid-19 • Governance • Health and social care • Long read • Strategy and leadership

Together, councils and communities did extraordinary things during Covid-19. Our Shifting the Balance research explores how practices, cultures and attitudes changed - and how to keep hold of some of the advances for the future.

27th January, 2021

Community Power • Covid-19 • Leadership • Local government • Shifting the Balance

Neil Prior, Head of Transformation at Pembrokeshire County Council reflects on the transformation that the Covid-19 pandemic fuelled in his council - particularly in forging a closer relationship between public officials and their local community.

27th January, 2021

Community Power • Community Voices • Council Voices • Local government • Shifting the Balance • Video

Covid-19 has brought unimaginable hardship to local communites, but it has also sparked a shift in mindset, culture and practice that helped many get through the pandemic and will provide valuable lessons for how councils and communities combine to...

13th January, 2021

Build Back Better • Community Power • Covid-19 • Local government • Shifting the Balance • Strategy and leadership

From the start of 2021, HOPE not hate Charitable Trust are starting to build a Towns Leadership Network, to improve community cohesion. The initiative is a central part of their Hopeful Towns project, and aims to support a more...

11th January, 2021

Community Cohesion • Community Power • Leadership • Resilience

Over six months, Pippa Coutts and her colleagues at Carnegie Trust talked to communities across the UK to gather their experience of the Covid pandemic. The resulting ‘Listening Project’ reflects on what has been learnt during this time and...

9th December, 2020

Community Power • Covid-19

A vlog from Katie Kelly, Depute Chief Executive - Safer Communities, at East Ayshire Council in Scotland. In 2013, Katie helped set up the council's Vibrant Communities Service - a ground-breaking approach to sharing power between the local authority...

7th December, 2020

Build Back Better • Community Power • Community Voices • Council Voices • Covid-19 • Interview • Mobilisation • Strategy and leadership

Even before the Covid pandemic, UK skills were falling behind other countries in terms of participation and spending. With huge employment and economic challenges on the horizon, Charlotte Morgan argues that local areas and their communities could transform skills...

26th November, 2020

Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation • Education and skills • Employment • Skills

Most of us recognise that climate change will soon overshadow every crisis that came before. But our approaches to tackling it are too often marred by denial, evasion and false optimism. In this long read, Luca Tiratelli unpacks the...

19th November, 2020

Climate change • Community Power • Environment • Long read

Health care is so much more about what happens in hospitals, writes the former Chief Executive of the English NHS. Instead, it can thrive with the help of 'health creators' - ordinary people creating healthier communities. And it's time...

13th November, 2020

Community Power • Health and social care • Public Health

The crises facing care homes meant social care became part of the news during Covid-19. But how can we look beyond it to building a better system for future generations?

10th November, 2020

Community Power • Health and social care • Public Services • Social Care

The wave of spending cuts about to hit councils is yet another Westminster slap in the face to local communities. Adam Lent argues that we can only stop central government’s abuse by demanding a parliamentary act protecting the rights...

2nd November, 2020

Community Power

Over 2 million people are out of work due to health conditions and disabilities. But each year, only 4% move into employment. Introducing new research This Isn't Working, Tom Pollard argues that support for this group should lie with...

27th October, 2020

Disabilities • DWP • Employment • Mental health • Welfare

In this podcast, we discuss why the DWP report is ill-equipped to support people out of long-term unemployment. And we look at at the community approach that could replace it.

27th October, 2020

Disabilities • DWP • Employment • Health and social care • Mental health • Podcast

The decision to impose Covid restrictions on Greater Manchester is about far more than a political spat, says Adam Lent, it is an extreme example of our rulers' centralist mentalities. A mentality that keeps people powerless and hence keeps...

21st October, 2020

Covid-19 • Devolution and reorganisation • Political Systems

Elinor Ostrom was a Nobel Prize-winning thinker and godmother of the community power movement. Here are three vital lessons her work has for the UK today.

21st October, 2020

Build Back Better • Community Power • Ostrom

The Government’s centralised response and lethal failures on Covid mean it's time to acknowledge that local communities have rights that should be enshrined in law.

15th October, 2020

Central government • Community Power • Long read • Politics

Amid doubts about the government's plans for a devolution white paper, Adam Lent outlines three principles to guide a new approach to reform.

9th October, 2020

Central government • Covid-19 • Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation

The independent think tank and network New Local Government Network (NLGN) has changed its name to ‘New Local’, alongside releasing a new visual identity and website.

7th October, 2020

The pandemic showed how much central government tightens its grip in a crisis. But it's the connection with local goverrment, not just power that's the problem.

6th October, 2020

Central government • Devolution and reorganisation • Strategy and leadership

The decline of the high street was only sped up by Covid-19 – but could commununity ownership help reverse this trend? With inspiring examples from across the UK, Ailbhe McNabola […]

1st October, 2020

Community Power

“We need to be creative, brave and try things that no government has ever done before.” This is how, in a recent tweet, chancellor Rishi Sunak proposed that he would […]

1st October, 2020

Community Power

The rise of Mutual Aid groups was a rare positive to come out of the pandemic, seeing thousands of people coming together to help their neighbours through hardship and isolation. […]

1st October, 2020

Community Power

A ‘marriage from hell’ between big state and big business birthed a litany of failures during Covid-19. Meanwhile, councils and communities have proved themselves far more equipped to cope. As […]

25th September, 2020

Community Power

While devolution might be set back by the government’s centralising instincts, which have been laid bare during the pandemic, this is counterbalanced by the support councils have won through their […]

16th September, 2020

Devolution and reorganisation

From the perspective of international comparisons, Britain’s performance during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a chastening experience. Both in terms of economics and in terms of public health, we endured […]

15th September, 2020

Community Power

A new podcast series from the New York Times makes a simple observation – that the single most powerful force in American public schools are concerned white people. Over five […]

3rd September, 2020

Community Power • Education and skills

When we talk about devolution, as we will do increasingly when the UK Government’s Devolution and Local Recovery White Paper is published this Autumn, we should remember that it is […]

1st September, 2020

Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation

This might not be your traditional summer for kicking back and relaxing with the latest page-turner, so why not try out something a bit more… powerful? Our NLGN team present […]

7th August, 2020

Community Power

As we look to a post-pandemic future, more and more local authorities are getting behind the idea of a Universal Basic Income. The case is stronger than ever, argues Simon Duffy

7th August, 2020

Employment • Universal Basic Income • Welfare

A new Government White Paper envisages radical reform for planning. But, while it hints at a community-led approach, it also sets rules and targets to be imposed by national government. John Myers of the YIMBY Alliance sets out how...

6th August, 2020

Community Power • Housing • Place building • Planning • Public Services

Communities have the power to do extraordinary things. The evidence for this is all around us at the moment. However, for this potential to be unleashed, work needs to be done.

29th July, 2020

Community Power • Mobilisation

The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) turn their attention to what life might look like after lockdown, and the opportunities for change this might bring.

29th July, 2020

Behavioural Insights • Covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as producing huge hardship and challenges, was also a time that saw incredible innovation, resilience and compassion. NLGN's new report 'Shifting the Balance', aims to capture the best examples of this

26th July, 2020

Build Back Better • Community Power • Public Services

Kicking off a new conversation about Resilient Britain, chief executive of Local Trust, Matt Leach, and director of NLGN, Adam Lent, set out their plan to bring together a network of people and organisations to design and deliver plans...

24th July, 2020

Build Back Better • Covid-19 • Employment • Public Services • Resilience

As councils prepare for recovery from COVID-19, we asked leaders in local government how their councils are preparing for a potential second wave

23rd July, 2020

Covid-19 • Leadership Index

What have we learned from monitoring innovative local responses to COVID-19?

16th July, 2020

Councils Respond • Covid-19

Have a Listen: The public response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a source of much-needed hope. Thousands of spontaneous, voluntary Mutual Aid groups have emerged to support the most […]

13th July, 2020

Community Power • Mutual Aid • Podcast

Across the country, thousands of Mutual Aid groups have emerged, taking on vital work and supporting the most vulnerable people in their communities through this unprecedented disaster. The flourishing of these groups raises many questions, particularly for those of...

13th July, 2020

Covid-19 • Mutual Aid • Volunteering

Mutual Aid groups have been an indispensable part of the country’s response to COVID-19, powered by people on furlough. Research published today (14 July 2020) by the New Local Government […]

13th July, 2020

Mutual Aid

We're talking to people leading change in local government about their work, their place, and the pandemic.

10th July, 2020

Build Back Better • Community Power • Council Voices • Covid-19

NLGN is proud to welcome Sir Chris Ham to our Board.

7th July, 2020

Community Power • Health and social care • Interview • New Local Board