In November 2014, NLGN hosted a roundtable discussion in partnership with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and MindEd to consider how local government can prioritise early intervention in child and adolescent mental health. This involved...

22nd January, 2015


Councils should adopt “smarter” approaches to budgeting which make sure the strategic value of every pound goes towards meeting outcomes. They should no longer simply follow the patterns of past spending based on previous spending in individual departmental siloes.

1st December, 2014


This research shows that the spectre of unitary status is still holding back the potential for local collaboration, as local partners focus on the potential for nationally imposed reorganisation instead of focusing on the challenging business of working together.

29th October, 2014


This paper aims to provide a snapshot of how councils are preparing for the future. Based on interviews with senior officials from across the country, it provides a high level overview of how a number of authorities are going...

2nd October, 2014


This research outlines a clear pathway to an integrated future for public services. A new report from NLGN has outlined business models that councils can adopt to help them work towards integration.

17th September, 2014


Is public service reform harder in the north? In June 2014, NLGN and its partners convened a workshop in York to discuss how councils in the north were integrating and transforming their public services. This paper summarises the discussion.

3rd September, 2014


In May 2014, NLGN held a roundtable discussion bringing together local government and SMEs to discuss opportunities and barriers to working together. This paper outlines the key themes that came out of the event.

12th August, 2014


Local authority funding for the arts and culture has fallen by 19 per cent* in the last 3 years and organisations around the country are feeling the effects. Local authorities must consider alternative ways of sustaining local culture, NLGN...

24th July, 2014


NLGN brought together local government chief executives to take part in an exercise to explore how place based, integrated public services can deliver budget reductions and better outcomes for people. We wanted to explore ideas and models for scaling...

17th July, 2014


The future of two tier local government is one of most vexed questions facing the sector as a whole. It is quite clear that the current division of labour between counties and districts is unsustainable for some parts of...

2nd July, 2014


This collection provides an overview of what this new spirit of collaboration has achieved thus far, and looks ahead to how the new combined authorities could develop in coming years. With both the Conservatives and Labour now committed to...

12th June, 2014


Better commissioning is a critical part of the future for local government. As councils redefine themselves for a new era of high demand and tight budgets, the quality of the processes they use to shape and source their services...

27th May, 2014


This report focuses on what local areas can do themselves to transform, and how central government can support this. What we really need is radical change of relationships at a local level, and to support areas to catalyse this...

6th May, 2014


Digital technology provides local authorities with huge opportunities to transform the services that they provide and the way they interact with communities. In a time when councils have to do much more with fewer resources, digital can provide a...

19th March, 2014


This report looks at the challenges, difficulties and solutions that public health teams have experienced during, and since, the transfer. It also examines the extent to which public health has been integrated into local government and looks at whether...

12th December, 2013


In order to start a conversation between local and national leaders in advance of the manifesto writing process, NLGN have produced a collection of political essays from council leaders and influencers from all the main parties.

17th September, 2013


NLGN posed this question in a recent survey of more than 65 councils from across the country. Depending on how you read the results, the findings are either remarkably optimistic or deeply worrying.

23rd July, 2013


What will the councillors of the future look like? This paper starts with a short futures exercise which explores the styles of political leadership that are likely to emerge by the end of the decade as members grapple with...

16th July, 2013


This collection brings together four essays on the history of local government. Bermondsey, Birmingham, Liverpool and London provide the stage and politicians from each of the major political parties take leading roles.

3rd July, 2013


We invited a selection of NLGN members to contribute their thinking. Deliberately we chose a question to focus the mind. To zero in on a single alteration that one could make to effect change. So this year, we’ve asked...

2nd July, 2013


The return of public health to local government is probably the biggest single transfer of new responsibilities for decades. Many in the sector are justifiably excited by the change though analysts are already flagging emerging challenges. At this time...

22nd May, 2013


A new report shows that Leisure and education services across the country face the axe as councils struggle to deliver cuts that could amount to 50% of their real terms spending power by 2018.

16th April, 2013


District councils need to step into the role of place leaders if barriers to sustainable growth are to be overcome across the UK. NLGN’s new report, The Road Not Taken: New Ways of Working for District Councils, supported by...

7th March, 2013


Young people face a widening ‘expectation gap’ as their dreams of a stable career, home and family become ever more unattainable, localism think tank NLGN warns today in its report Great Expectations: The Next Steps for a New Generation.

23rd January, 2013


A new report from NLGN and CBI reveals that conversations between councils and independent providers of public services are stuck in low gear. This creates a risk that councils will not be able to access the innovative new partnerships...

10th December, 2012


NLGN, with the support of Zurich Municipal, set out to investigate the risks to the next generation that the economic downturn has generated. While the immediate impact of the downturn is apparent, the implications in the medium term are...

26th October, 2012


The Treasury’s limited view of the value of public assets is crippling local authorities’ ability to drive local growth and meet deficit targets. A new NLGN report, has found that failure to generate commercial returns from local government’s assets...

20th September, 2012


The government’s radical public health reforms could stall unless new Health and Wellbeing Boards are given greater legislative clout, localism think tank NLGN warns today. To succeed, the new boards need to be able to influence everything from social...

15th May, 2012


NLGN’s report – Grow Your Own: Skills and Infrastructure for Local Economic Growth, kindly supported by BT and Kent Country Council – argues local government must seize a new role as social venture capitalists to unblock stalled developments and...

16th April, 2012


The new age of austerity risks creating a reclusive society characterised by public affluence and private squalor, localism think tank NLGN warns today. In a provocation paper setting out scenarios for future relationships between councils and the public, the...

29th February, 2012


English councils are prepared to use retail bonds to pay for crucial improvements to schools and highways – but only if the price is right. New research from localism think tank NLGN, based on interviews with senior finance officials,...

21st February, 2012


NLGN have published a report that revealed London’s boroughs could build a new generation of council houses, avoid disrupting the lives of poorer citizens and save money for the Exchequer in the process. This could allow them to build...

16th December, 2011


NLGN has launched Delivering Distinctiveness a new essay collection edited by Daniel Goodwin, Chief Executive of St Albans City and District Council. The publication explores the future for district authorities and scopes out the potential challenges they might face....

14th December, 2011


Councils could save vital school and highway projects by looking to a new market in municipal bonds, according to research from localism think tank NLGN. The new Capital Futures report, released today, shows that bond issuances could in some...

7th December, 2011


The new NLGN report, jointly commissioned by the ALDS Forum and the LDC, Commissioning Care in the 21st Century, argues that the only way to ensure that personalised services are affordable is to accelerate radical moves towards a new...

22nd November, 2011


The Devil in the Detail: Designing the right incentives for local economic growth, a new white paper issued this week by NLGN, presents a timely response to the recent government consultation on business rates reform. While acknowledging the Government...

11th November, 2011


NLGN today calls for radical reform of council services including transport, waste and libraries, as new analysis reveals that the cost of issuing a book can be so high that in some cases it might be cheaper to buy...

13th October, 2011


Local Government Minister Bob Neill MP, writing in a new essay collection from NLGN, states that government will be looking to local leaders to help deliver its decentralisation agenda. The publication, entitled The Next Question: The future of local...

12th September, 2011


Local councils of the future may undergo a process of ‘Californication’ as they respond to budget cuts, new analysis predicts. A report published today by localism think tank the New Local Government Network (NLGN) outlines three new models for...

7th September, 2011


A new White Paper from NLGN suggests that by following a model of bulk purchasing from energy providers recently launched in The Netherlands, councils can create significant savings for their residents.

21st July, 2011


A new report from localism think tank the New Local Government Network (NLGN) will this week show which areas of the country are most ready to benefit and most at risk from the Government’s Big Society agenda. The report...

29th June, 2011


In a new research paper, NLGN warns that the decision to increase the cost to councils of borrowing from government could threaten local authorities’ ability to boost local economic growth. Localism think tank The New Local Government Network (NLGN)...

18th May, 2011


The financial situation means that public services have to develop a new relationship with citizens, whether that is to discuss which functions to cut back or, more positively, to find new ways to engage people in shaping their local...

19th April, 2011


As Communities Minister Grant Shapps launches plans for the future of local government audit, a new report from localism think tank the New Local Government Network (NLGN), challenges government to avoid a dangerous decline in public trust in councils...

4th April, 2011


NLGN's new report has revealed the tough challenge facing councils that are sharing services in order to fill the gap caused by the government’s spending cuts. But the report also warns that councils must be more innovative and ‘boldly...

1st March, 2011


NLGN have called on councils to try and cushion some of the current financial pressures they face by making greater use of green energy subsidies – with an estimated pot available of up to £12 billion over the next...

16th February, 2011


A new report, published today, is calling on councils to be given new powers to charge for local services. The report, from the New Local Government Network think tank, follows Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s demands for new freedoms...

31st January, 2011


A new report by localism think tank NLGN has set out a vision for more sustainable local public services beyond the current financial settlement and the aims of the government’s Localism Bill. Next Localism: Five trends for the future...

26th January, 2011


Our report suggests that the government’s flagship ‘Green Deal’ programme will be in danger of failing to reach the households most in need of more energy efficient homes across the social housing sector.

22nd November, 2010


Proposals to make new elected Police Commissioners more accountable to broader local democratic government and their local communities are published in this new NLGN paper

16th November, 2010