Tag: Community Power

Hearing about how councils can communicate their work and engage with their communities through various communication channels

5th February, 2026

Communications • Community engagement • Community Power • Place

Right now, everyone is talking about neighbourhoods. From the ambition for a neighbourhood health service in the NHS 10 year plan, to Pride in Place, this new spirit of intent […]

5th February, 2026

Community Power • Neighbourhoods • Place-Based Public Service Reform

Claire Norman from Westmorland and Furness Council discussing their strategy ‘Together we are powered by communities’.

5th February, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Participation and co-production • Strategy

Community-run buildings benefit the people, partnerships and places that support neighbourhoods to thrive. Using evidence from Big Local, this report by our practice team for the Local Trust underlines the […]

2nd February, 2026

Community centres • Community Power • Neighbourhoods

Hearing about the Connected Communities vision at Ealing Council

28th January, 2026

Community engagement • Community Power • Place

As I step into the role of New Local Interim Chief Executive, and as we begin 2026, I find myself reflecting on how far the shared work of building a […]

2nd January, 2026

Community Power • LGR • Local Councils • Place-Based Public Service Reform • Power

This member-exclusive Innovation Explored focuses on our second Waves Learning Network session on digital democracy.

17th December, 2025

AI • Community Power • Digital Democracy • Innovation • Waves

As we close off our formal member sessions for 2025, our Head of Network, Laura Payne, reflects on a year of learning through change and complexity. 2025 has asked a […]

17th December, 2025

Community Power • Digital • LGR • Local Councils • Neighbourhoods • Place-Based Public Service Reform • Prevention

Integrated working across services, delivered within trusted community spaces, is a powerful way to provide better support for residents. Community assets such as libraries and cultural venues are often ideal […]

1st December, 2025

Community Power • Partnerships • Place

Tell us about a typical working day at Westmorland and Furness Council It’s a varied role. The work areas I cover include Community Grants, Community Power, Social Enterprise, the Community […]

12th November, 2025

Claire Notman • Community Power • Westmorland and Furness Council

When marketing expert Zoe Ashford and charity leader Tim Simmans approached Adur & Worthing Councils with a new idea for unlocking the potential of grassroots community projects, their timing was […]

11th November, 2025

Adur & Worthing • Community Funding • Community Power • Community Project • Kitchen Table

Lora Botev, Regional Manager at Go Vocal, talks to us about their work as a digital participation platform, working with local authorities and different organisations.

29th October, 2025

Community Power • Future Councils • Go Vocal • Lora Botev

New Local is delighted to announce the appointment of two new senior leaders to its team: Emma Southgate as Director of Practice and Programmes, and Helen Power as Director of Partnerships and Engagement. These appointments […]

11th September, 2025

Community Power

This event is the second of four Learning Network sessions for digital democracy programme, Waves, running from July 2025 to September 2026. Click here to learn more about Waves. […]

12th August, 2025

AI • Community Power • Digital Democracy • Waves

It's been three months since we launched Waves. This is the first in a series of blogs where we’ll share what we’ve discovered, how our thinking has evolved and what we’re finding challenging.

6th August, 2025

AI • Community Power • Digital Democracy • Future Councils • Waves

Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) have never truly been designed; they’ve evolved. Greater Manchester — the starter culture for all MCAs — looked like a reasonably recognisable set of shared functional […]

21st July, 2025

Community Power • English Devo Bill • Future Councils • Mayoral Combined Authorities • Steve Skelton • Strategic authorities

‘If you were going to design English local government from scratch, you wouldn’t have come up with this.’ Versions of this observation will be familiar to many in and around […]

18th July, 2025

Community Power • English Devo Bill • LGR • Local Councils • Place-Based Public Service Reform

Working collaboratively with communities and partners to help create vibrant and thriving places is a focus for many local authorities. Bringing everyone along on the journey and doing this during/following local […]

16th July, 2025

Community Power • Partnerships • Place

This member-exclusive Innovation Explored focuses on our first Waves Learning Network session on digital democracy.

8th July, 2025

AI • Community Power • Digital Democracy • Innovation • Waves

Responding to Government announcements today, Place-Based Public Service Budgets report co-authors, New Local Chief Executive Jessica Studdert and Professorial Research Fellow at Southampton University John Denham, said: “We are pleased to see […]

3rd July, 2025

Community Power • Future Councils • Place-Based Public Service Reform • Total Place

Last month, New Local announced its partnership with Demos on Waves – the largest trial of digital democracy in Britain to date. The Waves project aims to create a digital […]

26th June, 2025

Community Power • Demos • Digital Democracy • Future Councils • Waves

About the Project We worked with Westmorland and Furness Council as a strategic partner to help shape a shared vision, strategic approach, and delivery plan for Community Power. As part […]

26th June, 2025

Community Power • Future Councils • Strategy and leadership • Westmorland and Furness Council

Where People Meet: How to Celebrate, Sustain and Reimagine Community Centres’ was commissioned by the Rayne Trust, to explore the distinct and valuable part that community centres play in people’s lives across the UK.

24th June, 2025

Birmingham • Bradford • Community centres • Community Power • Rayne Trust • Stroud

About the Project New Local partnered with Vale of Glamorgan Public Services Board (PSB) to design and deliver a series of multi-stakeholder workshops focused on improving local services across three […]

20th June, 2025

Community Power • Employment • Health • Strategy and leadership

What do you get when you combine collective expertise, healthy debate, and optimism? You get Stronger Things 2025, of course!

12th June, 2025

Community Power • Georgia Gould MP • Local government • Stronger Things

New Local is convening this peer-led session with chief executives and senior officers involved in LGR to explore how in practice community-led ways of working and collaboration can enabled through […]

5th June, 2025

Community Power • LGR • Place building

John Denham and Jessica Studdert set out five reasons why now is the time for Total Place 2.0.

29th May, 2025

Community Power • Local government • Spending Review • Total Place

This thinkpiece by the leading social explorer Cormac Russell focuses on how to realign the relationship between institutions and communities. He sets out how better understanding and working alongside the […]

21st May, 2025

Asset-Based Community Development • Community Power

Laura Billings tells us how TPXimpact developed community power standards with Manchester City Council.

15th May, 2025

Community Power • Manchester City Council • Strategy and leadership • TPXimpact

Achieving change within a council can sometimes feel like being a mountaineer, writes Mike Greene, Chief Executive of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council.

13th May, 2025

Community Power • Mike Greene • mission-based • Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Grace Duffy, Director of Policy, Influencing and Engagement at Bridges Outcomes Partnership, tells us about their work with local authorities and partnerships they have developed to build better outcomes for residents.

13th May, 2025

Community Power • Local government • Partnerships • Public Services

The biggest redesign of public services in a generation lies ahead. As councils try to work out what new model could adequately respond to the complex demands on them, community-powered […]

8th May, 2025

Community Power • Inner Circle Consulting • Stronger Things

How can we build consensus on polarising issues in our communities? What opportunities might AI-powered technology offer to make this process easier, cheaper, and quicker? We are working with Demos […]

7th May, 2025

AI • Community Power • Events • Waves

New Local is working with Demos to test a new AI-powered technology and process intended to make deliberative democracy quicker, easier, and cheaper.

7th May, 2025

AI • Community Power • Demos • Waves

Community centres have long stood as pillars of local life, but we are losing these spaces at pace and at scale. Summer Simpson explores why this matters.

7th May, 2025

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

This report sets out the vital role that community centres play in local areas and makes the case for investing in their future.

7th May, 2025

Community assets • Community centres • Community engagement • Community Power • Local government

Alice Black, Sophie Taylor and Sue Sheehan explain how the London Borough of Camden is embracing neighbourhood ways of working.

22nd April, 2025

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

Cllr Beverley Egan is a councillor for Thundersley in south-east Essex. In 2023, she was appointed to chair of Essex Council’s Caring Communities Commission, an ambitious two-year look at the […]

5th February, 2025

Community Power • Health and social care • Public Services

As the Government’s agenda for local government, devolution and public services takes shape, a ‘new local’ is emerging, built on the principles of power, prevention and place.

27th January, 2025

Community Power • Local government • Place-based budgets • Politics • Prevention • Public Services

The government needs an overarching strategy for public service reform that dispenses with traditional Whitehall ‘business as usual’ assumptions, writes Jessica Studdert.

13th December, 2024

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

Rob Thomas, Chief Executive of Vale of Glamorgan Council, tells us about the council’s deepening partnership approach, why there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to delivering vital local services, what community power means to the council, and why...

26th November, 2024

Community Power • Local government • Strategy and leadership

The complexities of transforming health services are vast with many different priorities and variables to consider. Place-based systems leadership can unlock barriers and open doors within services to help deliver […]

11th November, 2024

Community Power • Health and social care • Integrated Health Systems

Building community cohesion where trust and a sense of belonging are paramount is imperative to help communities and places thrive. We have seen recently what happens without a long-term commitment […]

11th November, 2024

Community Cohesion • Community Power

Adopting a ‘communities in the lead’ approach is gaining traction across local authorities. What this means for different places varies, but the focus of improving the lives of residents and […]

11th November, 2024

Community Power • Strategy and leadership

Caroline Wilson, Director of Inclusive Economy and Jobs at Islington Borough Council, explains how the council’s approach to community wealth building has emerged and deepened, how it’s helping to tackle inequalities, and how it touches the lives of people...

11th November, 2024

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

The new Government has an opportunity to shift the institutions at SW1 to actively seek insight beyond its small postcode, says Jessica Studdert.

11th November, 2024

Central government • Community Power • Devolution and reorganisation • Local government • Policy • Public Services

In North Birkenhead a unique programme is joining up services and putting community priorities at the heart of decision making, creating impact that could be a model for national policy change.

7th November, 2024

Community Power • Local government • Public Services • Social Care • Total Place

New Local is working with the Rayne Trust to deliver research into the role that community assets play in public life.

5th November, 2024

Community assets • Community Power • Infrastructure

New Local worked with partners in Yorkshire and Cumbria to develop a learning programme that puts communities at the heart of health and care.

5th November, 2024

Community Power • Health and social care

A new report from think tank New Local warns that the government’s plans for housebuilding targets will be at risk unless the planning system gives communities more power and influence […]

23rd October, 2024

Community Power • Housing • Regeneration