Tag: Economy and business

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

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

Given current challenges around local government finance, increasing revenue is top of the agenda for all councils right now. Additional investment is needed to fulfil your ambitions and provide high quality places where people want to live. Many councils...

20th January, 2023

Community engagement • Economy and business • Participation and co-production

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

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

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

Local economic change looms for many communities. High streets are transforming as consumer habits shift, working patterns are altering in the wake of the pandemic, and new kinds of local economic collaboration are emerging.

3rd October, 2022

Community Power • Economy and business • Finance

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

Meet others who are working on the same stuff as you in these subject-specific deep-dive sessions.

5th January, 2022

Community engagement • Economy and business • Events

Luca Tiratelli responds to the view that community power can be a way of cutting public services.

10th December, 2021

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

Vidhya Alakeson looks at how to create social, not just commercial town centre spaces.

25th November, 2021

Economy and business • Finance • Place building

As part of the Community Wealth Fund ‘Week of Action’, New Local co-hosted this event on how investing in social infrastructure helps communities and how councils can support the Community Wealth Fund campaign to access funds for investment from...

3rd November, 2021

Economy and business • Finance • Local government finance • Third sector and civil society

Jessica Studdert explains how disadvantaged communities can play a part in the fight against climate change - if they are given the power they need.

26th October, 2021

Climate change • Devolution • Economy and business • Local government

As the world reels from an accelerating environmental crisis, Adam Lent details a vision of a sustainable economy that has local communities rather than big business at its heart. Contrary to popular opinion, big business and big government share...

12th October, 2021

Community Power • Economy and business • Long read

Robyn Vinter on how people in the north of England are hungry for change in their area, and why it needs to be locally-led to succeed.

21st June, 2021

Community engagement • Devolution and reorganisation • Economy and business • Strategy and leadership

What's the role of inclusive growth in recovering from crisis? It's easy to see as a 'nice-to-have', but can be at the centre of helping us build back better.

18th May, 2021

Economy and business • Inclusive Growth • Research Reports • Welfare

While capitalism and football have rubbed together for years, the new Super League threatens to sever football clubs from the communities that built and help sustain them, writes Luca Tiratelli.

19th April, 2021

Economy and business

The Community Ownership Fund announced in the budget is designed to help communities buy local assets. Power to Change’s Nick Plumb looks at the difference that community ownership can make and how to make the new fund a success.

23rd March, 2021

Community Power • Devolution and reorganisation • Economy and business • Place building

Rishi Sunak's budget announcement raised familiar debates about how to best secure growth. But what if we were measuring the wrong kind of growth? Luca Tiratelli puts forward the case for New Zealand-style Wellbeing Budgets - as a better...

8th March, 2021

Budgeting • Central government • Community Power • Economy and business • Wellbeing

Last week's budget has caused controversy with its low payrise for nurses. But what gained less attention was loosened rules around stock market trading - intending to bring more unregulated investment to the City. It's a paradox that raises...

8th March, 2021

Central government • Economy and business • Finance • Levelling Up

Our Budget 2021 explainer for local community funding - from the difference between the Community Renewal Fund and the Community Ownership Fund.

3rd March, 2021

Economy and business • Explainer • Political Economy • Strategy and leadership

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

19th February, 2021

Community Power • Economy and business • Strategy and leadership

Creating partnerships to maximise impact on jobs, and how to match skills to opportunities.

8th December, 2020

Community Power • Economy and business • Education and skills • Employment • Members • Partnerships • Skills

After years of enforced slumber, the state is starting to stir. The signs of this were there even before the pandemic hit in full, with Rishi Sunak’s March budget promising massive increases in areas like infrastructure spending. The COVID-19...

14th April, 2020

Covid-19 • Economy and business • Resilience

It feels like only a cliché will do as a title for this article. Maybe this tells you something about my writing ability – but, maybe, just as love-songs on the radio only make sense when you’re in love,...

24th March, 2020

Covid-19 • Economy and business • Public Health

Adam Lent argues we need to start thinking now about a post-pandemic plan focused on building stronger communities and a resilient economy. As is often the case with a crisis, Britain is channeling the Second World War. Talk of...

20th March, 2020

Covid-19 • Economy and business • Employment • Public Health

Simon Kaye explores the legacy of Elinor Ostrom, the first female Noble-prize-winning economist, who proved that communities can successfully take charge of the assets around them. It’s work that should provide intellectual inspiration and practical principles for people taking...

8th March, 2020

Community Power • Economy and business • Ostrom • Public Services

The last few years have seen scores of councils publish inclusive growth plans – a radical admission that the economy, as presently constructed, is failing to deliver for millions of people. This has been an overwhelmingly positive development, and...

15th February, 2020

Economy and business • Environment • Inclusive Growth • Strategy and leadership

Between 2010 and 2020, the UK experienced something unprecedented in recent history – a decade without a recession. Yet, somehow, this period also saw the lowest levels of wage growth for British workers for any ten-year period since the...

12th February, 2020

Economy and business • How to guide • Inclusive Growth • Strategy and leadership • Video

This report looks at how the concept of inclusive growth is being interpreted by practitioners in the field and work backwards towards understanding, rather than attempting a new theoretical framing.

11th February, 2020

Economy and business • How to guide • Inclusive Growth • Strategy and leadership

Manchester’s significant transformation over the past 25 years is well documented. The city has seen strong economic growth, vast regeneration, and an increasing population. We have a number of globally recognised sector strengths, a vibrant cultural offer and an...

11th February, 2020

Economy and business • Inclusive Growth • Place building • Public Sector Voices

The realities of the way in which the elecatoral map was redrawn in December mean that Conservative politicians are starting to talk about the economy a little bit differently. Discussions of ‘living within our means’, and the horticultural impossibilities...

5th February, 2020

Economy and business • Governance • Inclusive Growth

The North-South divide is the trope most commonly used by policy-makers to highlight the problems of regional inequality in England, but it is by no means the country’s only socio-economic gulf. Since Boris Johnson first became Prime Minister in...

15th January, 2020

Economy and business • Inclusive Growth • Rural Areas

The PM may have given minimum wage earners a cash boost but Adam Lent argues only bringing the low paid into the heart of power will make a long-term difference. My most terrifying duty as Head of Economics at...

31st December, 2019

Democracy • Economy and business • Employment • Public Services

NLGN is working to empower communities in this bid to take back control with our overarching Community Paradigm agenda, and our latest project is an investigation into the research and insights of Elinor Ostrom.

15th November, 2019

Community Power • Economy and business • Ostrom

Inclusive growth is a buzzword in local government these days, but how can it be delivered in practice?

12th November, 2019

Economy and business • Inclusive Growth • Strategy and leadership

This month’s NLGN Leadership Index report reveals that councils are even less hopeful about the impact of Brexit on their local economy than they were two years ago.

31st October, 2019

Brexit • Economy and business • Politics

Uncertainty is bad for the economy. Yet the events of recent days and weeks have revealed even greater lack of clarity for local government when it comes to Britain’s departure from the EU. Our latest NLGN Leadership Index finds...

29th October, 2019

Brexit • Economy and business • Leadership Index • Public Services

Support the community commissioning agenda and transform the way local authorities interact with communities For almost a decade, local authorities have struggled to manage increasing demand for public services whilst tackling the issues that communities face. As shown in...

13th August, 2019

Community Power • Economy and business

Inclusive growth has gained a firm foothold within the policy lexicon over recent years. Yet, despite much valuable discussion on what it is and why it is important, there remains a lack of clarity as to how it can...

24th June, 2019

Economy and business • Inclusive Growth

There are many good criticisms of the Taxpayers Alliance (TPA) but they are often not related to the fundamental raison d’etre of the organisation. It is possible, for example, to imagine a low tax campaign that isn’t opaque about...

17th April, 2019

Conservatives • Economy and business • Public Services

Jacobs was delighted to partner with NLGN on its Inclusive Growth Innovation Exchange. Participants from local authorities across the county came together to discuss what inclusive growth means, why it matters, and also to share experiences on how to...

6th March, 2019

Economy and business • Inclusive Growth • Strategy and leadership

Insight into how to upskill the workforce in your area and building effective partnerships with the business community.

20th January, 2019

Community Power • Economy and business • Education and skills • Members • Partnerships • Skills

As policymakers scratch their heads over how to tackle the UK’s productivity challenge, is a focus on regional disparities too blunt an approach? As this blog argues, an understanding of the distinct characteristics of area type within regions could...

23rd October, 2018

Economy and business

Last week’s Budget confirmed more grim economic news. Downgraded forecasts predict sluggish growth into the 2020s and productivity remains stagnant, and with it living standards which have now plateaued for a decade. So there is a twin challenge to...

29th November, 2017

Economy and business • Inclusive Growth