Tag: Local government finance

The traditional siloed model of public services is ineffective for complex societal problems. But three public spending shifts can change this.

20th September, 2024

Central government • Local government finance • Person-centred funding • Policy

With the Autumn Budget in sight, Former Secretary of State John Denham and New Local’s Jessica Studdert make the case for Total Place 2.0.

9th September, 2024

Devolution and reorganisation • Local government finance • Place-based budgets • Political reform • Public Services • Total Place

Councils are facing reduced funding, rising demand and increasing costs. New Local and IPPO's research project explores how local authorities are responding and what we can learn.

31st July, 2024

Local government • Local government finance • Public Services

New Local is partnering with UCL's IPPO on a research project focused on the severe fiscal constraint faced by local authorities.

22nd May, 2024

Community Power • Economy and business • Local government finance • Prevention • Procurement

As she steps into an interim CEO role, Jessica Studdert puts forward three proposals for the next government, at a critical time for councils.

13th May, 2024

Central government • Devolution • Local government • Local government finance • Place-based budgets • Total Place

The suffocation of local government leaves Britain profoundly weaker just as the world becomes more hostile, says Adam Lent.

14th March, 2024

Local government • Local government finance • Public Services

The intent behind Michael Gove's announcement was not to improve productivity – and it won’t, writes Adam Lent.

31st January, 2024

Central government • Local government • Local government finance

A former secretary of state is calling for Total Place style pooled budgets as the best use of public spending when there is no financial quick fix for public services. Place-based budgets would allow services and communities to allocate...

31st January, 2024

Community engagement • Devolution and reorganisation • Health and social care • Local government • Local government finance • Place-based budgets • Public Services

The best policy that almost was? Former Secretary of State John Denham & New Local's Jessica Studdert discuss their new paper calling for a come-back for place-based budgeting as we saw in the Total Place pilots of 13 years...

31st January, 2024

Devolution and reorganisation • Local government finance • Place-based budgets • Political reform • Total Place

This report sets out a new approach to public service investment and reform in England. By identifying all public money spent within a local area, and enabling it to be used more flexibly, spending could be more closely aligned...

31st January, 2024

Budgeting • Central government • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Local government finance • Place-based budgets • Public Services

Alongside the drive for growth, tapping into the wealth of insight, energy and tangible assets in communities will help us solve our most formidable challenges, writes Adam Lent.

13th December, 2023

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

Our public finances are in crisis. The next government will need to focus on making better use of existing money if it is to ensure better outcomes for local neighbourhoods. Jessica Studdert introduces A Labour Vision for Community Power...

26th September, 2023

Community Power • Local government • Local government finance • Public Services

Labour council leaders set out a route for Labour to deliver its objectives in government, starting with giving communities meaningful power and influence. A Labour Vision for Community Power is an ambitious agenda for action, driven by the principles...

26th September, 2023

Community Power • Labour • Local government • Local government finance • Politics • 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

We explain what fiscal devolution is, bust myths that it will lead to higher taxes, explore different ways to do it, and recommend how to make it happen.

26th April, 2023

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

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

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

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

Risk – and aversion to it – is often thought to be the reason why a given innovation will fail to emerge in the public sector. Councils are strongly incentivised to take risks seriously and to avoid them when possible,...

3rd October, 2022

Local government finance

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

Chris Clarke of HOPE Not Hate introduces a new tool to help councils find and secure funds for community cohesion projects.

24th January, 2022

Charities • Community Cohesion • Local government • Local government finance

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

Looking more closely at the detail beneath the positive Budget headlines.

28th October, 2021

Finance • Local government • Local government finance • Policy • Politics

Mark Green, from the award-winning Local Data Spaces project, looks at how to improve data sharing to increase impact in your area.

25th October, 2021

Data • Local government • Local government finance • Public Services

Give communities the power they need to level up

22nd September, 2021

Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation • Local government finance • Policy • Politics

Local government finance can be mystifying. Taxes, rates, grants; shifting parametres and endless micro reforms. And yet how councils get their money has inescapable consequences for our places and services. Luckily, Jessica Studdert is on-hand to shed a light...

23rd July, 2021

Explainer • Local government • Local government finance • Local government reform • Long read

Under pressure following criticism of his approach to testing for Covid-19, at the start of April Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced a new target: the government would be carrying out 100,000 tests a day by the end of April....

29th April, 2020

Community Power • Leadership • Local government finance • Strategy and leadership

A summary of the main ideas and lessons that emerged from the day’s discussions

20th September, 2019

Budgeting • Commissioning and Procurement • Community Power • Impact • Local government finance • Members

When I popped to my local pub on New Year’s Eve, little did I know I would end up starting 2019 defining and defending local government to a group of fellow mid-twenty-year olds. I did not anticipate that, when...

9th January, 2019

Local government finance • Public Services • Strategy and leadership

Exploring the development of partnerships between local authorities and social investors.

18th December, 2018

Community Power • Finance • Local government finance • Members • Social investment • Third sector and civil society

The announcement in the recent budget that the Government will be lifting the borrowing cap on Local Authorities’ Housing Revenue Accounts has been much welcomed and is long overdue. The policy will remove one of the barriers to councils...

26th November, 2018

Local government finance

The Chancellor was clearly feeling the hand of history on his shoulder. A new chapter and a turning point were declared as Phillip Hammond informed the House that austerity was now ending just like the PM said it would....

30th October, 2018

Devolution • Local government finance • Politics

In 2008, Alistair Darling’s Autumn Statement as Chancellor of the Exchequer contained two bombshells. The first being that he was spending £200bn to keep the economy afloat following the financial crash of a few weeks earlier. The second was...

24th October, 2018

Finance • Local government finance • Politics

As its annual conference closes, and a flurry of new policy announcements add to last year’s manifesto, Labour’s agenda continues to take shape. While Brexit negotiations still dominate these unpredictable political times, how far is it possible to identify...

26th September, 2018

Local government finance • Politics

What would a No Deal Brexit mean for the UK? With only six months remaining until the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019, this is the burning question currently preoccupying the UK Government. At the time of...

20th September, 2018

Brexit • Local government finance

The announcement that made headlines in an otherwise low-key speech from MHCLG Secretary of State James Brokenshire at this year’s LGA Conference concerned the establishment of a board to encourage closer collaboration between national and local governments on Brexit....

5th July, 2018

Brexit • Local government finance

This article first appeared on The Local Government Chronicle website on 2nd July 2018 Let’s face it, the bar is not exactly high. As long as James Brokenshire manages to get out of the hall at the LGA Conference...

3rd July, 2018

Budgeting • Local government finance

This is a critical year for local government. The Spending Review, the social care green paper and decisions on funding the NHS are all individually important, but collectively they could be game changing. There is an opportunity to set...

1st June, 2018

Finance • Local government finance

This article first appeared on the Local Government Chronicle website on 30th May 2018 You don’t need to trawl the archives of The New York Times to know that a 2,500 word special on the Knowsley Council wards of...

30th May, 2018

Devolution • Local government finance

Whitehall and Local Government often seem fixated on numbers, metrics and targets, as a trigger for focus and action, show to residents, and to satisfy inspectorates as to just exactly what councils have achieved for their residents and areas...

25th May, 2018

Local government finance

This week Seattle’s City Council voted unanimously to levy a new tax on large businesses to help address the city’s homelessness problems. Through negotiation and consensus-building, a democratically-elected local assembly agreed a new financial levy to address a pressing...

18th May, 2018

Finance • Local government finance

This article first appeared on the Local Government Chronicle on 11th May 2018 Dear James, welcome to the strangest job in Whitehall. You are now leading a sector that is consumed by four big issues over which your department...

14th May, 2018

Governance • Local government finance • Politics

The UK Government has consistently maintained that there is ongoing dialogue with local government on Brexit. However, there are growing question marks over the extent to which this ‘dialogue’ is giving local government a platform to inform and assist...

26th April, 2018

Brexit • Local government finance

Yesterday (28 March), the Government released Council Tax statistics for 2018/19. It won’t surprise you to know that the majority of local authorities have taken advantage of the additional percentage point increase, from 2% to 3%, in the Council...

29th March, 2018

Local government finance

This article was first published in Civil Service World. The Budget was a mixed bag for local government. Councils face financial uncertainty after 2020, with grant funding still reducing, the definition of “fair funding” still pending and the prospect...

22nd November, 2017

Local government finance • Political Economy • Politics

Guide to setting up effective governance of commercialisation projects to reduce risks and enable growth.

20th October, 2017

Community Power • Finance • Local government finance • Members

In 2013, Eric Pickles accused local government of ‘hypocrisy’ for ‘pleading poverty when they have trebled their cash reserves over the last decade’.1 But last week, DCLG released data on local authority spending and financing in England which reveals...

31st August, 2017

Finance • Local government finance

Key questions to ask when thinking about a trading company model, including and case studies of successful examples.

20th July, 2017

Community Power • Finance • Local government finance • Members

Last night he was shouting obscenities up at the bedroom window. Now, after a cold night on the doorstep, he’s saying he loves us and is begging for forgiveness through the letterbox. Many in local government will be impressed...

14th July, 2017

Local government finance • Politics

Many of us knew little about the DUP until Friday morning, but now it looks as if they will be instrumental in forming a functioning government. Now is a timely opportunity to examine what the DUP’s manifesto means for...

13th June, 2017

Local government finance • Politics