Tag: Local government finance

Labour’s way forward in office? Community power

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

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A Labour Vision for Community Power: Participation, prevention and devolution

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

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Red roses

Fiscal Devolution: why we need it and how to make it work

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

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Red roses

Fiscal Devolution: why we need it and how to make it work

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

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The chancellor needs to prioritise resilience

Ahead of the Spring Budget, Joe Sarling makes the case for a new economic vision with resilience at its heart.

13th March, 2023

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Investing in the future of our communities – Polly Lord in conversation with Matt Leach

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

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Local government finance: what a difference a year makes

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

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Risk-Taking Behaviour (And how to encourage it)

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


The Shared Prosperity Fund: Where’s the imagination? Where’s the control?

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

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Funding Cohesion with the Hopeful Towns Bid-Builder

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

24th January, 2022

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Why the left should back community power

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

10th December, 2021

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Community Wealth Fund Alliance – Council Workshop

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

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5 reasons the Spending Review wasn’t good news for local government

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

28th October, 2021

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Can better data lead to better decisions for local councils?

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

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An open Letter to Michael Gove from New Local

Give communities the power they need to level up

22nd September, 2021

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Local Government Explained Part 3: How are councils funded?

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

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Five reasons targets are a terrible way to do government

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

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Budgeting for Impact

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

20th September, 2019

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Local government: Bins, taxes and fly-tipping – right?

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

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Social Investment Partnerships

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

18th December, 2018

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Raising the HRA borrowing cap is long overdue – but is it enough?

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


A budget that leaves councils at the mercy of Boris Johnson

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

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The Budget must overturn a catastrophic policy error made eight years ago

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

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What would a Labour Government mean for local government?

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

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What would No Deal mean for councils?

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

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The Brexit board gives local government a seat on the floor

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

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Brokenshire must go public on council funding

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

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Spending Review: Time to unite, time to think bigger

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

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Local Government squabbling will blow chances of better deal

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

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Numbers and Knowledge

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


We need to start talking about fiscal devolution…

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

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Being Secretary of State at MHCLG

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

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It’s time for the Government to stop ignoring councils on Brexit

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

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Council tax disparity – a cause for concern?

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


Budget 2017: The only certainty for local government is continued uncertainty

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

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How can local authorities most effectively operate commercially?

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

20th October, 2017

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Should local government be concerned about recent trend change in its reserves balance?

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

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Establishing a Trading Company

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

20th July, 2017

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Sajid Javid can rebuild his relationship with local government but it will take more than words

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

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What does the DUP’s manifesto mean for local government?

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

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What does the election result mean for councils?

Whatever their party allegiance, I suspect councillors and officers everywhere will be scratching their heads about what this unexpected outcome means for local government. On one hand, this result spells uncertainty for many issues that councils were hoping might...

9th June, 2017

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What do the party manifestos mean for local government?

What do all the party’s election manifestos say for local government? We’ve picked out all the relevant issues in the posts below: what does Labours manifesto mean for local government?what does Liberal Democrat’s manifesto mean for local government?what does...

7th June, 2017

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Manifesto Insight: What Labour offers local government

At this General Election, local government is at crossroads, with the two main parties offering very different directions for the future of councils and the communities they serve. The role that councils play in supporting local people means that...

6th June, 2017

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What does UKIP’s Manifesto Mean for Local Government?

UKIP support has grown out of local opposition to the effects of a globalised economy, channelled through its anti-EU stance. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, following the public vote to Brexit last June, the party have struggled to set out a...

30th May, 2017

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What does the Green Party manifesto mean for councils?

The likelihood of this manifesto being enacted is probably about the same as aliens invading Britain the same day you’re struck by lightning and win the lottery jackpot. As we’ve seen with intention of the Women’s Equality Party manifesto,...

22nd May, 2017

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What does the Conservative Manifesto mean for Councils?

Manifestos are always launched with a certain amount of excitement, but none more so than the Conservative Manifesto this morning. While the Lib Dem’s manifesto explicitly positioned them as the party of opposition, the Tory manifesto would reveal what...

18th May, 2017

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What does the Labour Manifesto mean for Councils?

I was planning for this to be a blog about the implications of Labour’s freshly leaked manifesto for local government. As it turns out this is a very difficult thing to do. Labour’s plans – were they enacted –...

17th May, 2017

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What does the Liberal Democrats Manifesto mean for Councils?

Reading the Labour manifesto was a bit like watching a magician determined to show you every trick they have ever learned as quickly as possible moving from disappearing an elephant to finding a coin behind your ear and back...

17th May, 2017

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NLGN’s manifesto for localising GE17: Fiscal devolution

We need to talk about fiscal devolution. Fiscal devolution is an issue that national politicians won’t touch even with someone else’s bargepole. So scared are they of the electorate getting a whiff of the prospect of a tax increase,...

28th April, 2017

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The Three futures for Local Government

Since Theresa May took over as Prime Minister, local councils have increasingly understood that their future now resides in their own hands. The devolution agenda, once driven by the former Chancellor, has severely lost energy. Instead, the new Government...

24th April, 2017

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