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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Yesterday NLGN hosted a roundtable with senior local government executives and a handful of academics to discuss ‘place based policy’ after Brexit. The starting point of the discussion was work by Will Jennings and Gerry Stoker of the University...

21st April, 2017


The Chancellor’s first Budget, and the first following the UK’s decision to leave the EU, needed to shore up the domestic economy, particularly against structural challenges of weak productivity and our ageing population. So how do the announcements affect...

8th March, 2017


Yesterday’s NLGN Annual Conference came with a painful sting in the tail. The day was dominated by talk of creativity and collaboration – bursting with ideas about how technology, new approaches to the workforce, co-operation between public sector agencies...

22nd February, 2017


In partnership with: “Find a way to keep faith with arts and culture” Arts Council Chair urges local authorities as arts and culture funding falls Sir Peter Bazalgette urged local authorities to work with the Arts Council to back...

13th April, 2016


This final report moves the debate into practical territory by focussing on actions rather than structures, and the wider resources of places rather than the organisational boundaries of institutions.

17th March, 2016


New research from two leading local government think tanks has found that whilst 93% of local councils are reporting cuts to street scene and public realm budgets there is still and urgent need for councils to adopt different approaches...

4th September, 2015


NLGN held a roundtable discussion with contribution from then Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Chris Leslie MP to discuss the implications of the UKMBA and consider the future of financing local government. This paper details the key...

9th June, 2015


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


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