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Anxiety about being left behind, abandonment in all senses, is quite a pervasive condition. The autumn/winter parliamentary calendar remains chock-a-block with legislative agenda to tackle the ‘left behind’. The Archbishop of York has dusted down his copy of David Goodhart’s The Road to Somewhere and begun the August silly season sermonizing on behalf of the […]
Whatever the stringencies of the next long-term finance settlement, we can guarantee that the public sector, en masse, will be spending upwards of £300bn in the next year buying goods and services – or one in every three pounds the public sector spends. It should be noted that the UK is only middling in terms […]
After prime minister Boris Johnson spoke of ‘catch up ketchup’ in his detail-light ‘levelling up’ speech in Coventry, Localis head of research Joe Fyans asks if devolution and local leadership can provide the special sauce required. To decry the ‘levelling up’ agenda for a lack of policy substance feels somewhat redundant at this point. In […]
The summer season is upon us and it feels life is back in some kind of rhythm, no matter how stilted it seems, a fortnight away from the full relaxation of lockdown. At national political, the end of term could be marked by the possible arrival of the much-awaited levelling up white paper and the […]
Last Wednesday while Dominic Cummings’ testimony was dominating national attention, Localis convened a policy debate on what a long-term approach to the funding of local services might look like in the current context. We assembled The MJ’s very own Michael Burton, Abdool Kara, executive leader, local services from the National Audit Office (NAO), Lancashire CC’s chief executive […]
If timing is everything, there’s never a good time to talk about local government finances. In the spring it is ousted to its rightful place in the fiscal pecking order below health, defence and education – with a bone or two thrown into pothole relief. Summer’s a washout. When we are back to school in […]
Who should be ruling us and by what right should anyone claim to be an expert in governing, or steering the ship of state? What Dominic Cummings said before the joint commons select committees last month is, once you strip away the emotion and impact, a plain tale as old as the hills. What practical […]
The injunction to “live local and prosper” is the order of the day in the aftermath of last week’s local and devolved regional elections. Good quality neighbourhoods, vibrant high streets, decent school provision and abundant high-skilled jobs from a prosperous local economy – everything that instils pride in place should be encouraged. The Government can […]
Yesterdays Queen’s Speech was undeniably short on surprises, yet there is still some new information to be gleaned on the size and shape of the Levelling Up agenda and the future of local government in England, which we expound upon below. The entire speech and supporting documents are available here. Levelling up slides into focus When […]
Like a wild schoolyard football game, it will be a case of everyone’s eyes on the ball, with their legs enthusiastically following, as we throw our attention into the joyful pile-on of local and devolved election results. We should certainly enjoy the spectacle of postponed local democracy restored, while voters in their millions flock to […]