Betting the house
This report from UK think tank Localis examines local policy challenges and the 2024 general election. Betting the House presents a locally-focused analysis of the election manifestos of the two parties most likely to form a government in 2024, Labour and the Conservatives. However the election turns out, the incoming government must reckon with a...
Design for life
This report from UK think tank Localis presents an analysis of local regeneration policy through the lens of five overarching strategic concerns. The next political cycle is likely to be characterised by the vexing problem of improving the public realm in a situation of parlous public finances. Recent crises have left the state with very...
Building consent: housing by popular demand
This report from UK think tank Localis sets out ideas for housing by popular demand in harmony with existing communities and in line with the contours of place. The contributors to Localis’s essay collection set out ideas for a hope-filled future in which the new homes and developments our country needs might be built in...
Cleaning up our act
This report from UK think tank Localis looks at reforming landfill tax for place resilience and best local outcomes. Over the last thirty years landfill policy has been among the most successful and singularly effective of government environmental policies. Since its introduction, the UK Landfill Tax has succeeded in drastically reducing mixed municipal waste to...
Inn-valuable
This report from UK think tank Localis looks at the value of pubs to society and to the economy. Across Britain, pubs have long stood as familiar and welcoming landmarks. Their significance goes beyond mere watering holes; they have consistently played a pivotal role in knitting communities together and promoting social cohesion. Inn-valuable looks at...
Brightness on the edge of town
This report from UK think tank Localis looks at how Community Land Trusts can deliver affordable housing. The Government has recognised the benefits that second homes and short-term holiday lettings can bring to local economies and to the tourism sector in terms of increasing consumer choice and distributing tourism across the country. At the same...
Level measures
This report from UK think tank Localis looks at a modern agenda for public service integration. Perhaps the greatest of the myriad challenges facing local government is the continued delivery of local public services against the headwinds of rising inflation and inexorable demographic pressures. With the dozen missions outlined in the Levelling Up White Paper...
Climate resilience in local plans
This report from UK think tank Localis looks at adaptation and mitigation in local development as councils adapt to widespread flooding. As climate shifts worldwide, councils across England are being hit by increasingly extreme weather patterns including violent storm surges, unbearable temperatures, and widespread flooding. At the level of place, our local authorities are best...
Moving through the gears
This report from UK think tank Localis looks at where local government finance might be in 2030. Council finances are in a precarious position. Wound tightly from the time of the astringencies of the 2010 spending review, to the limited protections that saw the sector through the Covid years, the principal cogs of local government...
Public rental homes: fresh perspectives
This report from UK think tank Localis looks at what percentage of private homes must be provided to produce the number of affordable public rental homes needed. Just short of 250,000 new council homes were built in 1953. Housing minister Harold MacMillan permitted local authorities to build as many homes as there were applicants on...