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...
Surface tensions
This report from UK think tank Localis looks at working together against flash flooding. As the impacts of climate change become clearer every year, the UK must be better prepared for the manifold impacts of extreme weather events, including floods. In England alone, some 5.4 million homes – one-in-six – are at risk of flooding,...
Mapping a route to clean local growth
This report from UK think tank Localis looks at clearing the path to net zero. The UK is committed to reaching net zero by 2050, with numerous pieces of legislation enshrining the target and backing this politically. Understanding what needs to be done to drive decarbonisation, and what accompanying opportunities there are for increasing prosperity...
The connected society
This report from UK think tank Localis provides a policy toolkit for local engagement in the public realm. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the context of a clear national mandate for levelling up, public organisations and councils across the political spectrum are waking up to the idea that there is a...
Recovery and renewal on the Kent high street
This report from UK think tank Localis looks at a sustained post-Covid local economic recovery and the need for high streets to be able thrive and grow. There is perhaps no better barometer of local economic health than the local high street. Rightly or wrongly, nothing gives such an immediate impression of a place. And...
Reaching rural properties
This report from UK think tank Localis looks at the role of off-grid heating in the transition to Net Zero. Localis was commissioned by Liquid Gas UK to undertake a rigorous place-based analysis to investigate energy provision and decarbonisation in hard-to-reach and off-grid properties in rural areas. The intention in our report has been to...
Resetting the South East
This report from UK think tank Localis looks at levelling Up after Brexit, climate change, and COVID. As one of only three regions of the country to be net contributors to the Exchequer, the role of the South East region in advancing the levelling up agenda for national renewal remains pivotal. Resetting the South East...
The Medici Code
This report from UK think tank Localis provides reflections and responses to the Levelling Up White Paper. The Levelling Up White Paper, released in February 2022, represents the most significant, comprehensive and wide-reaching UK government statement on devolution, geographic inequality and regional political economy in at least a decade. The paper filled the intellectual void...