Capital changes: local bonds and the new relationship with private finance
December 11, 2009

We are one of the only developed countries not to see a thriving municipal bond market for public infrastructure debt, a practice that sustains local public works in the USA and Europe alike. Chris Leslie and David Smith, Public Servant.

Total Capital, Total Complexity?
December 7, 2009

The ‘Total Place’ notion has set politicians competing to prove that they best understand how the once 1990s concept of ‘joined up government’ might actually become a local reality in the 21st century.
Chris Leslie, LGC

Preparing for the gathering financial storm
October 27, 2009

Cutting existing revenue programmes is harder than axing theoretical infrastructure plans, which is precisely what the Treasury is already doing, reducing the current £44bn capital investment budget in half to £22bn by 2013-14. Chris Leslie, Local Government Chronicle

Will Whitehall’s change of direction leave localities out in the cold?
October 26, 2009

Allowing local institutions to mature and do their own capital deals, with greater latitude for innovation, may be the best prospect for salvaging the core of our nation’s infrastructure in what may be a very dark period ahead.

Capital Ideas
October 26, 2009
They used to say that the national obsession was home property values, dominating middle-class dining table conversations up and down the country throughout the 1980s and 1990s. How things change. Today our media and politicians are discovering a new obsession; the collected anxieties about the escalating budget deficit and the state of our national debt. Chris Leslie, Public Finance

Let patients choose their doctors
September 17, 2009
Underpinning Andy Burnham's decision to open up patient access to GPs is an increasing recognition by all political parties that the citizen, as well as the professional, should have a greater say in when, where and how services are accessed. NLGN's report People Power set out why this reform and others of its type should no longer be seen as a discretionary bonus. Nigel Keohane, The Guardian

The name is bond…
September 10, 2009
The recession has taken its toll on many communities, yet there has been a dearth of capital stimulus to counteract its effect. While the banking crisis has provoked significant intervention, there has been insufficient reform and ingenuity to tackle the crisis in public infrastructure finance. Chris Leslie, www.publicfinance.co.uk

A lesson in prevention
September 8, 2009
The conviction of the airline bomb plotters will have served as a shocking and salutary lesson to many. It reminds us that the threat from al-Qaida inspired terrorism remains substantial. Anna Turley, The Guardian