Independent think tank the New Local Government Network (NLGN) has announced the appointment of Simon Parker as its new Director. Mr Parker joins NLGN from the Institute for Government where he is a Fellow. He was previously Head of Public Services for the think tank Demos and has worked on public services policy for the [...]

With investment in public building projects decreasing by 50% over the next four years, a new report recommends using the Local Government Pension Fund (LGPF), municipal bonds and council reserves to plug the shortfall. The New Local Government Network (NLGN) report, Capital Momentum: financing options for locally driven capital investment, argues that new funding strategies [...]

In the wake of the Coalition Government’s decision to scrap the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA), NLGN is today calling for remaining inspection regimes to be slimmed down and for local citizens to play a greater role in driving up standards. It also called for greater responsibility for local government in improving its own performance. Publishing [...]

Analysing figures from the recent Budget, NLGN is predicting that this could leave councils with a funding reduction of over £12 billion, which could lead to services being cut or charges for local services increasing.

Responding to the announcement from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on the Regional Growth Fund and the announcement on Local Enterprise Partnerships in this morning’s letter to councils and business leaders from Secretaries of State Eric Pickles and Vince Cable, Anna Turley, Acting Director of the New Local Government Network said: ‘NLGN wholeheartedly endorses and [...]

Responding to the Chancellor’s Budget Statement, Acting Director of the New Local Government Network Anna Turley said: “This is the toughest budget for decades and lays out the scale of the task facing local government in balancing the books. The scale of the cuts poses a serious challenge to councils’ ability to deliver services that [...]

This paper argues that users would benefit if better outcomes could be achieved more efficiently if public services were subject to less central instruction, as long as the necessary safeguards of transparency, scrutiny and accountability to local citizens are in place.

Commenting on the announcement in the Queen’s Speech of a new Decentralisation and Localism Bill, independent think-tank the New Local Government Network (NLGN) welcomed the “direction of travel” of the legislation but urged the Government to “focus as much on local financial reform as political change”. NLGN Acting Director, Anna Turley said: “There is a [...]