After months of negotiations central government has reached agreement with the Liverpool City Region and West Midlands combined authorities for the devolution of powers and funding away from...
With today’s agreement of devolution deals for Birmingham and Liverpool city regions, it is full steam ahead for the government’s devolution project. But one question remains to be...
According to Tolstoy in the opening of Anna Karenina, happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. With so many ways to be unhappy, it’s no surprise that the...
There is little disagreement with the principle of government’s plans for devolution revolution in England. But now that the chancellor has begun putting his money where his mouth is, it looks like...
Technology and big data offer the seductive promise of better solutions to social problems. But such tools should be devolved to citizens and communities, not kept in the hands of bureaucrats.
The chancellor’s decision to fully localise business rates signals a shift to a mode of civic entrepreneurialism that will leave local authorities fending for themselves and at the mercy of...
The trend towards ever-greater outsourcing is putting vital public services in the hands of potentially unstable conglomerates but leaving public bodies with the asset risk.
How business rates decentralisation will work needs clarifying – especially for high-need councils – and the chancellor should remember Robert Maxwell when reforming pensions
Milton Keynes’ ambitious plan for growth is leading to the development of new ways to use data so transport and other key networks can cope with increased demand
Everyone in healthcare needs to understand finance, and finance staff need to know about clinical issues. The NHS Future-Focused Finance programme is bringing them together
Credit to George Osborne for the progress made on fiscal devolution by setting out a plan to localise business rates, but this must only be the beginning, not the end.
