When Localis published The Making of an Industrial Strategy in March, some in local government saw our call for Strategic Authorities as weighing in on one side of the reorganisation debate. This was as predictable as it was wrong. Let me replay our argument. Places like Greater Manchester, the West Midlands or Cornwall enjoy enhanced […]
The ‘local’ is in vogue. Liberalism isn’t. In the UK, at least. These two points are related. A misrepresentation of liberalism has been cultivated in political discourse – that it’s the playthings of North Londoners obsessed with dinner parties, sexual freedom and Class A drugs. Apparently, the economic and social liberalism that has dominated politics […]
There are many reasons why the campaign to keep Britain in the European Union failed, many of them flowing from a condition that long predated the referendum: at a cultural level, the UK had never joined the European project in the first place. There was institutional membership, signatures on treaties and technical integration. But the […]
Even in normal times, making the case for beauty as a legitimate concern for public policy is a hard sell, and these are far from normal times. Policy makers are far more comfortable in the realm of the quantitative than the qualitative and beauty, especially in relation to the built environment, is often seen as […]
If localism’s aspiration is to ensure local citizens have a voice, then its advocates may need to learn a new language to hear what the demos is saying. Most people in Britain don’t speak public sector jargonese and the demand that the masses learn it by rote (or shut up) confirms the idea of a […]
Parliamentary arithmetic and an overhaul of the country’s relationship with Europe has meant the government is often accused of a withered domestic agenda. Yet the most important reform of this administration after Brexit, industrial strategy, has the potential to really improve people’s lives. While industrial strategy is nothing new – government has always done it […]
Employers and government should both chip in to radically quicken the time taken for first-time buyers to save house deposits through the auto-enrolment of monthly pay-packets – Localis has today urged. The call comes as one of three main recommendations presented by the think-tank Localis in a report focused on how to disrupt the housing […]
Independent think-tank Localis has today issued a collection of essays from leading political experts and analysts exploring themes of place, identity and national renewal in the context of the political uncertainty unleashed by Brexit and the outcome of June’s general election. Entitled ‘Neo-localism – rediscovering the nation’ the collection includes contributions from Philip Collins, chief […]
In response to today’s conference speech by Conservative Party leader Theresa May, in which she called for government to “get back into the business of building houses”, Localis chief executive Liam Booth-Smith said: “Theresa May was right in saying it would not be quick or easy to reignite home ownership in Britain once again. “The […]
In response to today’s conference speech by leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, in which he will call for the establishment of a National Education Service, Localis chief executive Liam Booth-Smith writes: Jeremy Corbyn has hit upon the right diagnosis in automation, but has fluffed his policy response to the problem. The creation of a […]