Writing for the MJ, Liam Booth-Smith considers what local government can expect at Conservative party conference. You can read the piece in full here or below. A party conference is actually quite an impressive affair. Politics at its most professional and amateur in equal measure. The set piece speeches, the confluence of money and media, the sheer maddening concentration […]
A report published today by think tank Localis makes the case for Government to provide mortgage deposits for Generation Rent. The report, Turning Generation Rent into homeowners, argues that for younger people the housing market is an acute example of intergenerational inequity. It is a rigged race, where the finishing line is being moved further […]
Writing for City AM in support of our new white paper ‘Turning Generation Rent into homeowners‘, Liam Booth-Smith writes on the case for green belt reform. You can read the piece in full here or below. Imagine a race in which the finishing line moved further away, faster than you could run. Rigged against you, no matter how […]
If successful in the Labour leadership election and then a general election, one of the ten policies which Jeremy Corbyn has said he would implement as Prime Minister is “to ‘insource’ our public and local council services”. Similar to his and fellow leadership candidate Owen Smith’s pledges to establish a “fully public” NHS, this would […]
This note from the Chief Executive is from our September newsletter. You can read the newsletter in full here and register to receive it straight to your inbox on our homepage. There’s something pornographic about the politics of the far left. Not literally, but in the coarseness, veiled threats, hints of misogyny, that tang of soft violence. There’s […]
Research Fellow, Jack Airey, considers the implications of the Government’s plans to devolve Attendance Allowance to local authorities. When the then Chancellor announced last year that local authorities would fully retain their business rates income by 2020, he was widely praised for pulling a decent sized rabbit out the hat – albeit with the caveat […]
Writing for Prospect, Liam Booth-Smith considers how the Labour Party can rebuild itself through devolution. You can read the piece in full here or below. When the history of these years of the Labour party is written, there will be a footnote for the year 2017 thanking the former Tory chancellor George Osborne. Next year, some of our largest city […]
Join us at this year’s party conferences where we will be hosting the following events: Labour Party Conference, Liverpool Roundtable | On the house: can public-private partnerships offer something for nothing? 08:30-09:30 Tuesday 27th September In association with Willmott Dixon Private roundtable event to consider the role that public-private partnerships could play in solving England’s housing crisis. Conservative […]
Writing for Prospect, Liam Booth-Smith considers localism in the NHS. You can read the piece in full here or below. A few years ago my old boss got into a minor spat with then Health Secretary Andy Burnham over the claim that N is “the most important letter in NHS.” (As I write that sentence it sounds ridiculous, […]
This note from the Chief Executive is from our August newsletter. You can read the newsletter in full here and register to receive it straight to your inbox on our homepage. As I write this note, I glance at the cover of a magazine on my table. It is lit up with the words “DON’T PANIC”. The subtitle […]