After another successful year at the party conferences last year, we are now looking for partners to work with us at this year’s conference season. You can read further about our offer either in our conference brochure or below. Our offer at the party conferences With this year’s conference season coming after a turbulent EU […]
As the Budget illustrated, there is unlikely to be any let up in neither the Government’s austerity nor devolution agendas over this parliament. Local authorities up and down the country have been through a lot of change in the past few years and given the extent of this ongoing transformation, predicting what local government will […]
In Localis chief executive Alex Thomson’s latest opinion piece for the MJ he considers the importance of councils holding reserves. You can read the piece in full here or below. A great deal has been written and said about local authority reserves in the past few years. It has been thankfully rather less high profile […]
Writing for the Local Government Chronicle (LGC), Localis chief executive Alex Thomson considers the increasing similarities between local government and Lego. Read the article below or in full on the LGC website. Entertaining children at home when you don’t want to resort to the TV isn’t always easy but one option that never fails is […]
Localis research fellow Jack Airey writes for the MJ on Scottish Labour’s council tax reforms and what the national party could learn from them. You can read the piece in full here or below. For all the promises of radical new ideas, ‘effective opposition’ and unrelenting loyalty to policy over politics, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party has developed disappointingly […]
Localis chief executive Alex Thomson recently gave comment to the MJ on the role he thinks councils and other public bodies should play in the EU referendum: “Chief executive of think-tank Localis, Alex Thomson, agrees with the LGA’s neutrality, arguing that it ‘wouldn’t be wise’ for bodies to ‘tell people what to do’ on issues […]
Today Localis Chief Executive Alex Thomson will give a speech to MEPs on the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)’s Joint Policy Group on Subsidiarity and Localism about how devolving powers to UK local authorities is crucial for supporting growth. The speech entitled ‘Devolving for Growth: Lessons from the UK’ will talk about how over recent years the […]
In Localis chief executive Alex Thomson’s latest opinion piece for the MJ he considers what the rise of non-traditional political figures might mean for localism. You can read the piece in full here or below. Given the bitter internecine disputes and non-resignations that have dominated the party of late, it’s easy to forget that UKIP won […]
In an opinion piece for the LGA, we were asked to consider which powers we would like to see devolved to local authorities and why.
Making Devolution Work The start of the New Year presents an opportunity to reflect on what was a significant year for local government. Amongst the many reforms announced in the past year, we have seen a flurry of devolution deals signed in Cornwall, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, the North East, Sheffield, Tees Valley and West Midlands […]