Building back better and building beautiful have to be grounded in ‘genius loci’ – the spirit and harmony of the places and localities in which we are creating well-designed homes and delivering the vital infrastructure to renew or create strong communities.
With an eye to economic as well as social and cultural renewal, Localis’s 2021 placemaking workstream, ‘Building for Renewal’ will examine through research and events the following key themes:
The last nine months of Covid-19 induced lockdowns has served as a stress test without parallel for our social infrastructure and fabric. We have learned the limits and extent of the central state’s ability to command and control from Whitehall and the inner-resilience and capacity of the local and hyperlocal to persevere and intuitively innovate on the ground – in many cases […]
We have reached a low watermark for political support for councils investing resources in assets or activities that deliver revenue streams to fund vital local public services. Among stand out exemplars of unwise behaviour, poster boys for commercialism gone bad, we can number Spelthorne Borough Council’s billions of PWLB borrowing to invest in its economic […]
A range of national bodies worked together to enhance councils’ understanding of how they can diagnose and reduce the risk of failure in corporate governance, and what success factors can point the way to greater strength in this area. Research was led by the Centre for Public Scrutiny assisted by Localis, and funded by a consortium of […]
In previous years, when it came to criminal activity there was very little support available for businesses. The common view the business community was often that the police treated this as a victimless crime – so it wasn’t, in consequence, seen as a priority. In seeking to change this situation and address the underlying causes, […]
From the crises in elderly care and youth crime to the desperate challenge of building enough homes across the country, the need to properly fund, so as to properly deliver valued local services and infrastructure has never been clearer to the public. In this environment, the case for giving our local authorities greater powers to […]
The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 was first presented to Parliament a decade ago, enshrining in law the duty of public sector commissioning to pay regard to economic, social and environmental wellbeing when making procurement decisions. In this time, the incorporation of a social value element into the assessment of public sector contracts has […]
A group of ten Conservative MPs from the 2019 intake has today set out an ambitious blueprint for the future of housing to rethink the social and economic role of housing over the next decade. The proposals are contained in a post-Budget essay collection entitled “Valuing Housing, Improving Lives’ and encompass how housing policy and […]
Although its principles are now well-established and practiced, the full promise of a total place approach to area budgeting and comprehensive public service reformation in localities remains unrealised. At a time when ministers and officials are straining all means necessary to funnel billions of pounds from the health service’s 70th anniversary budget boost into shovel-ready […]
Productive businesses need prosperous communities to thrive and grow – prosperous communities need productive and profitable businesses. This report argues the relationship is symbiotic. However, the local economic landscape has changed and the relationship between major business and “place” must now be renewed if local industrial strategies are to deliver local economic success. Recommending that […]
The fight for cleaner air is one of liveability. What changes and investments are society willing to take for their place to be a more pleasant one to live and work in? How willing are people, businesses and governments to change the way they operate for a more sustainable economy? At what point do questions […]