One other idea for Mayors - you could use some of the budget to provide tax reliefs to companies, if you’d like to! Here’s a version of this this idea that I worked up as a national policy. We are probably past this once income taxes are retained, but there’s nothing to say Mayors couldn’t do this

Much of England doesn’t yet have a Mayor so won’t quickly benefit from areas being allowed to retain some income tax In the meantime - is there not a case for allowing city councils, or the otherwise highest tier, in places without Mayors - the same freedom? It would set new Mayors up well, too!

Interesting that MHCLG is being tipped to become a new super ministry. Makes sense given AB's interests. It has felt at times lately the dept has had its capacity absorbed by some big ticket items (local government reocganisation being the big one), taking focus from other big priorities.

Interesting in @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social piece on what I think is the #1 policy challenge for Burnham to work through, to make a success of his agenda How do you actually make it so that investment in new industrial sites translates into pounds in the pockets of locals, especially poorer ones?

ICON analysis also confirms the same trend. Anecdotally, too, ive found community boards in wealthier areas are all full of notices about hobbies (lots of arts and crafts, music) In poorer areas there is little fun - it is all debt advice, food banks, NHS referrals..

One of the challenges in delivering 'growth in every postcode' is that for many poorer areas, they are just not in real reach of i) jobs which are in high-growth, high-wage sectors ii) jobs, generally

We also developed this model for devolving income tax first, and corporation tax and VAT later. It might be a bit techy but I do feel strongly it is an approach that is i) pro-growth and investment, and ii) would support places with much lower tax bases who risk 'falling behind'

Lots of talk about fiscal devolution lately. A few summers back I helped run a Citizens Jury exploring attitudes to fiscal trade-offs with the public, including on devolving fiscal powers. The principles they decided are still relevant + IMO should guide a new government's thinking on the *how*

Interesting idea from Burnham re a "Makerfield Test" for government, so places like Makerfield are better considered in govt policymaking. ICON developed a similar "Neighbourhood Test" idea, for governments to do same re deprived neighbourhoods, but in the end we dropped it. Here's why:

I think this is a good argument from William Hague against a Labour leadership contest. Burnham, as leader of the Labour Party, should also look to restore the selection of leaders of the party to the PLP in my view.

This point addressing the criticism of government initiatives that favour particular areas over others as creating a 'postcode lottery' is particularly worth reading.

Buried at the bottom of the report, in paragraphs 666–667, is the most important passage in the whole Review. Youth unemployment is not a new issue - over the last 25 years there has been no shortage of efforts to reduce it. But at the end of it all, the NEET rate has barely budged. 2/

Interesting US study on communities and anti-system politics Finds that communities with lots of bonding social capital i.e. strong ties where people are very similar, is strongly associated with backing Trump. Those with bridging capital, ie strong ties across social groups, show the opposite.

Politics is often highly emotive, based on narratives and imagery. Yet policy work tends to limit itself solely with words and numbers, not images. Looking back at one ICON research paper and stumbled across this picture I took last summer ...probably my favourite "chart" of our work so far!

The Milburn review has lots of good data, however most of it is just spelling out long-term trends we already know. We have tried to crack this many times before, but we keep failing. Why is that? Some real, substantial engagement with that question would have been so much more valuable.

This is the broadsheet newspaper columnist equivalent of one of those "What the London Marathon taught me about B2B sales" style LinkedIn posts

Chris Curtis is spot on here. But the truth is that for Labour in opposition, ahead of GE24, the entire plan for this parliament was to effectively say/do little beyond steading the ship. Theirs was a "two-term, decade-long" project in which real reforms could only come in the second term.

A great paragraph in this essay from @georgeeaton.bsky.social. A vision of the good life is the thing that is most clearly missing from progressives at the moment. Believing that life is for living and our best times are ahead of us, not behind us, is what gets societies through troubled times.

Worth noting ICON's attempts at forecasting future health inequalities between neighbourhoods found that, based on current trends, we are unlikely to see real improvements in tackling the health divide by 2030

Some worrying new data from the ONS today. - Healthy Life Expectancy in the most deprived areas has *fallen* for both men and women, compared to both 2019 and 2021 data - Life Expectancy in the most deprived areas has still not recovered since COVID

Glad the Chancellor has asked the Treasury to look at fiscal devolution ahead of the Autumn budget. A model we developed at CPP in 2023 is one I still have confidence in. Prioritises growth *while* supporting poorer areas to make bigger investments sooner, pulling regions together not apart!

Government taking action on heating oil is correct. During the last energy crisis the price of home heating oil had already spiked, and falling, by the time government had made an intervention. For places such as Northern Ireland that depend on it much of the damage had been done.

We've built a data explorer for every neighbourhood receiving funding through the Pride in Place programme. You can map, zoom in, and compare every neighbourhood with data on deprivation, need, social capital, and social infrastructure. You can download it all It's completely free to use, too. 👇

We're talking about Plan 2 loans because the affected are old enough to be in jobs in the media/politics. Plan 5 loans are much worse, but their holders are too young to be listened to. The media class would not take them seriously. They didn't before. wonkwatch.substack.com/p/why-is-eve...

Quite the finding in @philtinline.bsky.social @futuregovforum.bsky.social report on power Nearly 61% who think their local high street is bad blame the council - just 37% think it's changing consumer demands Telling how often it is institutions, not social forces, people point the finger at!

For many of these places, what is the growth strategy? The places in most need are almost always the most isolated from the jobs market, and a huge number of them do not have good access to jobs in the governments eight growth sectors

A challenging - but very important - piece of research just published. New economic analysis of Mayoral devolution’s early impacts on economic growth do not find Mayoral areas to be growing faster AND it may be benefiting already-wealthy places not poorer ones, widening wealth gaps within places

The government wants to make this happen - Pride in Place, and powers in the English Devolution Bill, will help. Here are Popular's final recommendations for us - a playbook for government, councils, businesses, and communities to step up themselves and improve their parades.

They found four things Someone steps up to 'seize the initiatives' They intentionally curated their parade, saying no to units that could cause harm People were brought together - trades, councils, community facilities, to develop a common vision Activate - brand the parade, make it special!

Parades in deprived areas have many more formal health spaces (e.g. health centres) than informal spaces where people go to stay healthy (e.g. gyms), and lots and lots more takeaways and places selling unhealthy food. In such places you more likely to be a patient than a player, or participant...