Building Healthier Communities: The Case for Investing in Public Health
Explore how targeted, community-based public health strategies can improve lives, reduce NHS pressure, and deliver cost savings for local authorities.
York’s economy receives £2bn boost from tourism
21/07/2025 Tourism contributed £2.01bn to York’s economy last year, latest figures have revealed. |
Call for £5bn investment to revamp high streets
10/07/2025 An investment of £5bn is needed to boost UK high streets and city centres, think tank says. |
Proposals launched for West End pedestrian zone
04/07/2025 Westminster City Council and The Crown Estate yesterday revealed proposals to pedestrianise large areas of the West End. |
Motorhome tourism could boost local economies, says lobby group
23/06/2025 A lobby group has called on councils to increase motorhome and overnight parking facilities. |
Local authority reclaims Blackpool Tower
05/06/2025 Blackpool Council has taken over management duties of Blackpool Tower, marking an ‘exciting new chapter for Blackpool’s tourism industry’. |
Visitor levies could generate millions for local economies, say mayors
03/06/2025 English mayors have urged the Government to allow councils to introduce visitor levies to boost regional economies, tourism and infrastructure. |
Welsh councils prepare to transform community spaces
12/05/2025 Nine councils in Wales are due to receive £31.5m to support ongoing development projects in local towns and communities. |
Growth at heart of LGA White Paper
03/06/2024 The Local Government Association (LGA) has called for powers and funding so that councils can take a leading role in driving inclusive growth. |
Mayors meet to hear growth plans
13/05/2024 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has summoned his party’s newly-elected mayors for a meeting to detail his plans for economic growth. |
Call for evidence boost in local economic policy
16/04/2024 Centre for Cities has called for more evidence to be at the heart of local economic policy making. |
Making England smoke-free could redirect £11bn to local economies
09/04/2024 A new study has found that if everyone in England stopped smoking, £10.9bn could be redirected to local economies each year. |
Levelling up must continue, urges think-tank
22/01/2024 Efforts to level up the country and devolve more powers to local government should continue following the General Election, a think-tank has urged. |
Fund to go to town centre 'champions'
19/12/2023 New guidance for the government’s £1.1bn ‘long term plan for towns’ has confirmed the boards in charge of spending the cash should be led by a local independent chair who will act as a ‘champion’ for the town. |
West Yorkshire to host £220m investment zone
21/11/2023 A new investment zone has been announced for West Yorkshire focused on life sciences. |
Current climate making it ‘impossible’ for councils to carry on
15/11/2023 Soaring demand, rising pay bills and inflationary costs are making it ‘virtually impossible’ to keep councils going, a senior chief executive has said. |
Give cities the power to boost growth, says Haldane
28/09/2023 Giving city leaders new powers, including the ability to raise their own taxes, could boost UK economy by £100bn a year, former Bank of England economist says. |
LGA: ‘Radical shift’ towards local employment support needed
25/07/2023 Council leaders have called for a ‘radical shift’ from centralised employment support after a consultation emphasised the benefits of 'local involvement'. |
Glasgow seeks more powers
28/03/2023 Glasgow is to formally approach Holyrood and Westminster for more powers to help revitalise its city centre. |
Budget 2023: LEPs to be scrapped
15/03/2023 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are to be effectively abolished within a year, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in the Budget. |
Budget 2023: Hunt to boost mayors' financial autonomy
15/03/2023 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced the Government will ‘boost mayors’ financial autonomy’ in his Budget. |
Main cogs of council finance ‘out of synch’, think tank says
02/03/2023 The ‘principal cogs of local government finance’ are out of synch, a leading think tank has warned. |
County chiefs call for powers to solve rural workforce crisis
06/02/2023 Council leaders have called for powers to tackle labour squeeze as a new analysis reveals that hundreds of thousands of people have left the rural workforce. |
Labour outlines huge devolution push
05/12/2022 Labour proposes removing ‘dead hand of centralisation’ by devolving to local government wide-ranging powers over employment, growth, transport and education. |
Funding request to rescue inflation-hit City Deal
30/11/2022 Derry City & Strabane DC is to request more funding to back its £250m City Deal as inflation threatens to force planned projects to be scaled back. |
Reeves to make case for economic devolution
23/11/2022 The shadow chancellor will make the case for ‘deeper and broader’ economic devolution as Labour stresses the need for ‘more local powers’ over the economy. |
Mini-Budget: Government in 'early discussions' on Investment Zones
23/09/2022 The Government is in ‘early discussions with nearly 40 places’ including Tees Valley and the West Midlands about creating new Investment Zones offering tax cuts for businesses, the chancellor has confirmed. |
Skills devolution to boost jobs market by one million
11/07/2022 Devolution of skills funding could allow a million people to return to the jobs market, new research has found. |
‘Clean Air Net Zero’ approach could boost local areas by £1.6bn
13/06/2022 Local policymakers must consider the air quality impact of net zero policies to save billions of pounds and to avoid a ‘dieselgate scandal’, new report says. |
Councils urged to boost local digital skills
06/06/2022 Councils urged to do more to help small businesses with digital training as evidence suggests businesses are struggling with the social media revolution. |
Centre has 'poor understanding' of what works on local growth, says NAO expert
16/05/2022 A large proportion of government spending is ‘not robustly evaluated’ and there is poor understanding by the centre about which approaches to local economic growth work best, says an expert from the National Audit Office. |
Levelling up plans will fail, IfG report claims
31/03/2022 The Government’s plans for levelling up will not cut regional inequality, a report from the influential Institute for Government (IfG) has claimed. |
Council pension schemes urged to invest in local economies
02/02/2022 Local government pension funds will be targetted to pump billions of pounds into regional economies as part of the new levelling up White Paper. |
Devolution for all: Gove unveils long-awaited White Paper
02/02/2022 By 2030, every part of England that wants one will have a devolution deal, the Government’s long-awaited Levelling Up White Paper has revealed. |
Leaders lay out plans for 'just transition' to net-zero
08/11/2021 Council and combined authority leaders have detailed plans for a ‘just transition’ to net-zero as new research revealed nine million people could be hit economically. |
Johnson vows to ‘get care done’
06/10/2021 The Prime Minister delivered a speech peppered with quips but short on announcements at the Conservative Party Conference. |
Commission calls for shift of focus in levelling up
20/09/2021 The Commission into Prosperity and Community Placemaking has concluded investment should be made in local neighbourhoods rather than grand infrastructure projects. |
Ministry in rebrand to put levelling up centre stage
20/09/2021 New secretary of state Michael Gove will preside over a beefed up new department with a firm focus on levelling up, it has been revealed. |
Over a third of the most deprived areas will not benefit from Levelling Up Fund
25/08/2021 More than a third of England’s most deprived areas will not benefit from the Government’s £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund, according to new Salvation Army research released today. |
Croydon returns to drawing board on regeneration plans
17/08/2021 The council maintains delayed plans to develop a Westfield shopping centre are going ahead, despite planning permission for the development having expired. |
Northern mayors wielding more power than devo deals suggest
16/08/2021 A hundred days after the May 2021 elections Northern mayors are wielding more power – particularly ‘soft’ power - than their devolution deals suggest, says new analysis. |
Johnson: Bring your devolution plans to me
15/07/2021 Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for local leaders to take their devolution plans to him in a keynote speech from the West Midlands this morning. |
Levelling up funds risk 'amplifying regional inequalities'
01/07/2021 A new report from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) is critical of the current approach of bidding for pots of money. |
LGiU report calls for a local government-led Building Back Better commission
16/06/2021 A local government-led Building Back Better commission should be part of a new place settlement after the pandemic, a new report from the LGiU think-tank has urged. |
Report finds cities hit by 'Zoomshock' are best placed for economic recovery
21/05/2021 Cities have been hollowed out by COVID but they are still best placed to drive the recovery, a report by economic growth specialists Metro Dynamics has said. |
Queen's Speech: Levelling up takes centre stage
11/05/2021 The Government’s levelling up agenda was at the forefront of today’s Queen’s Speech, but the role councils will play remains uncertain. |
Levelling up needs long-term approach, says report
10/05/2021 A shake-up of local government funding is required to achieve a levelling up of the country, a new report has concluded. |
No simple north-south divide, says report
19/04/2021 There is no simple north-south divide, a new report by Legal and General (L&G) has argued. |
Budget 2021: Sunak freezes VAT rate to support hospitality and tourism
03/03/2021 Support for hospitality and tourism businesses was underpinned in the Budget by a freezing of the current 5% rate of VAT for another six months until the end of September. |
Labour calls for council powers to intervene in high streets
25/02/2021 Proposals for councils to take over empty shops and a ‘wholesale reform’ of business rates have been put forward by Labour. |
What next for the capital post-pandemic?
03/02/2021 The levelling up agenda has focused on the Midlands and the North, but London’s economy has also been hard hit by the pandemic. The MJ and BT spoke to eight London chief executives on how they are adapting to the changes. Michael Burton reports. |
Councils propose ‘super-district’
02/02/2021 Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick DCs have revealed proposals to merge by 2024. |
Pushing for real reform
21/01/2021 The pandemic was a game changer for the central/local government relationship, says Joanne Roney, who has started her two-year stint as president of Solace. |
Chancellor announces new support package for businesses
22/10/2020 The chancellor Rishi Sunak has increased support for workers and jobs hit by tougher COVID-19 restrictions following a barrage of protests from businesses, particularly those in Tier 2 areas. |
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Greater Manchester will move into Tier 3 as talks collapse
20/10/2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Greater Manchester will head into Tier 3 restrictions on Friday after talks with local leaders broke up without a deal. |
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Greater Manchester's mayor will not 'roll over' on COVID cash
19/10/2020 Greater Manchester’s standoff with government on moving to new tier three COVID-19 restrictions continues today, with mayor Andy Burham saying he will not ‘roll over’ at the sight of a cheque. |
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Manchester leaders unite to oppose Tier 3 restrictions
15/10/2020 Local leaders across Greater Manchester have rejected plans to put the region into Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions. |
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Councils key to levelling up agenda, says report
02/10/2020 Local government must have adequate funding to level-up deprived English towns, according to new research. |
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LEPs need capacity boost to improve delivery, research finds
07/09/2020 Local enterprise partnerships (LEP) would be better at delivering large-scale capital projects if they had more capacity, independent research for the Government has found. |
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DCN: Bigger local government is ‘not better or cheaper’
01/09/2020 Proposals for county unitary councils would be 122 times larger than the average council in Germany, a new report by the District Councils’ Network (DCN) warns today. |
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Combined authority first governmental body to join alliance
13/08/2020 Mayor Steve Rotheram has announced that Liverpool City Region combined authority is the first governmental body in the world to join the wellbeing economy alliance. |
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PM announces new powers for local lockdown
17/07/2020 Councils will get new powers to shut down premises in a bid to control the spread of coronavirus as we head towards the next phase of the pandemic, the Prime Minister has announced. |
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Better response to pandemic from European councils, says think-tank
16/07/2020 Local government across Europe has been able to react to the coronavirus crisis with greater power and autonomy than in the UK, a report published today has found. |
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Local groups urge PM to support a ‘community-powered’ post-Covid recovery
16/06/2020 Over 100 organisations have called on the Government to support a community-powered economic recovery which they argue would help revive local areas. |
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Jenrick launches plans to kickstart housing market
13/05/2020 Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has restarted the housing market as part of the Government’s plans to ease lockdown. |
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Put localism at the heart of recovery, say city leaders
11/05/2020 A centralised ‘command and control approach’ to easing lockdown will not work, city leaders have claimed. |
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'Too early to tell' if councils need more cash, says Jenrick
07/05/2020 It is ‘too early to tell’ if councils will need more cash to tackle coronavirus, communities secretary Robert Jenrick has said. |
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District councils warn 500,000 at risk of homelessness
06/05/2020 Almost 500,000 households are at high risk of becoming homeless as a result of the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis, new analysis for the District Councils’ Network (DCN) has revealed. |
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Budget 2020: New West Yorkshire mayor announced
11/03/2020 A new directly-elected West Yorkshire mayor has been announced with the Government signing a new devolution deal amid plans to ‘level up’ the UK economy. |
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Oxford and Reading top city performance list
11/11/2019 Cities have largely recovered economically from the 2007/08 financial crisis but must now focus on housing affordability and health-related issues, according to PwC and Demos. |
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Only 5% of council leaders optimistic about Brexit
29/10/2019 Councils are increasingly downbeat about the impact of Brexit, with nearly three quarters (71%) of chiefs expecting it to have a ‘negative’ or ‘very negative’ impact on their local economy. |
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Government activates emergency funds for flood-hit councils
12/08/2019 The Government has activated an emergency fund for councils affected by flooding. |
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Anderson quits Northern Powerhouse Partnership in frustration
10/12/2018 Former chancellor George Osborne has voiced sympathy with Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson’s decision to quit the Northern Powerhouse Partnership. |
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Brexit will not halt economic growth, says Walkley
29/11/2018 Economic growth will not grind to a halt when we leave the European Union, chief executive of Homes England Nick Walkley has predicted. |
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LEP moves to become 'most transparent' in England
16/01/2018 A local enterprise partnership (LEP) that had funding restrictions slapped on it by the Government has approved transparency measures that go beyond national guidance. |
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Industrial Strategy snubs councils
27/11/2017 Business secretary Greg Clark has snubbed councils and empowered local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) in the Government’s long-awaited Industrial Strategy. |
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UK cities ‘need housing and transport strategies’
07/11/2017 UK cities are becoming more prosperous but success comes with a price tag of less affordable housing and longer commutes, according to research by PwC and Demos. |
