In this reflective blog, Mark Swift explores how his LPIP Fellowship reinforced the importance of community knowledge, participation and productive challenge in helping institutions remain open to learning, innovation and transformation. A fellowship and a moment of reflection When I joined the Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Fellowship programme, I expected to learn more about … Continue reading “Being the Grit in the System: Reflections from a Social Entrepreneur and LPIP Fellow”
Art Without Architecture – The Accidental System for Supporting Cultural Development and Why It Needs Addressing
Val Birchall reflects on how fragmented cultural funding and governance are undermining place-based cultural development, and argues that local government reorganisation and devolution present a rare opportunity to create a more coherent cultural ecosystem. While Local Government tackles another reorganisation, the promise of devolution and the increasing challenge of funding discretionary services, the government has … Continue reading “Art Without Architecture – The Accidental System for Supporting Cultural Development and Why It Needs Addressing”
We Are Guest – Part Five
Join LPIP Hub Place Fellow Helen O’Gara as she finishes her blog series ‘We Are Guests’, exploring the felt experience of the community development workforce. This final blog brings knowledge mobilisation into focus and asks what policy creation and implementation should look like. View the other blogs in the series. What should it look like? … Continue reading “We Are Guest – Part Five”
How Does Civic Power Accumulate?
Mark Swift argues that places must move beyond one-off participation initiatives and invest in the civic infrastructure that enables civic capability, confidence, leadership and influence to accumulate across the life course. This blog is based on Mark’s recent report – Building Civic Capability: A Life Course Framework for Place. From participation to capability Over the … Continue reading “How Does Civic Power Accumulate?”
Policy News – July 2026
Policy News highlights the latest reports, inquiries, consultations and research shaping local and regional policy across the UK. Explore key developments in devolution, economic growth, community ownership, skills and place-based policymaking. View previous editions. If you have a piece of research you would like to feature in Policy News, please get in touch. UK Government and … Continue reading “Policy News – July 2026”
We Are Guests – Part Four
This is the fourth blog in the series ‘We Are Guests’, by LPIP Hub Place Fellow Helen O’Gara. Helen looks at the interaction of policy with the community development workforce based on interviews with four community development professionals. View the other blogs in the series. What is policy? “It’s a messy space, but I sometimes … Continue reading “We Are Guests – Part Four”
Placecast Episode 19: Why UK Local Economic Policy Keeps Failing
In this episode of Placecast, presenter Nicola Headlam is joined by Glenn Athey, a freelance consultant and LPIP Fellow with over 31 years of experience in economic development. Glenn brings a forensic and refreshingly candid lens to one of the most persistent problems in UK public policy: why decades of place-based economic interventions have repeatedly … Continue reading “Placecast Episode 19: Why UK Local Economic Policy Keeps Failing”
Universities and Place-Based Lifelong Learning for Climate Action
Dr Andrew Reeves highlights the key role that civic universities can play in their localities to support learning towards action on climate change through collaboration with a range of public, private and community sector bodies. It has long been established that the societal transformation needed to address the climate emergency relies on commitment and changes … Continue reading “Universities and Place-Based Lifelong Learning for Climate Action”
The Implementation Doom Loop: Why UK Regional Policy Keeps Failing
Dr Glenn Athey argues that the UK’s national policy system is itself a primary, structural cause of the regional economic disparities it repeatedly promises to fix — and sets out how national and local leaders can break the cycle. This blog draws on his Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) research at the University of Birmingham, … Continue reading “The Implementation Doom Loop: Why UK Regional Policy Keeps Failing”
We Are Guests – Part Three
LPIP Hub Place Fellow Helen O’Gara’s series ‘We Are Guests’ continues with a third blog exploring the community infrastructure and experiences of funding felt by the community development workforce. View the other blogs in the series. “I think what you need is a common something that you can work together on” “They’re almost a … Continue reading “We Are Guests – Part Three”