Ross Mudie

I tried to cover a lot of ground here. A few points developing the argument, regarding current government's "Pride in Place" etc: basically I like this stuff, but worry a bit about lack of realism about what they might achieve in isolation.

Great piece Nick

Good realistic essay by @npjgarland.bsky.social for @powertochange.org.uk. Key bit for me is communities policy being tied into a broader political economy.

Oh yes. My guess is that most places getting £ won't be starting from scratch and will have *something* in one form or another, be that what you describe or at least some very trusted organisations. More to do to coordinate the growing list of initiatives across increasingly strained bits of system

All fair points. I'm sure more is on its way on governance but one issue is a lack of institutional memory for this sort of thing, which doesn't help...similar on capacity, tho there is lots of good from the charity and foundations sectors to look to I'm sure govt is, before £ gets out the door

Agree but to give Labour some credit, I think they get it - Pride in Place is v social capital focussed, and having spoken to loads of Labour people about the programme they do genuinely seem to get that that is what it about at its core, rather than regular capital projects (though still important)

This is an excellent piece, which encapsulates a lot of what ICON has seen and heard in conversation with hundreds of people living in the poorest neighbourhoods all across the country

Another sign of shifting politics? Labour lead Reform by 11 among those who say they are very comfortable financially. But trail Reform by 16 among those who say they often struggle to make ends meet - in fact Greens are close to overtaking Lab for 2nd with those who say they are struggling most.

Exclusive: Starmer outspends Johnson on levelling up in first year Labour invested £2bn more on Levelling Up in its first year

Exclusive! Labour spends more on Boris Johnson's flagship policy in its first year than Boris Johnson did:

Steve Reed’s Yimbyism can’t win To connect to voters, politics needs to be rooted in place and community

Really interesting piece by James Baggaley on the dangers of policy without people - and the real divide within Labour:

www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Delighted to finally see this out in the world.

£5bn of investment into the hands of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, that communities will have agency over to deliver change for themselves.

Huge for @iconeighbours.bsky.social who have been invaluable in delivering this.

A positive: this is clearly a community pride/regeneration initiative for local government and it’s not making big claims for regional growth, which government appears to be pushing to mayors/strategic authorities.

Area based interventions are a good and very mainstream part of a government’s policy toolkit, so it’s pretty fatuous to criticise this on the grounds that ‘other policies have existed before’ or ‘this doesn’t fix all the big structural challenges facing advanced economies’.

PM to announce 'Pride in Place' programme with funding for 330 areas Communities will get new powers to revive neglected high streets in a move Labour insiders hope will give the party a boost against Reform UK.

PM to announce 'Pride in Place' programme with funding for 330 areas
https://news.sky.com/story/pm-to-announce-pride-in-place-programme-with-funding-for-330-areas-13437501?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter

Starmer gambles on ‘levelling up’-style initiative to tackle Reform threat Deprived communities to be given tens of millions to patch up derelict shops, pubs and libraries and ‘restore pride’ Deprived areas of the UK will be given tens of millions of pounds each from a new fund that Keir Starmer hopes will help Labour tackle the threat posed by Reform UK. The prime minister will launch the regeneration initiative on Thursday, gambling that an updated version of “levelling up” will address anger about Britain’s broken communities. Continue reading...

Starmer gambles on ‘levelling up’-style initiative to tackle Reform threat

Starmer gambles on ‘levelling up’-style initiative to tackle Reform threat Deprived communities to be given tens of millions to patch up derelict shops, pubs and libraries and ‘restore pride’

“[This] announcement makes clear that investment in the public realm and high streets is back as a political priority..." > really good that it is, but will be absolutely key that it can support community-led schemes www.theguardian.com/politics/202....

Communities to seize control over high streets and restore pride Local communities will be handed new powers to revitalise their high streets and restore pride in their towns.

Great that gov isn't setting up yet another pot of money that councils have to bid for. Much more efficient to allocate money & let councils and local people decide how to spend it. Community power to buy assets & decide what the high street looks like is also positive. www.gov.uk/government/n...

We are asking the wrong question on AI. It is less about "can it give me the answer?" and more "can we work out the answer?" new research shows. It is a *collaborative* rather than *individualistic* tool. Those with the greatest collaborative capabilities will thrive.

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Labour must rethink growth strategy to curb rise of far right, says top economist Former Bank chief economist Andy Haldane says left-behind communities need investment to stem populist tide

Everything in this absolutely correct - there is still more to do for the government's approach to growth to reach the communities that are in most deperate need of it, and curb the rise of the far right

More from @iconeighbours.bsky.social on this very soon...

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Childhood vaccinations have fallen off a cliff. How did we get here? Nearly one in five children who start school this year will not be protected against deadly diseases. Experts blame a perfect storm of misinformation, NHS strain and cultural barriers

A really interesting piece, of a problem that's clearly getting worse, so well worth reading: www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...

Incredibly stark, concerning chart in The Times this morning showing the vast urban-rural divides in child vaccination rates

A quick word on today's ONS household cost indices which are the key metric for inflation experience across different household groups. Key takeaway from this morning's data (to June) is that inflation for poorer families is once again picking up...

Has the Rise of Work from Home Reduced the Motherhood Penalty in the Labor Market? Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

www.nber.org/papers/w34147

Work from home is likely helping reduce the motherhood penalty, a new NBER paper finds. And the potential impact seems strongest in careers that are highly demanding and were traditionally inflexible

Very positive results for something that is more or less free

While we’re discussing inflation: people have higher faith that the NHS (!) will bring down inflation than politicians

Im (probs) a think tank YIMBY + from Nuneaton: i think it's the same phenomena. He is very popular among many residents I know, who I would assume represent the main social group he will have grown up with (very white, working/lower middle class) - it is a similar style echo chamber, i think

Like this. Been a few things similar before, but always too focussed on the charity/communities sector with the usual Big Application Form

Microgrants for individuals to set stuff up, sole evaluation question is "did you have a laugh or not", evaluation is % of people who said yes, we had a laugh

Parks and social capital: An analysis of the 100 most populous U.S. cities In recent years, much attention has focused on strategies to reverse the decline of social capital in the United States. Increased social capital, whi…

Full paper (in first post): www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Social capital in the United Kingdom: evidence from six billion friendships | BIT Social capital – the network of personal and group-based relationships in a society – has long been thought to be an important factor in shaping economic opportunity. In the United States, Chetty et a...

How much?

"Low-income children who grew up in the top 10% of the most economically connected local authorities in England earn 38% more per year on average (£5,100) as adults relative to low-income children in the bottom 10% of local authorities"

www.bi.team/publications...

Interesting new study from the US, suggesting that the quality of public parks is a strong determinant of how much mixing goes on across different income groups (26% more!), volunteering, and civic organisation rates

Things that are *really* key to social mobility and growth!