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.
23.10.2025 16:29 β π 10 π 8 π¬ 2 π 1
Great piece Nick
24.10.2025 09:40 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
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.
24.10.2025 09:16 β π 2 π 3 π¬ 2 π 0
Oh yes. My guess is that most places getting Β£ 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
23.10.2025 16:14 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
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 Β£ gets out the door
23.10.2025 16:10 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
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)
23.10.2025 15:43 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
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
23.10.2025 13:11 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
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.
22.10.2025 08:47 β π 44 π 13 π¬ 9 π 2
Exclusive: Starmer outspends Johnson on levelling up in first year
Labour invested Β£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:
20.10.2025 13:48 β π 17 π 8 π¬ 1 π 1
Steve Reedβs Yimbyism canβt 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...
15.10.2025 10:02 β π 6 π 6 π¬ 2 π 3
Delighted to finally see this out in the world.
Β£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.
26.09.2025 14:26 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
A positive: this is clearly a community pride/regeneration initiative for local government and itβs not making big claims for regional growth, which government appears to be pushing to mayors/strategic authorities.
25.09.2025 10:58 β π 0 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0
Area based interventions are a good and very mainstream part of a governmentβs policy toolkit, so itβs pretty fatuous to criticise this on the grounds that βother policies have existed beforeβ or βthis doesnβt fix all the big structural challenges facing advanced economiesβ.
25.09.2025 09:45 β π 7 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0
Starmer gambles on βlevelling upβ-style initiative to tackle Reform threat
Deprived communities to be given tens of millions to patch up derelict shops, pubs and libraries and βrestore prideβ
β[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....
25.09.2025 08:00 β π 6 π 2 π¬ 1 π 0
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...
25.09.2025 07:53 β π 27 π 9 π¬ 3 π 0
OSF
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...
24.09.2025 09:11 β π 32 π 6 π¬ 6 π 1
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...
17.09.2025 09:54 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Incredibly stark, concerning chart in The Times this morning showing the vast urban-rural divides in child vaccination rates
29.08.2025 08:50 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
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...
28.08.2025 10:17 β π 14 π 9 π¬ 2 π 1
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
18.08.2025 13:54 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
While weβre discussing inflation: people have higher faith that the NHS (!) will bring down inflation than politicians
15.08.2025 08:04 β π 3 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
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
14.08.2025 14:29 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
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
13.08.2025 08:06 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
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!
05.08.2025 18:34 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
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