02 Sep 2021
August is often dubbed the silly season, but this one has been packed with momentous events: the publication of the latest IPCC report, the chaotic exit from Afghanistan, and... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
05 Aug 2021
Probably the key challenge for all those committed to progressive causes is how we scale up from the multitude of creative initiatives taking place locally. ‘At local level, we... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
04 Aug 2021
What does the experience of Euro 2020 and its aftermath tell us about the state of England today, and about the outlook of the younger generation as we emerge,... Read More
By Katy Oglethorpe
03 Aug 2021
Newham citizens assembly Newham, the East London borough: home to the 2012 Olympics, birthplace of Danny Dyer and the most ethnically diverse place in England and Wales. Soon Newham... Read More
By William Walker
28 Jul 2021
A NEW DIRECTION: STARTING SMALL BY CREATING NORFOLK WETLANDS “A powerful and original interpretation of this years’ theme, drawing the link between the local environment and the climate and... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
14 Jul 2021
Even before the pandemic, young people in the UK faced many forms of inequality: a lack of jobs, a shortage of affordable housing, and cuts to public services –... Read More
By Tom Lloyd Goodwin
29 Jun 2021
Economic recovery from COVID-19 will be a long and painful process. When the pandemic struck, we at CLES argued for a new common-sense approach to economic development based on the... Read More
By Charlotte Morgan and Luca Tiratelli
16 Jun 2021
What’s the role of inclusive growth in recovering from crisis? It’s easy to see as a ‘nice-to-have’, but can be at the centre of helping us build back better.... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
04 Jun 2021
The results of May’s 2021 local elections will have dismayed those who care about progressive causes, as showcased in Rethinking Poverty. But can we learn anything from them about... Read More
By Christian Jaccarini
20 May 2021
With last year’s long queues and supply issues at supermarkets, the Covid pandemic has made us all re-examine how we get our groceries and where they come from. But... Read More
By The Alternative UK
13 May 2021
Other than being Bernie Sanders’ Congressional seat, we have picked up at A/UK on the singular qualities of the state of Vermont – as a “laboratory for democracy”, in... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
06 May 2021
As the UK takes further steps towards ending the restrictions of lockdown, April’s Talking Points looks at what the pandemic has meant for the future of work and what... Read More
By Tiffany Lam
06 May 2021
In the UK, Sarah Everard’s murder has prompted debate around women’s safety, with 80% of women of all ages having been sexually harassed in public spaces. In Bogota, work is being... Read More
By Joe Blakey and Jana Wendler
29 Apr 2021
Almost every city now has some form of climate target. For instance Manchester, in northern England, aims to be zero carbon by 2038. But such targets generally focus on emissions... Read More
By David Burch
08 Apr 2021
On 11th March, we released our yearly analysis of the contribution that Manchester City Council’s procurement spend makes to the city’s economy and how it can support the achievement of wider... Read More
By Ellen Bassam
17 Mar 2021
Covid-19 has brought about a renewed interest in the community – of which the repair café is increasingly a part. With few other places to go, our immediate surroundings... Read More
By The Alternative UK
11 Mar 2021
When we exalt the power of the local, sometimes we mean really local. We were alerted to this stirring Glasgow story this week. A patch of ground in the... Read More
By Pippa Coutts
09 Mar 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic, with its many challenges has tested our ability to innovate. Many of us associate the idea of innovation with bright, new objects or processes, and this... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
04 Mar 2021
February’s Talking Points is inevitably focused on the climate crisis and the crisis of poverty and equality. Following the Chancellor’s budget announcement, what can we hope for? In both... Read More
By Anupam Nanda
16 Feb 2021
The lockdowns and restrictions introduced to control the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in huge changes to urban life. Previously bustling city centres remain empty, shunned in favour of suburban or... Read More
By Pippa Coutts
09 Feb 2021
I was lucky enough to chair a panel discussion on Community Ownership and Towns this week, with Community Land Scotland, Greener Kirkcaldy, Power to Change, The Stove Network.* We recognised, with many others, the High Street... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
02 Dec 2020
A recent article by Gordon Brown in the New Statesman bore the title ‘How to save the United Kingdom’ – and he is not alone in painting a bleak... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
11 Nov 2020
When we think about building back better, we are thinking about power and how we make decisions, said Compass’s Frances Foley, introducing a webinar on citizens assemblies called Deliberating and doing:... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
04 Nov 2020
With the UK now facing a second wave of coronavirus and an England-wide lockdown just announced, October’s Talking Points is less focused on recovery and the changing world of... Read More
By Jon Bloomfield
29 Oct 2020
The urgency of the climate change challenge has been visibly growing, dramatically illustrated by the bush fires that swept across much of Australia at the end of 2019. The... Read More
By The Alternative UK
27 Oct 2020
A/UK’s joint report with the Local Trust, where Plymouth residents wrestle with COVID, and point to the future Communities and localities have often responded quickly, effectively and innovatively to... Read More
By Andrew Webster
19 Aug 2020
‘Indeed, the one thing these prophecies had in common was that, ultimately, all were reassuring. Unfortunately, though, the plague was not.’ ‘The truth is that nothing is less sensational... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
13 Aug 2020
The last few months of lockdown have seen organisations across the country finding innovative ways to meet the challenges presented by the pandemic. As we edge back to ‘normal’,... Read More
By Hannah Ormston, Rachel Heydecker and Pippa Coutts
04 Aug 2020
The Carnegie UK Trust works to improve personal, community and societal wellbeing. Many of the issues that we work on, and the partners and groups who we work with,... Read More
By Frances Jones
17 Jul 2020
Build back better. It’s a powerful phrase, but as post-Covid-19 economic policies begin to emerge, those three words are starting to ring hollow. Based on what we have seen... Read More
By Anya Bonner
01 Jul 2020
Across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic is both highlighting and reinforcing existing inequalities, poverty and exclusion faced by many in the UK. Most of these problems existed long before... Read More
By Neil McInroy & Tom Lloyd Goodwin
09 Jun 2020
Long before the Covid-19 pandemic, our economy was failing many people and the planet. The imperative then was to create an economy that serves our needs, and shares wealth... Read More
By Neil McInroy
18 May 2020
For some in the local economic development community there is talk of a post crisis “bounce back” – reflective of an idea that the economy is on a purely... Read More
By Lauren Pennycook
14 May 2020
COVID-19 and Wellbeing Blogs: The Carnegie UK Trust works to improve personal, community and societal wellbeing. Many of the issues that we work on, and the partners and groups... Read More
By Avila Kilmurray
13 May 2020
Reaching beyond ‘silos, egos and logos’ was the challenge that Neal Lawson of Compass threw out to activists in Northern Ireland. A webinar on 28 April, ‘Empowering Voices in... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
06 May 2020
Life continues to be dominated by coronavirus. This month’s Talking Points focuses mainly on the all-important question of ‘what next?’ Has the market economy had its day? Will we... Read More
By Ben Cooper
27 Apr 2020
In 2019, the electoral landscape of Yorkshire and the Humber changed dramatically. Nine Labour seats went to the Tories, who won the most votes in the region for the... Read More
By The Alternative UK
16 Apr 2020
Coronavirus, and its strange distancing, compels us all to rethink how we come together. Our mutual care and sense of collective responsibility is expressed by NOT being physically close,... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
08 Apr 2020
Since the last Talking Points went out, our world has been completely turned upside down. The country is in lockdown. Nothing is certain. March Talking Points is inevitably focused... Read More
By Romy Krämer, Graciela Hopstein and Halima Mahomed
02 Apr 2020
The global Corona pandemic might very well be the biggest crisis of our lifetime. The current situation has the potential to not only disrupt the status quo but to... Read More
By Gemma Lawrence
01 Apr 2020
The last few weeks have seen an explosion in citizen-led action in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, we looked at the 1000s of Covid-19 Mutual Aid groups... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
18 Mar 2020
Over 900 local groups have now been established across the UK to provide support to people throughout the covid-19 outbreak. A spokesperson for Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK said: ‘In... Read More
By Bertie Russell
18 Mar 2020
The case for ambitious and transformative environmental policy is being made with increasing fervour and a series of “Green New Deals” – a reference to Roosevelt’s economic reform programme... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
28 Feb 2020
Almost a year ago, on 1 March 2019, I met with a group of people from Oxford – city council officials, an elected councillor and staff of social enterprise... Read More
By The Alternative UK
19 Feb 2020
We are very pleased to bring you news of Flatpack Democracy 2.0 (buy here). This is the compendious update to the original booklet from Peter Macfadyen, ex-mayor of the... Read More
By Isaac Stanley
13 Feb 2020
A fairer innovation economy won’t come as a gift from the powers that be. This week we launch a new phase of our Everyone Makes Innovation Policy programme, in... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
05 Feb 2020
On 23 January, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced that the ‘Doomsday Clock’ has moved 20 seconds closer to midnight – the closest it has come to signalling a... Read More
28 Jan 2020
The New Economics Foundation have published their Review of the Year, which looks at all their activity in 2019, with a particular focus on their ‘three missions to transform... Read More
By The Alternative UK
22 Jan 2020
Much inspiration to be had from Totnes over the years – birthplace of Transition Towns, for example. Like many, their council has declared a climate emergency – but unlike... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
08 Jan 2020
2019 has been a tumultuous year. While poverty and inequality continued their inexorable rise, the climate crisis finally erupted on to the national agenda. At the same time solutions... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell and Barry Knight
07 Jan 2020
There is widespread agreement across the political spectrum that capitalism is in crisis and we need a new way of doing things. ‘Read the Economist and the Financial Times,’ wrote Michael Jacobs... Read More
By Barry Knight, Maria Chertok, Natasha Kaminarskaya
10 Dec 2019
What does Hull, a city on the eastern seaboard of England, have in common with provincial cities in Russia? Answer: not only have they been left behind by economic... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
04 Dec 2019
This month’s Talking Points focuses on the way our economy works: the role of business in society, Wales’s ground-breaking Foundational Economy model, and the primacy of the local, for... Read More
By Thomas Barrett
20 Nov 2019
This article, by Thomas Barrett, was originally published on NewStart, a website for making places better. Subscribe for just £49 per year here. Wales will be the first country in the... Read More
19 Nov 2019
The Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) has launched ‘The manifesto for local economies’, setting out a vision for ‘how the next government should create local economies that serve... Read More
By The Alternative UK
23 Oct 2019
“The Wigan Deal” beats austerity by putting unique human relationships at the core. Does it anticipate a more radical future too? This affecting, even moving video above comes... Read More
22 Oct 2019
A new report from the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) and Power to Change, Building an inclusive economy through community business, ‘explores how community businesses can support the... Read More
By Jon Edwards
25 Sep 2019
The core premise of Neal Lawson’s ‘45° Change’ is that the post-1945 welfare state approach to dealing with societal challenges has broken down. The neoliberal, market-driven system that has... Read More
17 Sep 2019
The Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) have published ‘CLES on… climate emergency’, the third piece in their new series of provocations. It argues that while movements such as... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
11 Sep 2019
This month’s Talking Points ranges widely from US companies’ new professed purpose of improving our society to a change of direction at Joseph Rowntree Foundation, ideas for transforming public... Read More
By the CLES team
21 Aug 2019
Last week CLES hosted the second annual Community Wealth Building Summit, the only event like it in the UK and the largest event in CLES’ history. The 200-strong delegate... Read More
By Thomas Barrett
07 Aug 2019
We are all familiar with the gaps in high streets left as stores close. This article from New Start describes a pilot scheme called Open Doors, to be launched later this year,... Read More
24 Jul 2019
A new publication from the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) ‘tells the story of community wealth building (CWB) in Preston’, reflecting on eight years of collaboration. CLES set... Read More
By Dr Hugh Ellis
18 Jul 2019
It might not be immediately obvious why anyone would want to have a relationship with a planner let alone an organisation dedicated to promoting the values of a planning... Read More
By Barry Knight
16 Jul 2019
This article is based on a talk to the Voluntary Action History Society on 10 June 2019. Arthur Marwick said that a society without an understanding of its history... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
09 Jul 2019
This month’s Talking Points reflects on the causes of inequality and puts forward some suggestions for tackling poverty rather than just more ‘bad news’. We also look at the... Read More
By Barry Knight
24 Jun 2019
What follows is the text of a speech given by Barry Knight at a conference of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) on 12 June 2019. The speech... Read More
12 Jun 2019
A new charter, Time to Build an Inclusive Local Economy ‘sets out key steps to harness the power of communities to create resilient local economies’. Developed by Development Trusts... Read More
By Indra Adnan
30 May 2019
CTRLshift is all about ‘shifting control’ from national-level political parties and corporations to the people and organisations collaborating in towns, cities and regions – very much the agenda of... Read More
By Aaron Tanaka
23 May 2019
Editors’ note: In this article, Aaron Tanaka, director of the Center for Economic Democracy and cofounder of the Boston Ujima Project, envisions a new approach for economic development that is... Read More
09 May 2019
CLES last month released a new publication, New Municipalism in London, which highlights ‘the actions of three London Boroughs who are seeking to challenge traditional local economic development and... Read More
By Barry Knight
08 May 2019
Barry Knight attends an assembly of Tyne & Wear Citizens to meet the candidates in the North of Tyne mayoral elections Something is stirring. A new populism is on... Read More
By Roy Payne
16 Apr 2019
The government’s new Working with Communities policy is important because it establishes the principle of ‘community consent’ to long-term planning decisions affecting the local community. This has the potential... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
28 Mar 2019
On 1 March I met with a group of people from Oxford – city council officials, an elected councillor and staff of social enterprise Aspire Oxford – to talk... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
30 Jan 2019
What is community wealth building? On the one hand, it seems like a new idea. The Labour Party established its Community wealth building Unit less than a year ago,... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell and Barry Knight
23 Jan 2019
Here, we follow up the article by Neal Lawson and Caroline Hartnell on ‘45 Degree Change’ and examine initiatives identified by Aditya Chakrabortty in a series of articles called... Read More
By Thomas Barrett
16 Jan 2019
Another great example of how an area can be transformed when the city council works closely with local residents at every stage of a regeneration project, led by ‘what... Read More
By Barry Knight
12 Dec 2018
In all my years of working with voluntary organisations and community groups, I have never been to an AGM like it. The room is packed, the energy high, the... Read More
29 Nov 2018
Last week, we launched our series on ’45 Degree Change’ – the meeting point between the vertical state and horizontal emerging local initiatives. The work of local wealth building... Read More
By Barry Knight and Caroline Hartnell
28 Nov 2018
Moved, humbled, inspired, sad, angry – these are some of our feelings after watching A Northern Soul, a film by Hull-born documentary-maker Sean McAllister, shown on BBC2 on Sunday 18... Read More
By Gill Hughes and Sarah Hatfield
15 Nov 2018
We are Gill Hughes of the University of Hull’s Youth Work and Community Development team and Sarah Hatfield from Timebank. Together, we convene the #thehullwewant project. The project is... Read More
By Sara Bryson
21 Mar 2018
The persistence of poverty, it seems to me, continues because we fail to tackle a central crucial issue: power. We have centuries of writing, analysis and debate in relation... Read More
