Govt’s Pride in Place targets areas with economic deprivation and weaker social infrastructure. Yet, our analysis reveals 2 challenges. We find 430 doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods in England (home to approx 3.5 million people) are unfunded, incl many ranked as facing the greatest challenges 1/3

A very useful resource from @rmudie96.bsky.social and the ICON team: www.neighbourhoodscommission.org.uk/pride-in-pla...

We've built a data explorer for every neighbourhood receiving funding through the Pride in Place programme. You can map, zoom in, and compare every neighbourhood with data on deprivation, need, social capital, and social infrastructure. You can download it all It's completely free to use, too. 👇

BRITAIN'S AI BEAR CASE What happens, if AI takes off, to an economy that is... ... highly dependent on exporting professional services? ... Too energy-scarce to build many data centres? ... Less dynamic than ever? I work through those questions here: notes.archie-hall.com/p/britains-...

I'm a Plan 2 loan holder. I wish we had a better deal. But ours is nowhere near as bad as current students, on Plan 5s. Yet they do not have jobs in politics or the media, so no one is representing them. Even if we find a Plan 2 solution we will be back here, once again, in a few years time.

Some of the FT comments section is higher quality than nearly all the paid for opinion writing in the 'quality' papers

This will be a very good event, on what has been one of the most ionteresting research programmes we've run at ICON. Do sign up and tune in!

Hiring costs are up, unemployment is climbing. Could this be deliberate - a bet that squeezed employers will invest in technology and create better jobs, for displaced workers? My latest for @labourlist.bsky.social sets out why I'm skeptical. labourlist.org/2026/03/labo...

Hiring costs are up, unemployment is climbing. Could this be deliberate - a bet that squeezed employers will invest in technology and create better jobs, for displaced workers? My latest for @labourlist.bsky.social sets out why I'm skeptical. labourlist.org/2026/03/labo...

We're talking about Plan 2 loans because the affected are old enough to be in jobs in the media/politics. Plan 5 loans are much worse, but their holders are too young to be listened to. The media class would not take them seriously. They didn't before. wonkwatch.substack.com/p/why-is-eve...

The idea that every choice made in response to a genuine change of circumstances is a "U-turn" and therefore an embarrasing display of weakness, rather than, IDK, a *response to an genuine change in circumstances*, is becoming really tedious www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

The wider point here is that you can only sell assets once. Sales such as these, which many councils are being forced to make, are not a sustainable solution to financial pressure. Likewise drawing down reserves, which an increasing proportion of councils have now been doing for 3 years or more

This is total nonsense and has no regard for any actual policy content it’s just a vibe. Meanwhile I’m yet to see a single decarbonisation policy from Polanski that isn’t wealth taxes but apparently that’s acceptable?

Has the cost of living moved beyond a temporary "crisis" type issue to something that is more permanent? Unless the next few years sees a gigantic wave of economic growth, or a collapse in the cost of housing, goods, and utilities, it is hard to see how it is not a top 3 political issue in 2029.

Enjoyed talking to Better Retailing about @iconeighbours.bsky.social research into the state of England's local shopping parades: www.betterretailing.com/exclusive-co...

V interesting take. My secondary fully embraced the “rules for the sake of rules” thinking and there is no doubt in my mind I did a lot worse at school because of it. The argument it prepares kids for work is based on a decades-outdated view of how modern workplaces function. All a waste of time.

Very much agree with this. I still think that the underlying political issue is the limit of relying on agglomeration as the engine of growth. Even with good public transport, growth takes time to move outwards from the centre and Gorton and Denton is just down the road www.ft.com/content/7e91...

Quite the finding in @philtinline.bsky.social @futuregovforum.bsky.social report on power Nearly 61% who think their local high street is bad blame the council - just 37% think it's changing consumer demands Telling how often it is institutions, not social forces, people point the finger at!

Good article. There are lots of great ideas already out there, and often it is bettter to bring them back up than develop something totally new In ICON's biggest policy piece so far we said "there are no original ideas in this paper", and weren't joking! wonkwatch.substack.com/p/does-polic...

Polling questions id like to see asked of those who strongly oppose the Employment Rights Act: How much of its contents (sick pay, secure contracts, flexible work), do you personally enjoy in your job? Do you agree they make you less productive? If you disagree, why?

Are Reform going to turn economic policy into the next culture war issue? My colleague Andrew O'Brien's analysis of Robert Jenrick's speech yesterday is right Reform's reindustrialisation rhetoric does not acknowledge what such a plan would actually require www.newstatesman.com/politics/eco...

Many good points in this thread. The economic circumstances of these places are difficult but rarely if ever are we starting with absolutely nothing at all.

- Bad policy design (levelling up wasnt more than maybe refurbishing a few leisure centres) - No real efforts to truly connect these communities to bigger regional investments - Politicians desperate to jump to the end of process (growth, jobs) while avoiding step 1 (rebuilding social foundations)

This looks like something that could snowball into something that would cause many headaches. Another well-intentioned policy objective (delivering devolution across England) comes into contact with an incredibly difficult political environment. www.thetimes.com/article/3158...

A cathartic burst of irritation from me about the overuse of hyperbole open.substack.com/pub/gileswil...

New substack: politics is not about cosy debates or soundbites on silly TV shows. It’s about conflicts of interest. chrisdillow.substack.com/p/economic-g...

It would be quite something for the US State Department to start directly funding far-right think tanks in Europe (including London) Not least because the UK government itself does not fund the think tank sector whatsoever (which is imo a gigantic error) www.politico.eu/article/maga...

I also worry about the job creation bit. Can Restart+Jobcentre+Bootcamps overcome a job market where no one knows the extent of AI disruption? IDK

One reason I think unemployment is going to come to bite this government quite soon is the "raise labour costs to 'free up' workers to move to better jobs" strategy falls apart on a) geography b) if those jobs existed, why aren't people already moving? c) if it's skills, we arent investing enough

We could pay for quite a lot of people to enroll on skills programmes, get good jobs, and increase economic growth, if Radcliffe paid his taxes here.

"Over the past 14 years, English local authority funding for youth services has fallen by 76% in real terms, a loss of £1.3bn. Since 2012-13, England has lost about half of its local authority youth workers" www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

I don't think there are words in the dictionary to express how much I hate the ONS website. They must have a team of several dozen there working on making sure whatever data you want is impossible to find. Evil.

A challenging - but very important - piece of research just published. New economic analysis of Mayoral devolution’s early impacts on economic growth do not find Mayoral areas to be growing faster AND it may be benefiting already-wealthy places not poorer ones, widening wealth gaps within places

The £440mn boost to the budgets of council in some of the deprived places is welcome. But it's crazy that the Fair Funding Review has not delivered actual fair funding. Let's hope future, permanent changes are coming so councils arent facing a cliff edge in a few years. www.gov.uk/government/n...

When politicians talk about high streets, they usually mean town and city centres. But people are just as frustrated seeing their local parade - where they run errands and catch up with friends - boarded up. Our new research, Pride in Parades, unpacks England's local parades and tells their story🧵

England’s poorest areas have 70% more vape shops and bookmakers than wealthier ones

Speaking as someone whose area got £20m Pride in Place this autumn, I am over the moon for more areas to join the programme It will be transformative

Reform councillors in Kent told the FT that they were surprised not to find lavish spending on wokeness from their predecessors Another councillor has resigned from his role lesding "DOGE", regretting his comments to the newspaper acknowledging the challenges www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/ne...

Another £800m of investment in 40 more deprived neighbourhoods, as the Prime Minister will announce an expansion of the Pride in Place programme this morning. You love to see it. Comes a week after @iconeighbours.bsky.social calls for Pride in Place to be expanded! news.sky.com/story/sir-ke...

Lots of great organisations and people contributed their thoughts on the ideas we set out in @iconeighbours.bsky.social's Green Paper last year. We've published our summary of all the responses - thanks to everyone who contributed! www.neighbourhoodscommission.org.uk/report/neigh...

🎙️Listen to this episode of the Local Authority podcast, where we discuss why neighbourhood working is back on the political agenda. Here, @maddiejennings.bsky.social draws on our Big Local experience to discuss the benefits & challenges that come from working at this level: https://bit.ly/4rAjM5A

Good piece on why mission government failed. Strong agree that the usual examples of mission-led government highly selective. You could argue the Great Leap Foward is a case study in mission-driven government, except it failed and killed millions of people restate.substack.com/p/why-missio...

Several of last nights Grammy award winners attended the (free, state) Brit School, while nearly half of all other state schools no longer offer Music GCSE. Britain excels for arts and music. But we would be world beating if every child had the opportunity. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

This is a good piece bringing together what has been a lot of coverage about poverty and deprivation in Britain this week. I agree probably too much coverage on this topic is about Reform, and not on people and what can be done to improve living standards and trust. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Still seeing more of this. Mental. What is the origin of Bluesky's fierce hatred of AI? And why is it so strong that AI is still unacceptable even where it can make a positive difference? Makes you question how interested some actually are in making things better vs how much they think they are

Big Local began in 2010 as one of the UK’s boldest funding experiments, giving 150 communities time, trust and resources to lead local change on their own terms. Explore the Big Local timeline, featuring the milestones and moments that shaped the programme: https://bit.ly/4keehqM

Have seen this take a lot and really disagree. Gov’t could invest in anchor institutions for towns; build FE colleges in town centres; set up childcare co-ops; retrofit iconic buildings and make them into community gyms, etc. We are more than individual consumers - that’s the point of politics!

All the hate on this here is ridiculous and I hope Bridget and her team see it and choose to ignore it all. Richer kids and their schools are *already* doing this while schools in poorer places are not. It is one of the cheapest and best shots we have at reducing the education divide. Push ahead!

If current trends persist, crime rates in the poorest parts of the country could increase by 27%. Economic inactivity rates could climb up to nearly half of working age adults. More positively, health outcomes may improve modestly. This is what new ICON analysis, published yesterday, has found 👇

An amazing morning launching our new report "No Short Cuts: Towards a National Strategy for Neighbourhood Recovery" It follows a year of travels talking to hundreds of community workers, public servants, experts, and the public about the poorest places, and how to improve them.