Catching up on this and it's seriously good. Clear sighted but ends (somewhat) optimistically: "Manchester at least proves decline is not inevitable. Britain is not doomed. Institutions can improve. Growth can return. Places can regain confidence."

If you want to know what "actual existing Manchesterism" is and how it came about 👇👇👇 (Plus every section in it is a Stone Roses lyric, so how can you resist that???)

"Over time, legacy IT leads to legacy government." Great piece from Laxshia on the cost of legacy IT systems for the public sector - as illustrated by the crazy time Guy's & St Thomas' had to go analogue because its ageing data centres failed during a heatwave restate.substack.com/p/legacy-gov...

The Re:View is up ⬆️ This week @alwalker.bsky.social takes a look at the ideas shaping the Labour leadership contest from @labourgrowth.bsky.social and the Tribune Group. restate.substack.com/p/the-review...

Bring on compulsory voting and the democracy sausage!

Wes Streeting wants a "battle of ideas" about where the government goes next - and earlier this week @labourgrowth.bsky.social and the Tribune Group in @renewaljournal.bsky.social set out their take on what those ideas might be. I take a look at some of them for this week's Re:View!

A week is a long time in politics. But there's no chance that the debate within the Labour Party about the Government's policy agenda is going away. It's been great to see how impactful our work has been on some of the leading thinkers in Labour this week - great summary from Alex.

NEW ISSUE: In this special extra edition of Renewal, @louisehaighmp.bsky.social, @yuanfenyang.bsky.social, and other members of the Tribune Group of Labour MPs set out paths to repairing Britain's broken economic settlement. renewal.org.uk/journal/volu...

Today is a big day at the Constitution Unit as @alanrenwick.bsky.social takes over as Director and Tom Fleming becomes Deputy Director. Congratulations and good luck! Read our announcement from last month 👇

The local elections in one chart. Labour has been squeezed between the Greens in young wards and Reform in older working-class wards www.economist.com/britain/2026...

It looks like leaders in the Labour Party are going to spend the next few months on the hunt for new ideas. So it’s great to see so many of our own reflected in this @labourgrowth.bsky.social paper out today, where the Group’s leaders set out their stall for a future economy www.labourgrowth.co.uk

Good piece. People may have voted for change, but what can local government do to actually deliver it? Not a lot without more political and fiscal autonomy and a new social care funding model (which might in time also mean higher levels of participation)

I like this a lot. Rather than producing yet another report, Re:State will "...draft legislation, codes, rules, plans and frameworks - that the current or an incoming government can use to rewire Whitehall." @charliepickles.bsky.social @re-state.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/restate/...

A New Civil Service Code Today we have published a new draft of the Civil Service Code - in the wake of the Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo setting a review of the Code as one of her objectives. re-state.co.uk/publications...

#Growth is not made only in capitals. The JRC report "Local taxes and economic growth" shows how prosperity often starts at the municipal desk: a permit, a road, a nursery, a bus route. Give towns a fiscal stake and caution becomes thirst for development. dx.doi.org/10.2760/1826...

How to fix a problem like Whitehall Governments normally rely on the civil service to reform itself - an approach which has not delivered results. Re:State are launching our new 'Plan for government' to fix that. Read more from @charliepickles.bsky.social restate.substack.com/p/how-to-fix...

Great to be quoted in this piece in @thehousemag.bsky.social on English devo - fiscal decentralisation is needed to properly unlock spending flexibility for strategic authorities, and reorientate accountability towards local electorates rather than Whitehall. www.politicshome.com/news/article...

NEW SUBSTACK: The latest installment of the Ideas Bank is out — a series for my new-ish Substack, Notes on Local Government. This week I explore another 10 practical examples to push power out of Whitehall and into places.

Great piece on why we should return to a tried and tested mechanism for funding infrastructure - public corporations issuing long term debt with specific future revenue streams to pay back bond holders www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/blog/new-tow...

New Re:Think from me for the @re-state.bsky.social Substack! I argue that we should properly empower strategic authorities with the fiscal tools to pursue different approaches to place-based economic policy and allow them to test out new levies. restate.substack.com/p/why-we-sho...

Postcode lotteries are the worst nightmare of any Whitehall policymaker. But they're inevitable, and we should embrace regional variation in policy. @alwalker.bsky.social has written for Re:Think on why fiscal devolution is an essential next step. restate.substack.com/p/why-we-sho...

We are set to enter a new era on 13 May as @alanrenwick.bsky.social takes over from Meg Russell as our Director. Tom Fleming will become Deputy Director and a new lecturer will join us next year. We can also confirm that our annual conference will happen on 24 and 25 June. Read all about it 👇

Great thread!

Piece from me on fiscal devolution in England for the @acadsocsciences.bsky.social Devolution Hub. I look at some of the evidence around fiscal decentralisation, and the key questions that need thinking about as the Treasury prepares its fiscal devolution 'roadmap'. acss.org.uk/the-missing-...

🚨NEW BLOGPOST 🚨 From Vance and the Pope to Tommy Robinson, the populist right is both embracing and quarrelling with Christianity. It points to the rise of Christianism, an identity focused, civilisational and often incoherent co-option of faith. open.substack.com/pub/joxleywr...

New leadership. New tone. But will it deliver? In this weeks Re:View, @alwalker.bsky.social discusses Antonia Romeo's objectives as Cabinet Secretary – a rare move that signals a shift toward transparency, performance and accountability. Read more: open.substack.com/pub/restate/...

This is really good - Henry Kippin on how to do good place based policy. Feels like the right mix to me.

We are pleased to be working with the North East, East Midlands, Greater Manchester, West Midlands and West Yorkshire Combined Authorities on this important work. ✍️ Read the launch essay from @stkaye.bsky.social & @alwalker.bsky.social: restate.substack.com/p/where-shou...

Really excited about this! The English devolution agenda is making progress. But this should not represent the limit of ambition - which is why we're launching 'The Devo Next Initiative' today to define and shape the future of devolution policy.

So chuffed to announce this - and to get to work! This new initiative is a chance to define where we want devolution to go next, and where we want the whole agenda to take the country in the decades to come.

This looks like an excellent and much-needed initiative to shape where devolution goes next. open.substack.com/pub/restate/...

"The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act may open a new chapter for local places and people, but it cannot write it." 📣 NEW: Today Re:State is launching The Devo Next Initiative to define and shape the future of devolution policy. re-state.co.uk/devo-next-in...

Dame @meghillier.bsky.social highlights the need for systemic change in how we regulate:

🚨NEW REPORT - The law of rule🚨 Britain’s regulatory system grows by default. Rules are easy to create, rarely reviewed, and almost never removed. This report sets out a package of reforms to achieve “better regulation” by strengthening the system at every stage.

Really big devolution news! England is a major outlier when it comes to how fiscally centralised it is. Allowing Mayoral Strategic Authorities to retain a share of income tax generated in their area would be a major step forward, unlocking more autonomy and direct benefit from local growth.

What's the point of a Local Public Accounts Committee? More bureaucracy, meetings, reports...? See some thoughts on the gaps that a body of this kind could fill at www.lgcplus.com/politics/dev...

I've written this week's @re-state.bsky.social Re:View on the spring statement - which already feels like a long time ago. Have a read!

Why did the People's Vote campaign fail? Could Brexit have been stopped? What lessons can be learned? Join us on 19 March to launch @morganj0nes.bsky.social's new book: "No Second Chances: The Inside Story of the Campaign for a Second Referendum". All welcome! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/no-second-...

This is actually what I most wanted to highlight. I remember hearing a Labour MP argue that politics was ultimately just "a game of competitive storytelling", and then reflecting on just how disturbing the implications for democracy, accountability, and policymaking would be if that were wholly true

David's piece is brilliant in highlighting the stakes involved in the "deliverism" debate - the potential implications for policymaking and democratic accountability are pretty profound (and this often seems underappreciated)

📣 NEW REPORT: 'The State of the State 2026: delivery that matters' in partnership with Deloitte, is out now! 📊 It examines the key issues and opportunities facing public services, drawing on an exclusive Ipsos poll and over 100 interviews with public sector leaders. re-state.co.uk/publications...

Big new @ukandeu.bsky.social report on UK-EU alignment and divergence, which looks at the story so far and what lies ahead. I've written a chapter on the intersection with devolved powers and the implications for UK intergovernmental relations. Have a read!

Big new report out from us today looking at the state of UK-EU alignment and divergence. The key findings are that 1) the UK govt is turning to greater 'alignment' with EU rules as 'Brexit benefits' from divergence have been hard to come by. But 2) alignment is much easier said than done.

There's an interesting question around whether deeper devolution can help alleviate some of this. But also needs to be coupled with better public understanding of who is responsible for what

Hmm. Secondary legislation is, of course, much quicker than primary legislation. It’s also unamendable and frankly subject to less robust scrutiny procedures than primary legislation.

I think it's right that the May local elections will be going ahead, even in areas undergoing local government reorganisation. Democracy cannot be a matter of convenience or cost. mhclgmedia.blog.gov.uk/2026/02/16/u...

New post out: We have a guest post today from the excellent @dsquareddigest.bsky.social. "Build the Rail! Save the snails!" Or how we don't need to sacrifice the environment to speed up our mad planning processes. (Free to read) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...

The Re:View is out! 🎉 This week, Director of Policy and Research, @stkaye.bsky.social unpacks the Government’s latest move in the devolution agenda, as the MHCLG seeks to “fill in the map” of England with a new wave of Strategic Authorities. 👉Read it here: bit.ly/4auVwuB

"Perhaps the next 'grand theory' of public service reform will not come from the centre, but from the periphery." @alwalker.bsky.social writing for @re-state.bsky.social Yes, seems far more likely to me, as long as the centre allows enough flexibility. open.substack.com/pub/restate/...

My first Re:View is out - I look at Kent county council's struggle to find big spending cuts, what it says about the difficult work of public service reform, and whether the next ‘grand theory’ of public management could come from the periphery rather than the centre.