Tom Steel
@tomsteel.co.uk
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Doing digital things for the public sector
https://iam.tomsteel.co.uk
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Tom Steel
Matt Burgess (WIRED)
6 days ago
āThere are few things more dehumanizing than being told by a machine that youāre not real because of your face" For the last month, I've been speaking to people living with facial differences and disfigurements about how face verification tech is failing them. Spoiler: things aren't going well
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When Face Recognition Doesnāt Know Your Face Is a Face
An estimated 100 million people live with facial differences. As face recognition tech becomes widespread, some say theyāre getting blocked from accessing essential systems and services.
https://www.wired.com/story/when-face-recognition-doesnt-know-your-face-is-a-face/
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The Register
27 days ago
Europe's largest city council delays fix to disastrous Oracle system once more
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Europe's largest city council delays fix to disastrous Oracle system once more
System meant to go live in 2021 costing Ā£20M awaits reimplementation with new Ā£170M price tag Europe's largest local authority has delayed the introduction of a vital income management system (IMS) amid confirmation that total spending on a disastrous Oracle implementation could hit Ā£170 million (c $230 million).ā¦
http://dlvr.it/TNG7z9
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The Register
about 2 months ago
The air is hissing out of the overinflated AI balloon
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The air is hissing out of the overinflated AI balloon
Are tech giants getting nervous? They should be OpinionĀ There tend to be three AI camps. 1) AI is the greatest thing since sliced bread and will transform the world. 2) AI is the spawn of the Devil and will destroy civilization as we know it. And 3) "Write an A-Level paper on the themes in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet."ā¦
http://dlvr.it/TMgkVP
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John Cutler
2 months ago
Trust Day 1/30 sharing my favorite doodles and drawings.
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The Leyton Orientear
3 months ago
GREATNESS IS SERVING Read the full story of a very special evening at Leyton's Coach & Horses, where some very special guests helped us tell the full story behind the fantastic new
#LOFC
mural - and all in a very deserving cause...
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Greatness Is Serving
the real story behind Orient's newest mural: a picture of compassion, loyalty and gratitude
https://theleytonorientear.substack.com/p/greatness-is-serving
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Tom Steel
The Register
3 months ago
Microsoft admits it 'cannot guarantee' data sovereignty
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Microsoft admits it 'cannot guarantee' data sovereignty
Under oath in French Senate, exec says it would be compelled ā however unlikely ā to pass local customer info to US admin Microsoft says it "cannot guarantee" data sovereignty to customers in France ā and by implication the wider European Union ā should the Trump administration demand access to customer information held on its servers.ā¦
http://dlvr.it/TM6PCw
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Anon Opin
4 months ago
Conspiracy theorists should be required to do work experience in government departments so they can see firsthand the impossibility of any vast secret government conspiracies.
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Randall Munroe
4 months ago
David R. Hagen just solved a small mystery that I mentioned 13 years ago in the mouseover text of a comic
drhagen.com/blog/the-mis...
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The Missing 11th of the Month - David R Hagen
Personal website of David R Hagen, scientific software engineer
https://drhagen.com/blog/the-missing-11th-of-the-month/
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steve
4 months ago
Hereās some of the background on Extract, which the Prime Minister announced on Monday, plus the detail on how we incubated the proof-of-concept. Thereās boatloads more discovery and alpha work to do. Went full techno-realist with the open para.
mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk/2025/06/12/e...
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Extract: Using AI to unlock historic planning data
This week, the Prime Minister officially launched Extract, the AI tool which the Digital Planning programme in MHCLG and the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence are developing to transform decades o...
https://mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk/2025/06/12/extract-using-ai-to-unlock-historic-planning-data/
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How the OS is bringing Slopey Roofs to homes near you ā⦠and combines it with findings from the Met Office, including information on the sunās position at specific times and dates, to provide users with the Slopey Roofs tool for assessing the efficiency of roofs for solar panel installation.ā
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How the OS is bringing slopey roofs to homes near you
The UKās emissions targets are ambitious. The Ordnance Survey's new Slopey Roofs project may see them being met faster than suspected.
https://www.techmonitor.ai/digital-transformation/ordnance-survey-slopey-roofs/
5 months ago
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The Secret Barrister
6 months ago
The 99p offer is also available via Kobo, for people looking for a different ebook supplier:
www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/...
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The Secret Barrister ebook by The Secret Barrister - Rakuten Kobo
Read "The Secret Barrister Stories of the Law and How It's Broken" by The Secret Barrister available from Rakuten Kobo. **Writing as S. J. Fleet, The Secret Barrister's first novel, The Cut Throat Tri...
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-secret-barrister?sId=8799082d-c665-4e83-9bb7-e1542f1fa9d6
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Tom Steel
Met Office - weather and climate
6 months ago
Would you like to use our new-look weather app? š² Weāre doing a major upgrade of our Met Office weather app. And weād love you to try it out, and tell us what you think. Sign-up to get the test version ⤵ļø
response.questback.com/isa/qbv.dll/...
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Scott Riley
7 months ago
it's simple really
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Jamie Smart
7 months ago
Thereās a great interview with Nick Park about Wallace And Gromit in last monthās Empire, and this bit in particular stood out. It sums up what artists have been trying to say about AI. The mistakes and the learning arenāt things to be bypassed, but a vital part of the process š¤
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Daniel Storey
8 months ago
I think that one of the best clubs in the country to support at the moment might be...Leyton Orient. It's not just the redemption and the potential, but the human story here. For that, you need to speak to Martin Ling.
inews.co.uk/sport/footba...
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The hidden recovery story at the heart of Leyton Orient's own resurgence
Director of football Martin Ling took over a 'football bomb site' and it turned it into one of the EFL's best clubs to support - he speaks to Daniel Storey
https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/leyton-orient-hidden-recovery-story-3566658
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Know Your Meme
10 months ago
On this day 12 years ago,
@kcg.bsky.social
posted the āThis is Fineā comic.
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@da.vebrig.gs
your LinkedIn post about a standards regime; how do you score LAs in meeting users needs, when theyāre the only people who have the info to know what their needs are? Generic testing (like SOCITM or GDS Accessibility) will have limited value, but some ranking is better than nothing?
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Accessibility monitoring of public sector websites and mobile apps from 2022 to 2024
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/accessibility-monitoring-of-public-sector-websites-and-mobile-apps-from-2022-to-2024/accessibility-monitoring-of-public-sector-websites-and-mobile-apps-from-2022-to-2024
10 months ago
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āYou know, while youāre out on your walk, go some place where you might feel a little child-like wonder and look around ā look at the small things and look at the big things and just follow that sense of mystery and wonder.ā Thatās all we asked them to do.ā
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/awe-wo...
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Scientists Asked People To Do 1 Thing Differently While Taking A Walk. The Results Were Astounding.
āIt [creates] an amazing cascade of physiology that we can find almost any day and is very good for you,ā
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/awe-wonder-walk-improve-health_uk_676fd08ce4b02a171f25b1cb?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=huffpostuk/magazine/All+Stories
10 months ago
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A new Local Gov weeknote for you to follow; Angie Forson, new at Southwark, is sharing her experience as web and digital programme lead. Hear about Ping Pong, the Open Digital Cooperative and whatās on her reading list. One to watch!
angieforson.medium.com
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Angie Forson ā Medium
Read writing from Angie Forson on Medium. I love to travel, learn new things, and ensure that products and content I create, focuses on the needs of the end user.
https://angieforson.medium.com/
11 months ago
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Toblerones.
11 months ago
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Wow. Bluesky has properly arrived.
add a skeleton here at some point
11 months ago
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Tom Steel
Based on your headline I'm hoping the bot was trained on Scarf Lady from Sarah and Duck
sarah-and-duck.fandom.com/wiki/Scarf_L...
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Scarf Lady
Scarf Lady is a secondary character in Sarah & Duck. Scarf Lady is an elderly lady. She is quite forgetful, often mixing up words or misinterpreting things. She loves knitting, and shows masterful ski...
https://sarah-and-duck.fandom.com/wiki/Scarf_Lady
11 months ago
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This is one of the best uses of AI i've seen so far:
uk.pcmag.com/security/155...
A bot which keeps scammers busy in conversational loops of confusion.
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This 'AI Granny' Bores Scammers to Tears
After a survey found that 71% of Brits want revenge on scammers, mobile operator O2 deploys Daisy, an AI tool that keeps fraudsters on the line to waste their time.
https://uk.pcmag.com/security/155336/this-ai-granny-bores-scammers-to-tears
11 months ago
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Whatās your main source of news? Is it somewhere which has its own journalists (The Times, BBC, ITV, The Guardian) or do you use an aggregated site/app (Twitter, Flipboard, Apple News)? Because curiosity.
about 1 year ago
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The diligent
@colinstenning.bsky.social
has been at it again, documenting chatbot use across Local Authorities.
digitalhealthcheck.co.uk/2024/09/chat...
Iām glad I donāt live near Telford & Wrekin.
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Chatbots on council websites - 2024
Over half of councils in the UK and Ireland with chatbots choose to place them on all web pages and under half only place them on the service pages that they relate to. Chatbot usage is probably impro...
https://digitalhealthcheck.co.uk/2024/09/chatbots-on-council-websites-2024/
about 1 year ago
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You know a platform is hitting the big time when Sam Pepys arrives.
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about 1 year ago
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Danny Birchall
about 1 year ago
I wrote a thing about one of my favourite websites from long ago, that was called 'Flickr'.
medium.com/@dannybircha...
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Flickr, the habits of photography, and me
Remember Flickr, the photo-sharing website? Itās still there, but it now also has the Flickr Foundation, an organisation that exists toā¦
https://medium.com/@dannybirchall_20584/flickr-the-habits-of-photography-and-me-96d9c7671c2f
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Allen Holub
about 1 year ago
That bogus āIf I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horsesā quote was never uttered by Henry Ford. It's used by people who hold the customers in contemptāwho think they're such stable geniuses that they don't need to ask. 1/8
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Thereās a rare Associate Product Manager role available at the Ministry Of Justice - perfect for any User Centred Design people who want to make the best pivot of their career!
www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi...
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Associate Product Manager (Ref: 90749) - Civil Service Jobs - GOV.UKGOV.UK
Search and apply for jobs in the UK Civil Service
https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi?jcode=1923223&csource=csalerts
about 1 year ago
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Following some skeets (?) yesterday, I've been thinking about Recycling Data as a thing, and wrote some words at
blog.tomsteel.co.uk/2024/09/19/w...
That makes four posts this year. Urgh. At least I'm not thinking about Recycling Data as a thing any more.
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What a waste ā Tom blogs
https://blog.tomsteel.co.uk/2024/09/19/what-a-waste/
about 1 year ago
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This got me thinking. Is data more like the stuff we put in recycling bins? We know that most of it could be put to good use, but that takes considerable time and effort. Perhaps we shouldnāt produce so much stuff that needs recycling in the first place?
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 year ago
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James Wallis
about 1 year ago
Ever wanted to design a board game but don't know where to start? I'm running the Game Design Masterclass, a high-energy crash course in the theory and practice of game design, on Tuesday 10th Sept at Badger Badger in east London. A few tickets are still available.
www.gamedesignmasterclass.com
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Game Design Masterclass ā a crash course in how to make games
http://www.gamedesignmasterclass.com
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What is common knowledge in your field but shocks outsiders? With any digital product/service, the technology is the easiest bit.
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about 1 year ago
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Iām unashamedly biased on this, but LocalGov Drupal
LocalGovDrupal.org
can not be over promoted. Public services making and collaborating on Open Source products for the benefit of all. Agile product management at its best.
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about 1 year ago
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James Higgott
over 1 year ago
I just remembered that I wrote this last year on the process we used to create the new-look NHS.UK roadmap. Might be helpful for other public sector orgs looking to create a roadmap that covers multiple product teams:
jiggott.medium.com/creating-the...
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Creating the NHS website roadmapāāāa case study
We just published a new roadmap for the NHS website. Find out how we created it.
https://jiggott.medium.com/creating-the-nhs-website-roadmap-a-case-study-2ad98d6087d2
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This week I've worked out how to use Apple Shortcuts to save whole web pages to Notion on an iPhone.
blog.tomsteel.co.uk/2024/07/17/s...
Which was nice.
over 1 year ago
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Tom Steel
Steph Gray
over 1 year ago
Blog: on Monkey Tennis syndrome, or how to handle meetings and pitches that start to unravel while you're in them:
stephgray.com/2024/06/monk...
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Monkey Tennis syndrome
Sometimes, I've just felt a meeting or pitch slipping away from me. In desperation, I start to thrash around for a way out - throwing new ideas or angles into the conversation, trying to dig my way...
https://stephgray.com/2024/06/monkey-tennis-syndrome/
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Shocked. Was not expecting that.
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over 1 year ago
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Paris Marx
over 1 year ago
I remember the days when people were furious Google was scanning their emails to serve ads. Now weāve reached the point that everything you send and receive is being filtered through its AI model and youāre expected to love it.
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Gemini comes to Gmail to summarize, draft emails, and more | TechCrunch
In addition to the body of the emails themselves, the feature will also be able to analyze attachments, like PDFs.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/14/gemini-comes-to-gmail-to-summarize-and-draft-emails/
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steve
over 1 year ago
Took a bunch of the openly available product management resources from cross-government Slack. Made āem available on the X-GOV community website (for anyone to use, gov or not). At the bottom. Gonna fix the pages with
@paulrobertlloyd.com
in a bit.
x-govuk.github.io#product-mana...
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Welcome to X-GOVUK
A community-maintained collection of resources which are useful for working on GOV.UK services.
https://x-govuk.github.io/#product-management
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Engadget
over 1 year ago
Jack Dorsey says (on X) that heās not on the Bluesky board anymore
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Jack Dorsey says (on X) that heās not on the Bluesky board anymore
Jack Dorsey says (on X) that heās not on the Bluesky board anymoreThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/jack-dorsey-says-on-x-that-hes-not-on-the-bluesky-board-anymore-183902317.html
https://www.engadget.com/jack-dorsey-says-on-x-that-hes-not-on-the-bluesky-board-anymore-183902317.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky
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Neil Williams
over 1 year ago
Hey product peeps! We have a v cool seat to fill on BFI Player: Product Manager, Features. You'll lead development of new features and functionality for our native website and the TV apps API. Salary £49.9K - £58.7K . Apply by 10 May. Please share!
bfijobsandopportunities.bfi.org.uk/tlive_webrec...
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Job profile
https://bfijobsandopportunities.bfi.org.uk/tlive_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC107GF.open?VACANCY_ID=0666114ue0&WVID=384536015T&LANG=USA
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This is in almost every public sector digital business case thatās ever existed.
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over 1 year ago
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Tom Steel
Tim Paul
over 1 year ago
If youāve ever heard someone say āIf we automated X, it would free people up to do Yā, and thought š¤, I just wrote a thing about that:
www.timpaul.co.uk/posts/automation-and-the-jevons-paradox/
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Tim Paul | Automation and the Jevons paradox
Portfolio site for Tim Paul, designer
https://www.timpaul.co.uk/posts/automation-and-the-jevons-paradox/
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I hope that our clicks-and-mortar strategy staircases.
over 1 year ago
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Hugh Wallace
over 1 year ago
I often refer to Chris Yiuās āhow many is too many?ā post. It pre-dates the NHS app but still makes a compelling point:
yiu.co.uk/blog/some-nh...
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Some NHS apps
But how many is too many?
https://yiu.co.uk/blog/some-nhs-apps/
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Reading this will be a good end to your week: "Donāt ask forgiveness, radiate intent" by
@elizayer.bsky.social
medium.com/@ElizAyer/do...
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Donāt ask forgiveness, radiate intent
As simple encouragement to act, āask forgiveness, not permissionā is fair enough. But here are 4 reasons to signal your intentions:
https://medium.com/@ElizAyer/dont-ask-forgiveness-radiate-intent-d36fd22393a3
over 1 year ago
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I got the opportunity today to share this with someone who hadn't heard it before.
over 1 year ago
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It's council tax season when annual bills are sent. Always frustrating that so few councils communicate that council tax only accounts for 20-40% of a council's income. And that high increases are usually needed to balance central gov grant cuts
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/lo...
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Local government funding in England | Institute for Government
How local government is funded in England and how it has changed since 2010.
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/local-government-funding-england
over 1 year ago
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