Three statements of local ambition stand in Halifax, West Yorkshire: the Town Hall, the Borough Market and the Piece Hall. Such monuments of civic pride still bear the names of farsighted local leaders from past generations. 🧵 1/13

Great article..The Localists need to gather steam

Adult and children's social care now accounts for 70% of Calderdale council's budget. Part of this discussion must be the way central government (from Lloyd George onwards) has loaded local government with inadequately funded statutory obligations.

Three statements of local ambition stand in Halifax, West Yorkshire: the Town Hall, the Borough Market and the Piece Hall. Such monuments of civic pride still bear the names of farsighted local leaders from past generations. 🧵 1/13

Ministers could give mayors control of schools and hospitals in devolution shake-up

Sir Keir Starmer has written exclusively for the Liverpool Echo as his government prepares to bring a Hillsborough Law to Parliament www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpo...

EXC - Keir Starmer condemns far right racism and violence at yesterday's march Says there will be "no surrender" of British flag to those who promote hate Our story here - www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Confirmed: Deputy Leader is between Lucy Powell and Bridget Phillipson labour.org.uk/deputy-leade...

There are clear inequalities in life expectancy and child poverty across the country, particularly affecting the North. See the data below from @healthfoundation.bsky.social showing premature mortality by local authority area and region. 1/3

There are clear inequalities in life expectancy and child poverty across the country, particularly affecting the North. See the data below from @healthfoundation.bsky.social showing premature mortality by local authority area and region. 1/3

A huge majority of people think we need to invest in the Northern rail schemes that have been in development for years. This includes 55% of Reform voters who don’t agree with their party’s new stance.

Great to see my analysis below featured in @chriscurtis94.bsky.social article for @newstatesman.com Article: www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Reform showing their true colours here www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpo...

This has been my most popular post - who knew there was so much interest in productivity statistics! Am thinking might do further analysis of this topic in future, including looking at different places to understand what is going on across the North.

Brilliant news that Jason Stockwood has been made Minister for Investment. Here he is writing about Grimsby just the other day: www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Thinking about productivity growth recovery after the pandemic, the top 10 areas in England are those found below. Six are in the North, one in the Midlands and three in the South around (but not in ) London. 4/7

Greater Manchester has been the fastest growing part of the country in the past decade – measured either by total growth or by productivity growth. I’ve had a look into the data to try to work out what is growing and why. Below are some of the things I have found. 🧵 1/7

Great piece from JP (and thread/summary) explaining why GM might be doing well…

Imagine what the M62 corridor could do if it had a half decent transport network.

Manchester on the move, in the UK

Interesting!

Great thread and article linked here from @jpspencer.bsky.social. There's also a pre-/post-Covid story here with the North generally, and driven by the city regions, which shows their growth has outperformed the UK since the pandemic. Working on more research on this over coming months.

Great thread, hopefully story. I’ve never been sure how much you can trust the sun-national GVA data (even before the problems at the ONS), but this story about Greater Manchester seems very plausible based on what we know

V interesting, and encouraging. One lesson I draw - having been a bit involved in GM devo efforts since 2007 - is about the time needed to change productivity/growth trends.

Greater Manchester has been the fastest growing part of the country in the past decade – measured either by total growth or by productivity growth. I’ve had a look into the data to try to work out what is growing and why. Below are some of the things I have found. 🧵 1/7

Ben Obese-Jecty is the only Conservative MP and frankly one of the vanishingly small number of MPs, full stop, to react to this stuff in a normal way.

After posting about access to green space and playgrounds below, have been asked about accessibility across the whole country. Fields in Trust data shows the North East, West Mids and Yorkshire have the highest proportion of kids unable to walk to a playground within 10 mins.

After posting about access to green space and playgrounds below, have been asked about accessibility across the whole country. Fields in Trust data shows the North East, West Mids and Yorkshire have the highest proportion of kids unable to walk to a playground within 10 mins.

Big news in parent world www.bbc.com/news/article...

Parks and playgrounds are integral to places, allowing people to relax, children to play and more. Hard to imagine NYC without Central Park, or Ilkley without its moor! This builds on a historic legacy of Victorian era council developing them for the good of their communities. Short 🧵 1/3

Good this from @jpspencer.bsky.social in parks (I didn’t know they came under the 1848 public health act, every day is a school day etc.) futurenorth.substack.com/p/parks-and-...

I understand Dan York Smith is likely to replace Nin Pandit as Starmer’s PPS. He’s a Treasury DG, specialist in tax and welfare, a much needed economic boost to the operation. Previous HMT colleagues are v complementary of him.

Parks and playgrounds are integral to places, allowing people to relax, children to play and more. Hard to imagine NYC without Central Park, or Ilkley without its moor! This builds on a historic legacy of Victorian era council developing them for the good of their communities. Short 🧵 1/3

Whilst everyone's getting excited about #Grimsby it's worth taking a look at the work that Our Future are involved with in the town. I had the pleasure of talking to a group from the town when they came on a residential visit to Cambridge. 1/2 www.our-future.io

With Reform UK saying it would be reasonable to pay the Taliban to return migrants to Afghanistan, how many Britons this would be acceptable? Acceptable: 17% Unacceptable: 61% % acceptable by party Reform: 35% Con: 23% Lab/Lib Dem: 7-13% yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...

What has London’s Bakerloo line got to do with the government’s ability to invest in the North? Put simply, if we let London raise more money from high land values to pay for its infrastructure, this frees up more government spending for the rest of the country. Read below to see detail 👇

Eesh. Notts Reform leadership blacklisting both the local paper and the local democracy scheme that covers the council for the BBC. Don’t like this at all www.nottinghampost.com/news/news-op...

The 1985 Transport Act was one of the biggest policy failures of recent decades. Nothing better describes this than the chart below by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com. A combination of new powers and funding through 'bus franchising' is looking to reverse this.

Regulation isn't a universal panacea but even early interventions like the Mayor's fares increased legibility in a "system" where previously you often couldn't access basic information like is there a bus? which bus is it? What is the fare? How can I pay?

The 1985 Transport Act was one of the biggest policy failures of recent decades. Nothing better describes this than the chart below by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com. A combination of new powers and funding through 'bus franchising' is looking to reverse this.

Yet another retrospective triumph for Cameron and Osborne.

'You’re coming for my pension.' 'I think you’re talking nonsense.' Labour's Torsten Bell tries to put Tom Swarbrick's claim to bed.

New: Solar power generation in Britain so far this year has overtaken the total for 2024🌞 It's one third higher than at this time last year and the total for 2025 was enough to power 5.2mn homes for a year or the Tube for more than a decade.

Good charts and interesting analysis in this excellent paper from @morganwild.bsky.social and James Howat on the three bottlenecks holding the country back: centralisation, fiscal issues and state capacity.

Really good piece and thread (really worth signing up to this newsletter!) I think the big question, as a longtime supporter of fiscal devolution, is: what do you do about the fact that the tax base is now quite weak in a lot of places?

Via @stephenkb.bsky.social on learning the lessons from the civic infrastructure and public works projects built by #Localgov mainly between 1835-1935.

Secondly, the centre has been running a skewed economic model that has overheated some places whilst running down others. Spending on growing the economy in some places, effectively made up for by welfare spend in others. This doesn’t actually work for any place. 4/5

On the benefits of decentralisation of funding, revenue-raising, and investment decisions. Post by @jpspencer.bsky.social, with this striking map of the Huddersfield tram network in ~1930: futurenorth.substack.com/p/building-t...

One of the biggest barriers to British economic growth is centralisation. Local government that can get on and improve things is critical to economic growth.

We’re proud of the achievements of all our young people. 👏🏻 To help with the next stage of the journey, we’re launching a half-price monthly bus pass for 18 to 21 year-olds from 1 September. 🐝 So aim high and get ready to go as far as you can! 💪🏻