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In the media this week

The National Lottery’s Community Fund used our Social Fabric Index to assess the impact of their spending. In their Impact Report, the National Lottery showed that the local areas with the lowest 10% of Social Fabric, as measured by our Index, received 16% of their funding over the past four financial years.

Speaking in Parliament, Jonathan Gullis MP (Stoke-on-Trent North) mentioned Lost Learning, a report he co-authored with Onward, where we argued for the use of multi-academy trusts as the engine of school improvement.

Writing for The Yorkshire Post, Jackie Weaver drew on findings from our latest report, Double Devo, in an article about how parish councils can help level up England.

The Guardian cited Onward’s Repairing Our Social Fabric programme in a long-read about what shape society will take in a post-pandemic world.

Upcoming Events

Healthy Knowledge

Dec 07, 15:00-16:15 (private roundtable, invitation only)

Healthy Knowledge: Can improving diet literacy reduce health inequality

This is a private roundtable event with Dr Luke Evans MP and Rt Hon Damian Green MP. The discussion will focus on the ways in which nutrition literacy can be improved in low-income communities, and how this will enable better health outcomes in these areas, in line with the National Health Strategy.

Green Pleasant Affordable business network

Dec 09, 08:30-10:00 (private event, invitation only)

Business Network Breakfast

This is a private breakfast for Onward’s Business Network, with Lord Gavin Barwell and Tom Newton Dunn, providing an opportunity for business leaders to discuss the current political and policy environment.

Making it smarter

Jan 18, 11:00-12:00

Making it Smarter: Using technology to rethink the capabilities of UK manufacturing

This event will consider the future of UK manufacturing in light of the digital transformation needed to unlock the sector’s true potential.

Sign up to this event here.

Onward Note

Up and down the country, councillors and clerks are working with their communities to protect and improve the places they live. But they are doing so with one hand tied behind their back, with fewer powers and resources than other forms of local government. This system undercuts the impressive work that town and parish councils already do to help their communities take ownership of their place. It is time that we recognised their potential and gave them the powers and resources to take back control.

Jenevieve-Treadwell

This is partly about money. Of course, parish and town councils can raise money through the local precept, an additional levy on top of council tax that raised nearly £600 million last year. But the small sums of money this generates are rarely enough for the town and parish councils to lead genuinely transformative regeneration in their area.

In our recent report, Double Devo, we recommended that town and parish councils that had set a vision for the community through a neighbourhood plan should have access to more funding. Our proposed reforms to the Infrastructure Levy would give town and parish councils an extra £175,000 a year. That money could resource new community facilities or be used to upgrade the built environment.

But it is about more than money too: it is about power. Even if a town or parish council has the resources and ambition, they may not have the right powers to carry them forward. The 2011 Localism Act brought with it a whole host of powers for local government, including the General Power of Competence (GPC), allowing councils to act as individuals. But if town and parish councils also want GPC rights, their clerks have to take on additional training and their council elections have a two-thirds contested quota.

This asymmetry puts town and parish councils on the back foot and pushes responsibility up to higher levels of government. To prevent town and parish councils from being sidelined, we recommend that GPC rights should be extended down to town and parish councils on the same terms as the rest of local government. This is not revolutionary, but a necessary step if local leaders are to genuinely help their areas to level up.

With the right resources and tools to take ownership of their place, the responsibilities of town and parish councils can be increased in a sustainable way. So, moving forward, communities have the allies they need and deserve to take back control of their place.

Jenevieve Treadwell, Researcher at Onward

A version of this note was published as a blog article for the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), and can be found here.

Policy Bites

The Government has launched its fan-lead Football Governance Review, with proposals that empower fans and give local communities a greater say in how their clubs are governed. Link

Sir Peter Hendy’s independent Union Connectivity Review has been published, announcing measures like UKNET, a UK-wide transport network connecting the different nations and improving accessibility to social and economic opportunities across the Union. Link

The Department for Education has pledged to reduce persistent student absenteeism by working with local authorities and multi-academy trusts, and consulting attendance advisors that have vast expertise in education and governance. Link

Quick Links

3915 - Onward Newsletter, 30/11/21
Being young has never been more difficult, and Covid is the least of our worries | Alex Mistlin
What with disrupted education, rising rents and low wages, it’s hard to be optimistic about the supposed end of the pandemic, says Guardian commissioning editor Alex Mistlin
3915 - Onward Newsletter, 30/11/21
Being young has never been more difficult, and Covid is the least of our worries | Alex Mistlin
What with disrupted education, rising rents and low wages, it’s hard to be optimistic about the supposed end of the pandemic, says Guardian commissioning editor Alex Mistlin
%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F8cdcd338 94d5 11ec bcf4 9dde9b8243da - Onward Newsletter, 30/11/21
The Augar review is encouraging for British education
I have wanted to weep in recent months. What a waste of an 80-seat majority, and how awful that voters who had been let down serially, and who had voted…
%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F8cdcd338 94d5 11ec bcf4 9dde9b8243da - Onward Newsletter, 30/11/21
The Augar review is encouraging for British education
I have wanted to weep in recent months. What a waste of an 80-seat majority, and how awful that voters who had been let down serially, and who had voted…
placeholder - Onward Newsletter, 30/11/21
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placeholder - Onward Newsletter, 30/11/21
Page not found – Bennett Institute for Public Policy
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