Onward Logo Colour White 2021

Forget Handforth: parish councils are leading the way in levelling up

The Times Red Box

Luke Stanley, Senior Researcher at Onward and lead of the Social Fabric programme, writes for Times Red Box about our latest report, Double Devo. He writes:

“Up and down the country, town and parish councils are helping communities take back control of their neighbourhoods and levelling themselves up. And it is working.

As new analysis published this morning by the think tank Onward shows, places covered by town or parish councils typically have a stronger social fabric, enjoying on average five times as many local assets of community value and higher rates of volunteering and charitable giving.

The point is that when people are given the tools to level up their community, they can achieve far more than a Whitehall strategy document. But tragically, not everyone enjoys this privilege.” 

You can read the full article here.

 

 

REPORT
Double Devo: Extending Town and Parish Councils

The case for empowering neighbourhoods as well as regions