Issue: 60 | June 2022

Maggie Rafalowicz

Director, Campbell Tickell

Welcome to our latest issue featuring local government

It doesn’t get any easier for local authorities. Fresh from playing a leading role at local level to help us all through the pandemic, they now face a range of challenges, some new, some old: a funding settlement well below inflation, higher fuel and other costs, pay demands, increasing poverty, accommodating refugees, rising homelessness, the social care system in danger of collapse, the net zero-carbon agenda and more. All this while seeking to make devolution work and contributing meaningfully to the levelling-up agenda.

But councils have consistently shown great resilience in the face of significant and sometimes systemic problems, alongside imagination and innovation. In this issue, we highlight a number of local initiatives to tackle a range of the difficulties so many face, while identifying best practice in such areas as organisational transformation, budget-setting, learning from complaints, the quality of housing, decarbonisation, diversity in leadership, sport and local communities, mental health, homelessness, and recruiting the people you need to deliver the results you seek.

We hope you enjoy this issue and find it valuable!

Disclaimer: We welcome guest blogs and articles for our website and CT Brief. The views, opinions and positions expressed in such blogs and articles represent those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Campbell Tickell.