B40: Thoughts on the Forthcoming Local Government White Paper – Six Key Challenges for Local Governance

In the last couple of months there has been an increasing emphasis in the regeneration and local government press on the Local Government White Paper, which is due to be published in the summer. The purpose of this bulletin is to look in detail at six key policy areas, which CLES believe will form the bulk of the Local Government White Paper. Each policy area section will look at:

• The context to the policy agenda;
• A critique of the coverage the issue has received in the local government press;
• An assessment of the what the issue is likely to mean for local governance in 2015, in light of a recent local:vision paper on the issue.

As a way of conceptualising the Local Government White Paper and the six key policy areas, the bulletin will firstly highlight the current regional, local and neighbourhood level governance models and assess the need for reform in cities in light of the recent State of the English Cities report.