Following on from our January espresso shot on how far population size should drive the current round of two-tier local government reorganisation, David and Mike speak with Ian Fytche, the recently departing Chief Executive of North Kesteven District Council (NKDC) in Lincolnshire. Ian advocates for place-based local government as an integral part of a wider, coherent agenda for public service reform and democratic renewal which will be critical for LED and placemaking everywhere. Here are five big ticket issues surfaced by Ian.
LEDC's top takeaways on the case for the ‘local’ in local economic development, leadership, and placemaking
Local government, at whatever scale, should be able to tell the story and articulate the ambitions of its places and communities: The ‘local’ in local government is absolutely critical. Whether a local authority (LA) is a million population plus city or a small rural district, it needs to understand the distinctive qualities and characteristics of its places and synthesise them in a coherent narrative with bold ambitions. If the next tranche of new English unitaries is going to comprise very large non-metropolitan geographies and populations, its proposals for reform should be required to explain how they are going to give their component cities, towns and rural hinterlands agency and influence and over which aspects of public policy and service delivery.
The ingredients of great place-based leadership are relatively well known and understood: Local leadership teams and particularly local CEOs need to:
Have and be able to articulate their vision and values, and their priority purposes in their leadership roles
Understand the narratives and ‘rhythms’ of their places and communities and how they work as urban living systems
Think long term – as exemplified in Kznaric’s ‘The Good Ancestor’ (see below)
Be a strong team builder and recognise the value of bottom-up leadership
Do not let yourself be seduced by either ‘egos or logos’
A long term highly ambitious vision can inform and underpin short term planning and incremental change: Long-term visions can be useful in a number of different ways. Lifting one’s head above day-to-day routines and immediate urgency enables discussion and agreement on long term outcomes, however ambitious. It can facilitate collaboration across geographies and institutions by transcending short term competition. Consideration of trends, futures thinking and scenario planning are particularly important in times of high uncertainty.
Ian gave examples of the Greater Lincolnshire Vision 2050 and the various iterations of the ‘Greater Lincoln’ Joint Local Plan (across three local planning authorities) as examples that achieved these types of goals. However, long-term visioning needs to be translated into short-term policies and intervention strategies if it is to be made real to local places and their communities.
We have the tools and frameworks to do place-based development and change much better: Ian enthused about recent work on the foundational economy and doughnut economics, on relatively well-established Local Plan processes used inclusively, and on the Local Voluntary Review process for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs – discussed in greater detail in this 2024 LEDC episode). We know how to co-produce and build ownership of well-founded place-based plans and strategies if we can carve out the space to tailor these types of approaches for our local contexts. We can also look to international examples from large cities like Amsterdam to Ian’s recent ‘busman’s holiday’ talking with local practitioners and residents of Saxony’s multi-layered government down to small municipalities of under 10,000 population.
Genuine devolution requires more radical change than is currently on offer in the recent Devolution White Paper and local government reorganisation (LGR): The current devolution and local government reorganisation policies can be characterised as too technocratic and lack boldness commensurate with the acute challenges all places and many communities are facing.
Structural changes should be designed to explicitly address key grand challenges better than an overcentralised national state. Sub-national leadership and governance need powers and resources to move the dials on agendas of climate and planetary boundaries, social inequality and democratic renewal, economic performance and inclusive growth.
The current tranche of LGR presupposes a unitarisation model at scale across much of non-metropolitan England. This will be marginal if it fails to address preconditions for success across England (and separately the devolved nations):
Fundamental constitutional agreements on what different tiers of government are for
Sustainable solutions to current sub-national financing crises, especially for adult and children’s services
Preventative models for the wider determinants of wellbeing
Renewed emphasis on the hard and soft infrastructure that enhances natural and social capital in places and communities
Perhaps, rather than a focus on unitarisation at scale in non-metropolitan England, more effort should be put into changes in values and operating styles of national government, multi-layering and inter-tier collaboration across all UK nations and regions, and giving place-based partnerships at sub-regional, district, local and even hyper-local levels real agency – something our January episode with Kersten England referenced strongly. And in an England with deep-rooted devolution, why wouldn’t Mayoral Combined Authorities be the ringmasters for different patterns of local government in their regions – rather than a top-down technocratic process largely inherited from the previous Government with over emphasis on ill-founded population size?
Concluding remarks
Alongside our five key takeaways, there is a lot more in this episode. How to position and deliver Joint Local Planning across boundaries; how LAs in more successful areas manage when national and even Combined Authority resources will inevitably be drawn to less prosperous places; and much much more – many thanks to Ian for his contributions. But what do you think? How do you define and empower the ‘local’ in your area and organisation? And what changes to current devolution and LGR practice would help you do it better? Do let us know. Please share your experience and any ideas for future guests and episodes.
Further reading
Ian’s reference points in this LEDC episode
Doughnut Economics: The must-read book that redefines economics for a world in crisis, Kate Raworth
The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World, Roman Kznaric
The European Charter of Local Self-Government, signed by UK in 1997 and ratified in 1998
The Strange Demise of the Local in Local Government: Bigger is Not Better, Colin Copus and Steve Leach
On long-term place-based visioning
The Greater Lincolnshire 2050 vision discussed by Ian
An introduction to Amsterdam2040 also discussed by Ian
A signature ‘Future of Cities’ Foresight detailed overview from Government’s Office for Science – still relevant although pre-pandemic
On place-based tools and frameworks
The gateway to information and guidance on SDG Voluntary Local Reviews
A place-based framework approach produced for and in Scotland
David’s own Positive Progressive Placemaking provides an overview of a range of tools and frameworks relevant to LED and placemaking in the 2020s
On devolution and LGR25
House of Commons Library Research Briefings are an excellent source for many issues discussed in LEDC. These are their February 2025 Devolution briefing and their concurrent synthesis on the current tranche of LGR.
Institute for Government is another helpful resource and published this explainer on unitarisation in January 2025.
District Council Network’s Bigger is not better report – by Copus, Leach & Jones
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