Healthy life expectancy in the UK has fallen by two years over the past decade, according to recent analysis from the Health Foundation. Meanwhile people living in England’s most deprived communities now spend almost twenty fewer years in good health than those in affluent areas. It seems increasingly clear that the NHS cannot solve these challenges alone and that collective action across public services and communities is key.  

The conversation around housing and regeneration sits between two poles: the economics and the human cost. At one end is the growing financial pressure on local authorities as costs rise, budgets stretch and difficult decisions are made to direct limited resources. At the other end is the human reality: thousands of households living with insecurity, overcrowding, damp and mould. Both perspectives matter. What happens in the space between them is how we progress.

Creating a new Council is one thing. Making it work is another. To make sure this happens, we need to give digital, data, cyber and technology resources a more prominent place in the Local Government Reorganisation conversation. Because they underpin almost everything else.

There is no shortage of conversation about digital in local government. Attend almost any conference, webinar or leadership event and you'll hear discussions about artificial intelligence, low-code platforms, automation and digital transformation. Suppliers promise faster services, reduced costs, improved resident experiences and better decision-making. Technology has become one of the sector's most prominent talking points.

The UK government’s Pride in Place strategy seeks to go beyond standard funding or improved engagement between councils, communities and place. It aims to fundamentally redesign relationships. In so doing, it poses a big question for councils - how to remain accountable for public money while ensuring that local people play a critical role in defining priorities and shaping change?

As England debates the next phase of devolution, questions about fiscal autonomy are at the forefront. Strategic Authorities continue to expand, Local Government Reorganisation continues, and politicians like Andy Burnham argue meaningful change requires a fundamental shift in who holds financial power.

New Towns must be judged by more than the number of homes they deliver. While housing numbers and infrastructure remain critical, the real test of success is whether we can create places where people can flourish and cohesive, resilient communities can grow. This is the opportunity of the New Towns programme - to cultivate citizenship from the outset that is collaborative, proactive, creative, relational and long-term. 

Regulation shapes behaviour in ways that aren't always visible or intended. It influences what leaders prioritise, where energy and money flow, and which risks feel worth taking. For that reason alone, it deserves more honest examination than it typically receives, not as a debate about more or less of it, but about whether it's well-designed for what we're currently asking public services to do. 

Inner Circle Consulting has been shortlisted in six categories at the 2026 MCA Awards, the leading awards programme for the UK management consulting industry.

We are delighted to see this recognition, which demonstrates the extent to which our approach is resonating with our public sector clients and the wider industry. These awards highlight the difference our team have made to our clients, and their contributions to fresh thinking, strategy and industry-level excellence.

The New Towns agenda has got the built environment buzzing. Rightly so: it’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity not just to construct housing at the scale needed to respond to a deepening crisis but also to add meaningful new pieces to our urban fabric - new villages, new towns and new communities.

Don’t be fooled, though, into thinking that that last word, community, should sit last on the list. It’s not just nice to have. It’s the foundation that makes everything else work.

Public sector transformation is entering a new phase. Change is increasingly about building the capacity to evolve, rather than to arrive at a single destination and so the focus has switched from designing programmes or delivering a single result, to unlocking new possibilities through innovation, digital capability, data and AI.

A company away day is always a useful time to look at things differently. Setting aside laptops and the usual daily deadlines, ICC staff gathered recently to consider what others had to say about one of the hottest topics in our work: LGR and Devolution. An expert panel explored what many are questioning in public services – whether LGR will translate into tangible outcomes for people and communities.

At the London Housing Summit last week, there was a clear moment of reset in the conversation - recognition that, while supply remains essential, it cannot on its own resolve London’s housing challenges. The focus, then, has to move to demand: who needs housing, how that need is changing, and where the system is feeling pressure.

Picture two residents in the same care home.

They sit in the same lounge, eat the same meals, and are helped to bed by the same overstretched staff. One is paying over £1,200 a week from the sale of their family home and the slow liquidation of a lifetime’s savings. The other, with no assets at all, has their place funded by the local council. They receive the same service.

This is not a rare injustice or a quirk of the system. It is the system: a structure that manages to be fiscally unsustainable, politically explosive, and morally questionable all at once.

The public sector owns an enormous amount of property; offices, clinics, depots, civic centres – and is constantly working out how to manage it. The approaches we usually see involve using less space, selling off property, and bringing separate teams under the same roof. But for the power of the portfolio to work in the service of communities and their needs, true transformation and system change is needed.

In the long and complicated history of English devolution, most milestones have been invisible to anyone not paid to follow them closely. Spending Review settlements, statutory instruments, deal-signing ceremonies: these were all hard-won moments, expanding the room for local leaders to act. But helping people connect that progress to their daily lives has been tougher work. All too often, translating the machinery of devolution to tangible impact has remained regional government’s thorniest problem.

English devolution has developed unevenly over the past decade. New institutions have been created with more responsibility, more visibility and more expectation, but only partial control over the resources needed to meet them. The deeper question has remained unresolved: how far is national government really willing to go in letting places shape their own economic futures? 

Our high streets these days seem portents of doom, suggesting something fundamental has failed. Headlines warn of Britons who don’t visit their high street regularly and the impact this has on society, politics and sentiment. “Too many empty shops” is an undeniable observation, but it is an incomplete one. Our neighbourhoods and communities need better understanding.

We are delighted to announce two important Director arrivals at ICC to support our mission to improve lives through a relentless focus on growth and prevention. Both share our purpose and passion for delivery 

Vicky Armstrong, a specialist in technology-enabled and digital transformation across the public sector, brings extensive experience from Deloitte, PwC, and independent consulting. James Pemble, who joins from PwC, specialises in large‑scale transformation across local and central government including deep involvement in the recent LGR of North Yorkshire. Both bring enormous experience in driving tangible results for public sector organisations and communities across the UK.

Incremental efficiencies and “salami slicing” are no longer enough to manage local government finances. If councils are to build true financial resilience, they must redesign their operating models around two fundamentals: growth and prevention. Growth expands the tax base and stimulates investment, while prevention tackles demand at its source by supporting people and communities earlier. Both are vital, and both require finance leaders to think differently about risk, purpose, and value.