Our archive news stories on Local Futures work and website updates can be found below.

2008

Research on Data Sharing within Local Strategic Partnerships

During 2008, Local Futures collaborated on a project on data sharing with the Office for Public Management on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government. The Project involved qualitative interviews and workshops looking at the costs and benefits of data sharing within Local Strategic Partnerships.  The reports have now been published and added to the Network Intelligence section here.

North West Visions

Local Futures is currently working on visions for Sustainable Community Strategies in Warrington and Stockport. The work has involved a comprehensive baseline analysis of local conditions and a programme of workshops involving key partner organisations. Futures and scenario building techniques have been used to help imagine alternative futures and shape compelling and believable visions. The work is also designed to inform other partnership and strategic activity.

For more information on our visions and strategy work, please contact the Local Futures Group.

Supporting Local Leadership

Local Futures is working with the Leadership Centre for Local Government on a regional programme of place-shaping seminars. Aimed at local political leaders, the seminars introduce members to the basic concepts of place shaping and work with them to apply the concepts to their own area.

Please contact us if you would like further details of our place-shaping work.

2007

State of coastal areas

The Local Futures Group have produced a 'think-piece' for the SocietyGuardian (12/09/07) on the state of coastal areas, using a sample of 20 seaside districts in England.

The data shows that many coastal towns are being left behind in a changing economy, resulting in social and environmental decay. However, some seaside resorts - particularly those in the south, such as Brighton - have managed to diversify and adapt to these changes, creating thriving localities in which people live and work. 

State of the suburbs

The latest research by the Local Futures Group on modern suburban England, commissioned as part of the ‘Successful City-Suburbs’ project, has been published. State of the suburbs assesses the role of English suburbs in the context of the ‘urban renaissance’ and the Government’s ambitions for sustainable development in our towns and cities.

The report provides a snapshot of the social, economic and environmental conditions in a cross-section of suburbs, challenging the stereotypical notion of ‘suburbia’ and highlighting the unique contribution that suburbs make to the success of Britain’s city-regions. Click here for the full report; to find out more about the project, please visit the City-Suburbs website.

Recent press coverage of the State of the suburbs and the Successful City-Suburbs project suggests this is a timely analysis of an important spatial dynamic within Britain.

The Sunday Times, 02/09/2007: 'Suburbs: Brown is starving us into inner-city blight'

SocietyGuardian, 05/09/2007: 'No joke - suburbia is ripe for renaissance'