Local government and authority
Research Topic
Language: English
This is a research topic created to provide authors with a place to attach new problem publications.
Research problems linked to this topic
- What is the evidence on which decision making structures (at which geographies) work best to deliver effective public services to citizens and level up communities?
- What principles should be used to delegate responsibilities to local communities, and how can these areas be empowered to deliver?
- What can we learn from the COVID-19 shielding programme and other programmes that supported our most vulnerable groups during the pandemic? What were the costs and benefits of different interventions?
- What approaches will best empower rural communities to develop social, economic, and environmental interventions appropriate to their own local circumstances?
- What does international evidence tell us about effective combinations of government and devolved support for local growth? How important is this in tackling productivity differentials between areas?
- What is the role of local government or cities in autonomous aviation?
- What is the evidence for which local growth interventions are most effective in different scenarios? Does the mix of interventions matter, and how should we measure impact and value for money in that scenario? What are the displacement and spillover effects of place-based interventions to surrounding areas?
- What might a new more effective/efficient approach or dynamic between central government, local authorities and other partners (including communities/residents themselves) look like, and how could this help to improve specific outcomes in a place?
- What could government do additionally, or differently, to facilitate increased use of its data, and longer-term monitoring of trends?
- Who is currently engaged with neighbourhood governance (in terms of demographics) and what are the gaps, patterns, trends, needs and preferences of different groups?
- How can local governance best be coordinated with national?
- What are the characteristics of public services that should be devolved to the local tier while strengthening local accountability, and which are best delivered at the national level? What can we learn from international comparisons?
- How can housing help to mitigate COVID-19 impacts over the longer term?
- What can DLUHC learn from other organisations who are using a data science approach? What drives organisations to develop cutting edge data science? And how can this support delivery in our policy areas?
- What are the factors which make integration and cohesion mutually beneficial? And what community capacity/development is most effective to support that?
- What does institutional and departmental data show in terms of patterns in, and potential causes of, disparities in service use between different groups?
- What are the most effective interventions governments can implement to increase housing supply where most needed?
- How can various data on funding, user satisfaction and other outcomes from local government services be exploited to provide richer insights into the drivers of resident and user satisfaction? What might they tell us about the reasons for any differences in satisfaction?
- What are the likely longer-term consequences of COVID-19 for vulnerable groups and communities in terms of the volume and type of need? What new considerations does this introduce in terms of central government’s role, and that of other levels of government and other providers?
- How does the capability and capacity of Local Transport Authorities influence the delivery of transport policy developed by central government?
- What specific measures would most increase efficiency in electoral registration for administrators?
- How can we balance different interests at local and national levels, to provide the resources we need, reduce degradation of natural capital and improve the state of the environment?
- How can counterfactuals (against which to assess the impact of policy interventions across different spatial levels) best be defined and measured?
- What does the evidence show about stability or changes in the population’s identification with local democratic institutions and the strength of their democratic engagement? How has that changed during the pandemic and how is it likely to change in the wider context over the next few years? What does the international evidence show, given the different governance structures?
- What does resilient local government look like?
- How can we better assess the benefits of an electoral system that is less vulnerable to fraud e.g. in terms of increased trust in government at all levels?
- What has the pandemic taught us are the necessary pre-conditions for effective devolution of a public service to the local tier? Within that, what has the pandemic taught us about how accountability, such as managing public money, should be managed? And where does the evidence show that centralisation is more appropriate?
- How can we better capture the comparable value for money and non-monetised benefits of different community-led initiatives and interventions (including those which seek to strengthen social infrastructure and social capital)?
- What can we learn from international models of local social infrastructure, local governance and devolution of power to communities?
- How can we ensure an elections and registration system that is accessible for all, and maintains integrity, public confidence and trust through minimal potential for fraud?
- How can government (central and local government) systems and processes work more effectively, to build a more integrated and socially cohesive society
- What are the best ways to measure the ‘softer’ outcomes, such as changes in wellbeing, and how to attach a value to such interventions?
- What’s the best way of tracking the impact of different funding streams on a place?
- What analytical approaches can best demonstrate the impact and value of policies that seek to prevent such problems arising?
- How does well-being matter in the context of levelling up? What are the most effective levers for government (central and local) to affect well-being? How does well-being interact with other place based interventions such as housing and regeneration?
- What works in ensuring that policies are truly inclusive for all parts of a community or place? And how do we shape our interventions to address the different priorities from place to place, or between groups – e.g. health, transport, jobs, education etc?
- What motivates people to get involved and active in their area? Some people living in poverty and challenging situations do get involved, many do not; why? What can we do to remove barriers or create better conditions for wider engagement from a broader range of people in areas?
- What can we learn from best practice in public service delivery from across the UK?
- What work has already been done to bring together evidence and analysis comparing impact of policy variation in different policy areas across the UK?
- How can local planning for nature-based solutions be best reconciled with regional and national strategies? What are the most effective ways to combine place-based participatory approaches with evidence and analysis of the likely effectiveness of nature-based solutions?
- What does ‘good’ look like for engagement of citizens in the performance and accountability of their local authority? What methods and approaches work best and what can we do to improve citizen engagement?”
- What factors and conditions increase/decrease the chance of successful community-led initiatives (including those which seek to strengthen social infrastructure and social capital) in areas of high deprivation. What makes some areas with the same socio-economics and demographics achieve different outcomes?
- What examples are there of methods that can best help the department to manage future uncertainty (such as a pandemic), to improve its performance and resilience?
- What is the relationship between different models of hyper-local governance and socio-economic outcomes for individuals and neighbourhoods? i.e. what difference does the presence of neighbourhood governance, which communities are engaged and active in, make in terms of more people in jobs, more volunteering, more stable communities, and thriving high streets?
- How should the change in value of an amenity best be assessed where a change of use of a property takes effect (for example, where it becomes housing)?
- What is the impact of micro individual behaviours and interaction with neighbourhood infrastructure and community spaces in creating the conditions for wider societal outcomes (e.g. health outcomes, crime reduction, climate change)? How can we understand where the marginal gains are to be had, i.e. what is the minimum behaviour change needed that creates significant accumulative impact?
- What innovative methods are being developed on evaluation approaches, which could be applied to our different policy areas? Which experimental and quasi experimental methods can we look to which could be applied to our areas? Are there examples we can showcase and learn from?
- How can we improve coherence of UK wide data to be able to maximise learning from devolution, including the benefits of experimentation and innovation?
- How can rural communities and businesses contribute to and benefit from the attainment of national economic, social, and environmental objectives?
- What structures and constitutional mechanisms can support relationships between devolved administrations and UK government, in the context of EU Exit?
- What financial pressures does new housing put on local authorities? How does this vary between types and tenure of home, and to what extent are these costs recovered through developer contributions, council tax and other forms of local authority revenue?
- What can we learn from local authority social cohesion strategies about what works to counter-extremism, promote greater community resilience, tolerance and trust? And what benefits does this bring to a place?
- How can we ensure devolution settlements are stable and sustainable over time and in a changing environment? What structures can facilitate this?
- How do the relative needs of different local authorities vary? How should they be measured?
- What does the evidence show was more or less effective about the particularly intense engagement between local and national government during the pandemic, and what we have learnt about the key enablers developed between the tiers of government in this last period? Which of these would most helpfully be sustained in future (e.g. data sharing)?
- What does the evidence show is most effective in improving economic, social and other outcomes for Mayoral Combined Authorities in terms of devolved powers, budgets and accountabilities?
- How might the COVID-19 pandemic affect homelessness and rough sleeping in the longer term?
- What should be the role of communities in the local devolution agenda? What does the evidence suggest works? Does community involvement in public service delivery at the local tier increase efficiency or effectiveness in achieving public value outcomes?
- What is the role of local government in influencing people’s decision-making on energy improvements?
- Which actions by communities, civil society groups, and local and central government, would most effectively and efficiently improve the completeness and accuracy of electoral registers for all people?
- What does a directly-elected mayor in England need in order to be most effective? Does this differ depending on whether the mayor is of an individual local authority or a combined authority in England?
- What does the evidence show are the principal causes of deprivation?
- What are the alternative data sources, from outside government, that would help DLUHC answer any of the questions outlined in this ARI document? What is the evidence that these sources can provide additional value?
- What interventions effectively incentivise and support local councils in England to improve performance?
- To what extent is housing tenure (e.g. social rented, private rented, home ownership etc) driven by choice? What drives people’s choices? For example, is private renting seen as a ‘stepping-stone’ to home ownership? And how does this vary across different geographical areas?
- What can we learn from regimes where planning and regeneration powers have been devolved from central government towards regions and local stakeholders?
- What are most effective ways to appropriately account for displacement effects (meaning where the expansion of an activity, such as economic activity, in one location has the effect of bringing about a reduction in that activity elsewhere) of levelling up policies and interventions?
- What is the role of commercial property development in supporting growth in places? And what does the evidence suggest about how this may change going forward?
- What has the pandemic taught us about what a good governance structure in local government looks like? How is this measured? And how can central government best support continuous improvement of place leadership?
- How representative are existing governance structures (elected and appointed) of the communities they seek to represent, and what are the impacts of that? What are the barriers and enablers of good representation of communities in their governance structures?
- What can we learn from COVID-19 about helping local areas to be more resilient to economic, and other, shocks? And what is the impact of changes in demand for land, such as office, retail, housing etc in particular locations?
- What do different parts of the country need from central, devolved and local government interventions? What does that tell us about where funding is most needed?
- What explains the sub-regional variation in poor quality housing? How does this vary across the UK?
- What does good design and delivery of local public services to better meet the needs of those from different ethnic backgrounds look like?
- How can we best understand and measure the relationships citizens have with different layers of UK governance?
- How should local authority resilience, capacity, capability and financial sustainability be defined and measured? How have they changed over time?
- What emerging evidence is there about the future housing market in a post-pandemic world? And how will net zero carbon emission homes affect this?