The New Local Government Network (NLGN) is a United Kingdom think tank which was founded in 1996. Its director is Simon Parker, previously of Demos, the Institute for Government and the Confederation of British Industry.
NLGN describes itself as a non-profit making, independent think tank that seeks to transform public services, revitalise local political leadership, and empower local communities. Members of the board include Sir Steve Bullock, Tony Travers, Ben Lucas, Stewart Jackson MP and Gerry Stoker. Former directors include Chris Leslie, former Labour MP for Shipley, between 2005 and his re-election to Parliament for Nottingham East in the General Election of 2010.
It publishes papers on a variety of policy areas, most recently publishing the results of an extended research project on the current UK government's drive for efficiency in local government.
The NLGN is currently overseeing a 'Commission on Next Localism' that will assemble the thinkers and representatives at the forefront of the localism agenda. The Commission will look to formulate a coherent vision for a localist governing and public service settlement for the UK. Key issues being examined include local government finance, the future of local democracy and the reinvention of local economic development.
While NLGN does not have ties to any political party, the think tank has welcomed a number of the Localism policies announced in the first months of Prime Minister David Cameron's government, but called for greater financial freedom for local government bodies.
Famous quotes containing the words local, government and/or network:
“The local is a shabby thing. There’s nothing worse than bringing us back down to our own little corner, our own territory, the radiant promiscuity of the face to face. A culture which has taken the risk of the universal, must perish by the universal.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“It has been the struggle between privileged men who have managed to get hold of the levers of power and the people in general with their vague and changing aspirations for equality, for justice, for some kind of gentler brotherhood and peace, which has kept that balance of forces we call our system of government in equilibrium.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“How have I been able to live so long outside Nature without identifying myself with it? Everything lives, moves, everything corresponds; the magnetic rays, emanating either from myself or from others, cross the limitless chain of created things unimpeded; it is a transparent network that covers the world, and its slender threads communicate themselves by degrees to the planets and stars. Captive now upon earth, I commune with the chorus of the stars who share in my joys and sorrows.”
—Gérard De Nerval (1808–1855)