Power to Places 🇬🇧

A new civic blueprint to put power, pride and capability back where it belongs: in the places we all live.

~8 minute read

Britain is stuck.For decades, we’ve lived with rising costs, declining trust, threadbare services, and hollowed-out places. We’ve been told to lower our expectations and narrow our imaginations. The story we tell ourselves is one of managed decline — of doing less, with less, for fewer people.But ask people what they actually want, and the answer is surprisingly consistent:A good life, in a good place, with real power, shared responsibility, and visible outcomes.We want to feel proud of where we live. We want to trust the systems we rely on. We want our work to matter, our voices to count, and our children to thrive. These are not left-wing or right-wing desires. They’re human ones.So let’s build a politics that matches them.

Power to Places

This is the core idea. Not just decentralisation, but a realignment of power and purpose. We want to shift power from a distant centre to the people and places who live with the consequences — and who are ready to lead.We’re not just giving power to places — we’re taking it back from the forces that have hoarded and hollowed it. From a remote Westminster politics that thinks it knows best. From faceless bureaucracies that confuse process with progress. From unaccountable corporates who extract value but give nothing back.This is about sovereignty. Not only national, but local, civic, and personal.Let’s begin with what that means on the ground.

1. Power That Belongs Here

Give places the power to lead themselves — with real tools, clear missions, and visible accountability.

This isn’t just a governance tweak. It’s a practical overhaul of how and where decisions are made.Metro mayors, local leaders and devolved institutions will co-design national missions and receive the long-term funding and policy levers needed to deliver them. A national civic dashboard will publish outcomes place-by-place, so success is visible — and failure is clear.It’s about enabling a different kind of politics — one where delivery is visible, local leaders are accountable, and power has a postcode.

2. Economies That Serve Places

Build the basics of a good local economy — in every region, through joined-up public investment and industrial specialism.

Economic power must be rooted, not extracted. That means reshaping procurement, planning, and education to serve long-term place-based value, not short-term returns to capital. Local authorities and regional development bodies will be equipped with the mandate and means to lead — not just administer — transformation.

3. Services That Show Up

Fix the basics, visibly and reliably — through empowered local delivery and standards people can see.

People don’t want handouts. They want to trust the basics again. Every service will come with guaranteed standards — and local teams given the flexibility to meet them in the best way for their place. Civic Corps participants, local authorities, and community partners will be funded to co-deliver where capacity is weakest.

4. A Civic NHS and Care System

Renew the NHS from the ground up — and build a care system worthy of the name, focused on prevention, proximity, and people.

The NHS is sacred. That’s why we must change it — to protect what it stands for.

We will begin by rolling out 200 new NHS hubs in areas with poor access to care, linked digitally and staffed through joint training programmes. Local NHS trusts will be required to form neighbourhood partnerships — with councils, GPs, and voluntary groups — to plan and deliver prevention-first care models.That’s why we must change it — to protect what it stands for.

5. Belonging That Starts in Place

Pride and identity must grow from the ground up — through shared endeavour, cultural expression, and civic visibility.

People don’t mind difference. They mind neglect. Belonging isn’t assimilation — it’s shared investment. Each town and city will form a Local Story Fund — co-designed with schools, artists, elders, and youth — to support shared narratives and visible pride. Nightlife and culture strategies will be mandated in every combined authority, with specific budgets for young people and grassroots creators.

6. A National Story Told in Many Voices

Let’s make Britain a mosaic, not a monolith — through education, participation and democratic renewal.

A country shaped by the future must be shaped by those who’ll live in it. We will begin with a National Youth Vote Act — to lower the voting age and expand local franchise — alongside a Young Citizens’ Panel in every local area to advise mayors, councils and institutions. Every school will adopt a civic curriculum focused on place, politics and participation, co-developed with local educators. must be shaped by those who’ll live in it.

7. A State That Can Deliver

We can’t fix the country with a state that can’t deliver — so we must rewire it for purpose, not process.

Good government is not big or small — it’s capable.We’ll start by creating a National Delivery College to train and support public service professionals in project execution, systems design and civic innovation. A Delivery Council — including mayors, citizens, experts and civil servants — will oversee cross-sector missions with real time dashboards and course correction authority.

8. Universities With a Civic Mission

Make higher education a force for place, not prestige — and reconnect it to public value.

A university should be a beacon for the place it’s in. Universities receiving public funds will be required to form regional compacts — with schools, employers, local government and communities — and publish impact reviews every two years. We will pilot three new Civic Universities built from scratch around real-world missions and regional transformation.

9. Global Partnerships From Below

Let places lead the international story — through trade, culture and mutual aid.

Britain has always been global. Let’s make that civic again.Each metro mayor will appoint a Local Trade and Culture Envoy to build international links aligned to the region’s strengths. Towns and cities will be invited to apply for twinning grants focused on climate, care, creativity and learning. Regional diplomacy units will support engagement with European, African and global city networks.Let’s make that civic again.

Not Left vs Right — But Rooted and Fair

Many say Britain wants to be economically left and socially right. What it really wants is to be fair and rooted.Fairness in services, jobs, and opportunity.
Rootedness in place, culture, and community.This platform offers both. It combines investment with identity. Participation with pride. Delivery with dignity.

How We Pay for It

This isn’t about spending more. It’s about spending better.

We believe the money is already there — but it’s trapped in the swirl and drag of a hyper-centralised system. Budgets are siloed, decisions are delayed, delivery is duplicated. The result is waste: in time, in talent, in trust.By putting power closer to where problems are experienced — and where solutions are known — we unlock huge efficiencies. Places can coordinate, prioritise, and build for the long term. Services can be designed around people, not departments. Investments can be joined up across housing, energy, care, and transport — saving money while improving lives.This is how we afford a better future: not through austerity, but through alignment.

A Long-Term Mission, Owned by the People

This is a big vision. It won’t happen in a single term or with a single party. It will take a civic movement — led from below, carried across governments, and sustained by people who demand it.If you believe in it, make it your own. Ask for it where you live. Expect it from those who govern you. Share it. Adapt it. Improve it.Let this be the blueprint. Let delivery be the test.

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