Publications Publications
We produce a wide range of publications from research reports to policy briefings, as well as our members' magazine, Clearway, and a monthly Policy Round-Up. Our Handy Guides provide practical information covering topics such as LSPs, Planning and local government. All our publications are designed to provide accessible and relevant information to help you get to the heart of what matters.
Don't know your Handy Guide from your Briefing? Read our explanation of what our different publications are.
14 Bills and 4 draft Bills represents a fairly modest legislative agenda - at least in terms of the amount of legislation being brought forward. But if it represents a real change from the previous government's belief that legislation is the answer to everything, then that's progress.
Since we've got used to successive government's briefing the press of their plans in advance of occasions like the Budget and the Queen's Speech, we shouldn't be surprised that most of the content was expected. There was a time when briefing the press in advance of presenting in Parliament was considered a serious breach of protocol. In 1947 the Chancellor, Hugh Dalton, resigned after telling a journalist what was in the Budget before he gave his Statement to Parliament.
community organisers survey resultsIn February 2012, Urban Forum carried out a survey looking at what community groups knew about community organising and the Community Organisers national programme being run by Locality, as well as the benefits and challenges that they thought that the programme may or will offer their local area. There were 152 respondents to the survey, reflecting the amount of attention paid to the Community Organisers programme in national media, especially when compared to the relatively low levels of coverage of other aspects of Big Society and Localism such as Community Rights.
Over the course of December 2011 to March 2012, we held a series of 12 events across England on community rights and neighbourhood planning. These events were held in partnership with NAVCA and a number of our local members and supported by Planning Aid and Locality. In organising the events, we wanted to engage community groups on this new policy agenda, and hoped to increase the level of awareness and understanding of community rights. We also wanted to investigate how opinions and understanding of community rights had changed since we conducted research in the Summer of 2011. The report findings are based on the opinions of over 200 participants at the events.
Urban Forum has published a new report into tenant management organisations, which considers how the decades of experience of residents managing their own housing services fits into the localism and decentralisation agenda today.
In October 2012 Communities and Local Government launched a consultation on Neighbourhood Planning regulations. The consultation aimed to consider whether the proposed approach to taking up the regulation making powers in the Localism Bill (now Act) with regard to neighbourhood planning struck the right balance between standardising the approach across the country and providing sufficient local flexibility to reflect local circumstances.
We cast our eye over what's happening in Whitehall for one last time in 2011....
The latest edition of our online magazine, Clearway, looks at the issue of Social Finance. 