Is there a paradox in a global approach to local government? Last week I was in Sydney and Melbourne for the launch of LGiU Australia, the newest (and by a long way the furthest flung) member of the Local Government Information Unit family. What I learned from local government colleagues in Australia reinforced my belief that a global perspective takes us to the heart of the local – and that localism and globalism can, indeed must, go together.

At the LGiU we have argued for more than 30 years that localism is important both as a democratic principle, the belief that decisions should be taken as close as possible to the people they effect (what we used to call subsidiarity), but also as a practical public good. We know that many of the challenges faced by local government require innovation and we know that innovation needs to be locally specific and to draw on the creativity and civic energy of local people.