Zoe Billingham
Budget: Expect plenty of smoke and mirrors politics
The sector should expect more tax cutting smoke and mirror solutions at this year’s Budget, says Zoë Billingham. She warns: ‘There’ll be no hiding from the fact that taxes will be rising very clearly locally.’
The dire state of local government finances risks undermining devolution
'Failing to put local government finances on a sustainable footing could undermine the progress both parties have made towards devolving power to communities', says Zoë Billingham.
Devolution debates dominate
At the Labour conference, devolution was a major theme of Keir Starmer’s speech. It was reassuring to see regional rebalancing lives on but there are still big questions to answer on all sides of the political spectrum, says Zoë Billingham.
Centralisation is the real problem in the ULEZ debate
While mayors are grappling with the implications of facing the important issue of air quality, central Government is making local action to clean up the air we breathe as difficult as possible, says Zoë Billingham.
Unpredictable polls
There are reasons to expect this next set of local election results will be more unpredictable than usual, writes director of the think-tank IPPR North, Zoë Billingham.
It's time to settle the Bill
There is still time to alter the path of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill now going through Parliament, says Zoe Billingham. Ambition must be improved across the legislation, and a key principle is missing, she adds.
These elections are by no means a done deal
Let’s hope that with the focus of this week’s vote, the Government redoubles its efforts to level up, and goes much further to protect people from economic winds out of their control says Zoë Billingham.
Opportunity knocks for West Yorkshire
The winning candidate in the first West Yorkshire mayoral election will have an opportunity to shape the long-term trajectory of the region – and it’s about time, says Zoë Billingham.
Levelling up risks becoming less than the sum of its parts
There is always political appetite for short-term infrastructure projects, but we need transparency and transformational change to level up, says Zoe Billingham.
Give local leaders a ‘levelling up’ role
Zoe Billingham and Charlotte Alldritt say inequality within regions is rife across the UK. Here, they put forward a strategy to address this– but they say that ‘with greater devolution must also come greater accountability’.
Local government may struggle without a bailout
The crisis support from central government for businesses and wages is welcome and needed, writes Zoë Billingham – but she says local government is likely to need further emergency funding this year.