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Robin Tuddenham will hand over the presidency of Solace (the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers) at a tumultuous time for councils, but he is buoyed by the opportunity for the sector.Speaking to The MJ ahead of the organisaition's summit in Liverpool, the Calderdale chief says: ‘The biggest thing now is the opportunity to make Rewiring the State our time for local government.'He says councils need to take the learnings from the reorganisation process and ensure that feeds into what councils become in the promised new world.Tuddenham sees the Rewiring the State paper as the most important policy document of his career.‘It's got the potential to reset the dial for local government, it's a game-changer and this is our time.While he accepts that there should be some concern about government sidelining councils in their clamour to empower regions, the Solace president argues this is not the most important thing to be worrying about.‘But my worry is that we waste the moment spending all our time thinking about who's in charge and what the role of local government is versus mayoral strategic authorities [MSAs]. And actually I think it's a lot of what we've been asking for during the last 20 years.'While he accepts that there should be some concern about government sidelining councils in their clamour to empower regions, the Solace president argues this is not the most important thing to be worrying about.‘We will rue the day if we do not seize this moment. This is a chance to think about the local state differently.‘Local government are the MSAs, because they are based on constituent authorities.'Councils, he says, need to ‘use that agency' and he is clearly concerned the sector will fail to respond to government with the required assertiveness.‘I'm worried that what we do is write a nice polite note to government saying "these are the asks we would like local government to have".‘What we should be saying, politely but assertively, is "you will not rewire the state without local government. You've got no chance".‘The summit is the biggest event for local government every autumn – we've got 500 people coming to Liverpool – and it's a real moment to set out with a clear tone of voice and confidence that we want to co-produce, co-design and shape [with government] the future state.'The opportunity provided by Rewiring the State is one of Tuddenham's big four current issues for the sector.Another is obviously local government reorganisation – for all authorities facing it – alongside financial sustainability and civility in public life.Recognising, like many, that exceptional financial support (EFS) is so widespread it can no longer be called that, the Calderdale chief argues the question now is what the financial sustainability of local government is going to look like.‘It has to be properly tackling public service reform,' he adds, with ‘real invention' being used to tackle the likes of adult social care, homelessness and special educational needs and disabilities support.But Tuddenham is adamant that local government should not simply be asking Whitehall and Westminster for more money. ‘It's much more nuanced than that. It's saying "let's make Rewiring the State the opportunity to design the local state differently".'He adds that prevention should become the operating principle of the local state while also ensuring it is shaped by both community voice and agency, as well as adapting to the world of AI.‘I think this is our once-in-20-year moment. When you get a moment where you've got access and influence, and you're on the agenda – if you're in the top five things at this given moment – bloody well use it.'On civility in public life, the summit will see the launch of a report from the commission chaired by Solace chair Kath O'Dwyer.‘We need to reset the social contract around civility in public life because we want the best, brilliant people to want to work in local government at all levels and we need the best leaders and we want this to be a job people want to do, but where people can feel they're in an environment where they can operate well,' explains Tuddenham.‘If we're going to try and imagine the next 10 years of public service reform we've got to think about creating a 10-year pipeline of leaders to do that work.'On the commission report, Tuddenham says: ‘I think it will tell a very powerful story of how real this is for local government.‘But it will also offer some really hopeful, positive options, Not only some obvious things around reforming and improving the standards regime, but also some really practical tools that you can evaluate your council against.'And, as he prepares to step back from the Solace presidency, Tuddenham says: ‘It was a huge privilege to be asked to be president and obviously a highlight in my career.‘I've tried to do my best, but I've been supported by a brilliant policy team and a brilliant set of colleagues in Solace who are really committed.‘And I know we will keep influencing government in a strong way and they can't rewire the state without us.'

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SOLACE SUMMIT

Councils must seize chance to rewire the state

By Paul Marinko | 21 October 2026

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