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Stars are aligning around some very interesting conversations on the future of our sector. Of course, this is heightened by there being a new Prime Minister and refreshed government line-up.The issues are well known to all of us: funding, devolution and re-organisation, health and care structures and, of course, statutory services.They are all critical issues. Yet, there is a risk we are allowing the story of local government to be narrowed.When I read much of the commentary, it appears local government exists primarily to manage crisis. The discussion is dominated by rising demand for adult social care, growing pressures within special educational needs and disabilities and financial challenges. These issues are real, significant and deserving of attention. However, we know they are not the whole story.Local government is about much more than responding to statutory demand. We shape places where people live. We maintain the roads people travel on. We create and protect public spaces. We invest in education and skills, support growth, deliver cultural opportunities, improve public health and bring partners together around a shared vision for place.Government has committed to ‘re-wiring the state'.More funding and powers devolved to mayoral strategic authorities (MSAs) will surely follow – an expanded role for MSAs and substantial constitutional change.All of this poses some obvious and big questions: what are local authorities for now and in the future? How will councils operate alongside strategic authorities? Who will lead on what? What are councils' unique selling points in a ‘re-wired' state?There are doubtless many more questions. My point is, we as a sector need to answer these questions for ourselves. If not, others will.In the debates to be had on ‘re-wiring', I believe we need to come forward with an ambitious future vision and narrative for local government.This matters because narratives influence policy. If our sector is viewed primarily as a delivery mechanism for increasingly stretched statutory services, it becomes harder to make the case for investment in the things that help communities thrive in the first place. Public spaces, leisure, culture, the environment, regeneration and neighbourhood renewal can be seen as desirable extras rather than essential building blocks of wellbeing.As we look ahead to further reform, devolution and changing expectations from our residents, we need a balanced conversation and narrative that acknowledges the wider mission of local government. We must not be defined solely by how we manage demand, but rather, how we create opportunity.These are the things that most residents experience every day. They shape whether people feel proud of where they live, connected to their communities and confident that public institutions are working in their interests. They contribute to economic opportunity, community cohesion and resilience.I see this as an argument for prevention in its widest sense because successful place-shaping helps prevent future, high-cost demand building elsewhere in the system.My own experience in Northumberland has reinforced this belief. We have demonstrated that even within a challenging financial context, councils can still act as agents of transformation. The reopening of the Northumberland Rail Line has reconnected disadvantaged communities with jobs, education and leisure.We have worked hard to secure game-changing inward investment while continuing to invest in schools, skills and leisure facilities. This is visibly building a better future for residents. And this is not happening in isolation from our statutory responsibilities. It forms part of our responsibility to create the conditions where our people and places can flourish.I believe passionately that local government has always been at its best when it combines service delivery, civic leadership and place-shaping. The great municipal leaders of the past understood that improving lives required investment in the physical, social and economic fabric of place. I believe that lesson remains as relevant today.As we look ahead to further reform, devolution and changing expectations from our residents, we need a balanced conversation and narrative that acknowledges the wider mission of local government. We must not be defined solely by how we manage demand, but rather, how we create opportunity.‘Rewiring' offers not just councils but also strategic authorities an opportunity to define what they do individually and collectively. The next steps could be helped with some dynamic, guiding principles, with the principle of ‘co-production' a good place from which to start.In that sense my argument is not distinct. It links directly to current ‘hot topics' of funding, devolution, place leadership and care, health and wellbeing. It can also strengthen local democratic legitimacy by empowering leaders through greater freedom to shape places and respond to local needs.The challenge for all of us is not simply to protect local government from decline. It is to rediscover and advocate strongly for its wider purpose. I believe local government should confidently reaffirm its role as the democratic, local leader of place and grasp ‘Rewiring The State' as the opportunity to define our key role alongside regional and national government.Helen Paterson is chief executive of Northumberland CC

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PLACE-MAKING

Finding a proper place in our future

By Dr Helen Paterson | 25 August 2026

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