England has been beset for decades by seemingly intractable problems – sluggish growth, public services that can't keep up with demand and little housebuilding, to name a few. It is also one of the most centralised countries. The two things are linked.
Successive governments have, for the most part, possessed a top-down mindset, depriving councils of power and money. Whitehall is perceived to know best, with its policies devised from up on high, with scant understanding of how they'll work on the ground. All too often local government is ignored. This reduces the scope for local innovators to devise better ways forward – an incremental solution for one local area, or something that has potential to be transformative for much of the country.
