Localis

In 2009, Localis published a report entitled Can Localism Deliver? Lessons from Manchester.[12] It series of recommendations to devolve powers to local government was highly influential in the establishment of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.[13]

The report included a foreword by Michael Heseltine who was influential in the 2010-15 coalition government’s attempts to promote the advancement of devolution, especially through the Northern Powerhouse.[14] Heseltine mentioned in the report that “we need mechanisms that drive communities together, embracing academia, the private sector, the voluntary sector and others with a stake in our society to seek solutions designed in the circumstances on the ground and not forged as a national ‘one solution fits all’ diktat from London.”[15]

In 2011, the think tank also published a report which argued that local government must be given greater local financial autonomy through being allowed to retain business rates.[16] The report attracted support from a range of prominent figures. Bob Neill said that the report “underlines the real importance of Government's drive to end councils' dependence on the whims of Whitehall grants” whilst Miles Templeman called it a “powerful model for business rate reform”.[17] In 2015, George Osborne announced that English councils would be able to keep all of the proceedings from business rates, calling it “the biggest transfer of power” in recent history.[18]