Why a southern think tank? We were launched in 2014 by Greg Clark and Lord Adonis to provide public policy focus for central southern England: the area from Dorset to West Sussex, and the Isle of Wight up to Oxfordshire. The region faces challenges distinct from both London and other English regions. Our public spending … Continue reading
[View the story “Using data as a policy maker” on Storify] Continue reading
What are the challenges facing southern England, how can devolution empower local leadership to tackle them, and what do business leaders make of the opportunities offered by the government’s decentralisation agenda? Download the full report here BUSINESS is backing the idea of devolution in the South and wants to have a say in what it … Continue reading
Solent citizens debate plans for Hampshire devolution, in UK’s first ‘Citizens’ Assembly’ But residents want devolution process to be opened up to the public The Southern Policy Centre helped to organise the first assembly of ordinary residents in southern England to discuss devolution in their area. The assembly pilot was concurrent with a partner assembly in … Continue reading
Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council, joined the Southern Policy Centre and the Winchester Business School to discuss Manchester’s experience of devolution so far (‘Devo-Manc’). The day was kindly supported by PwC. Here are five important lessons that those building devolution deals in southern England can take from the Greater Manchester experience so … Continue reading
We’re working with the Centre for Citizenship, Globalization and Governance to deliver ‘Standing for the Whole’, a public lecture by Arnie Graf as part of our tour. Monday 26th October, 6-8pm Building 58, Room 1067 Highfield Campus Light refreshments available [embeddoc url=”http://southernpolicycentre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/C2G2-Graf-Lecture.pdf”] Continue reading
A guest post from local open data expert Mark Braggins originally published on data.gov.uk The post provides an excellent overview of some of the innovative open data work underway in our region. In my previous post I argued that a combination of ‘chance’ and open data can lead to good stuff happening. I supplied a few examples, … Continue reading
Southampton City Council has established a People’s Panel, made up of residents who are interested in taking part in consultations and other opportunities to express their views on council services, health services and living in the city. On Saturday 4th July 2015 the Southern Policy Centre ran a deliberative polling session with some members of … Continue reading
SPC launches major new research project into widening participation to Higher Education The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) have produced and published a set of analysis that looks into trends in HE. In particular their statistics on young participation show that there are unexplained gaps in levels of participation from area to area. The … Continue reading
We’ve all heard about plans to give new powers to local authorities in Greater Manchester and other major metropolitan areas in northern England. George Osborne has set out his vision of a ‘northern powerhouse’ but there is real potential for this region too. On the 3rd July John Denham, Chair of the SPC Advisory Board, laid … Continue reading