Jack Newman

@jacknewman.bsky.social

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Research Associate, Uni of Manchester • UK Politics • English devo • spatial inequality • place-based policy • healthy urban development • critical realism https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/jack-newman

How to improve collaboration across government departments to achieve healthy urban environments ABSTRACT Insufficient cross-departmental collaboration within Government is a major barrier to prioritising health in urban development. This article explores practical ways to improve collaboration to achieve healthier urban environments. The findings are drawn from a knowledge exchange workshop attended by 79 key decision makers. Data was analysed using Rapid Qualitative Analysis. Five avenues for change were identified: (1) upscaling existing collaborations, (2) identifying a pilot issue with traction, (3) establishing effective public engagement, (4) creating a stakeholder matrix tool and (5) delivering a consensus building technique. These actions were seen as steps to a more integrated approach to collaboration across government.
This article explores how democratically elected mayors can achieve mission-oriented policies in turbulent times. Drawing on 132 interviews with decision-makers in England, it uses the case of healthy urban development to explore the role of elected mayors in mission delivery. Findings show that mayors can be figureheads for a place, work directly towards national missions, implement cross-cutting programmes, convene partnerships, and lead local innovations with new evidence and data. However, more central government support is needed with investment in capacity, a broader range of powers, and greater freedom from central targets and siloes.
Map showing devolution progress in England. Shows existing strategic authorities, Priority programme, foundational devolution, first mayoral elecitons May 2025, discussions ongoing, devo island, and reorganisation fast track.
Upcoming events Tuesday 28 January 2025 10:00am Public English Devolution - Oral evidence 10:00am Dr Jack Newman (Research Fellow at University of Bristol) Professor Colin Copus (Emeritus Professor of Local Politics at De Montfort University) Zoë Billingham (Director at IPPR North) Joe Fyans (Head of Research at Localis) 10:45am Tracy Brabin (Mayor at West Yorkshire Combined Authority) Councillor Louise Gittins (Chair at Local Government Association, and Leader at Chester West and Cheshire Council) Cllr Bridget Smith (Vice Chair at District Councils Network, and Liberal Democrat Leader at South Cambridgeshire District Council)
Are we any closer to tackling health inequalities in England? Sarah Ayres, Jack Newman, Geoff Bates, Anna Le Gouais,Rachael McClathey & Nick Pearce ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to examine the recent progress made by Government to improve public health and address health inequality. Elected in July 2024, the Labour government has promised to deliver a transition from reactive to preventative health policy and tackle social and geographic disparities in public health. However, this government pledge is not new and recent progress has been limited. This article examines progress in an area of policy that is increasingly recognised as a critical wider determinant of health, notably the link between the urban environment and health outcomes. Our analysis is based on extensive co-production with government. Drawing on co-production logs and the fieldnotes of an embedded researcher, this article reflects on the progress made under the Conservative’s levelling up agenda and considers the potential of Labour’s health mission. Our findings reveal that, while the figures on health inequality signal failure, there are glimmers of hope in creating new ‘opportunity spaces’ for doing things differently. We conclude that the critical intersection between new social science evidence and the entrepreneurial agency of public officials will be pivotal in making any headway against this target. Moreover, this must sit alongside more government investment to improve public health.
Text on Scottish Martyrs memorial. The experience of all ages should have taught our rulers that persecution can never efface principles. Individuals may perish but truth is eternal. Gerrald’s defence.
A one minute video showing: First, the spatial distribution of: productivity, skills, R&D, and public transport journey times. Second, the spatial distribution of local government spending and staffing. Third, we use this data to compare productive capacity (x-axis) with governance capacity (y-axis). This shows how London is ahead on both, some areas are ahead on governance, some on productivity, and some areas fall behind on both. We call this final group the English devolution periphery. You can read the paper for further details.
Votes across Lincolnshire at the 2024 General Election (excluding Rutland and Stamford) Other 5% Green 5% Liberal Democrat 6% Reform 24% Labour 27% Conservative 34%
Title page: Planning for healthy places: a practical guide for local authorities on embedding health in Local Plans and planning policies in England
Tackling health inequalities through English devolution Tom Lloyd Goodwin, Tallulah Eyres, Luca Tiratelli, David Buck, Gwyneth Ataderie
Title A pendulum or a stopped clock? Rupture, continuity and political change in English sub-national government under Labour Abstract This article discusses the most recent round of sub-national (i.e. local and regional) policy development under the incoming (2024) Labour Government. It unpacks the policy landscape which has tentatively emerged since the Starmer Government has taken office, and addresses the implications, questions and challenges which are immediately apparent. It suggests that, rather than simply tearing down the previous structures of sub-national governance, the incoming Labour Government is attempting to deepen those structures. Nevertheless, it therefore also concludes that many of the shortcomings and unanswered questions of the Conservative approach of the last decade therefore remain. The paper unpacks what this might mean for practitioners and researchers working in this area, contributing to emerging reflection on how the new government might be more effective in addressing the key challenges facing the United Kingdom.
Abstract Lately, municipalities in Western democracies have become increasingly more participatory. Local councillors have a fundamental role therein as they can either enable or block citizen participation. In that vein, their legitimacy perceptions towards different participatory arrangements seem key. This article analyses to what extent instrumental motivations steer these attitudes. Specifically, we distinguish between collective power (belonging to the governing majority or not) and individual influence (level of self-perceived political efficacy) as explanatory variables. Results based on a large-scale survey among local councillors in Flanders (Belgium) show that instrumental motivations indeed play a significant role: councillors with high levels of influence perceive traditional forms of decision-making (classic decision-making and consultative participation) as more legitimate. At the same time, majority councillors evaluate decisive forms of citizen participation as less legitimate than their colleagues in opposition. Additionally, feeling more powerful seems to be linked with an overall enthusiasm irrespective of participatory designs.
ABSTRACTLocal government has long been the site of experiments and innovation intransparency. Since the 1990s waves of reforms have sought to open up localgovernment in Britain, from the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in the 2000sto Open Data in the 2010s. This paper looks across the evidence to see how wellthese new transparency tools have worked, who is using them and why. It thenmoves to analyse what impact the changes have had on local government, inline with hopes of campaigners and fears of (some) politicians. Have reformssucceeded in making local government more open, more accountable andmore participative, and in what situations? Or have they, as some claim, simplydriven decision-making into other arenas, and made local bodies ‘better athiding’? Finally, how does transparency sit with the fragmented and disjointedlandscape of local politics today, from outsourcing and devolution to financialcrisis?
The intersection of productivity and governance capacity in spatial inequality: the case of England’s devolution periphery
Four maps on the future of English devolution.
Editorial: Instability and Inequality in the British State (Patrick Diamond and Jack Newman) The Asymmetric Power Model Twenty-Years On (Dave Marsh, Dave Richards, Martin Smith) Weaponising women and gender: Party appeals to women voters ahead of the 2024 General Election (Anna Sanders and Francesca Gains) Enduring Inequalities in British Politics: Muslim Women in the Labour Party (Farah Hussain) The Challenge of Devolved English Governance and the Rise of Political Spatial Inequality (Sam Warner, Jack Newman, Patrick Diamond, Dave Richards) The British Political Tradition and Constitutional Policy: The Offer of Deliberative Mini Publics (Steph Coulter, Rebecca McKee, Jack Pannell, and Jess Sargeant) An Unstable Union? The Conservative Party, the British Political Tradition and Devolution (Paul Anderson and Coree Brown Swan) Instability, Crisis, and Statecraft in Conservative Britain, 2010-2024 (Richard Hayton) The state of British policymaking: How can UK government become more effective? (Paul Cairney, John Boswell, Sarah Ayres, Catherine Durose, Ian C. Elliott, Matt Flinders, Steve Martin, Liz Richardson)
Pannellists at the Healthy City Design Conference: Jack Newman, Kathy McLean, Michael Wood, Matt Ashton & chair Sarah Ayres
Map showing devolution arrangements and devolution deal negotiations in difference parts of England.
Jack Newman: Time to empower mayors to innovate on place-based preventative health
Map showing NIESR's regeneration index accross the UK.
Unleashing the potential of devolution in England. Insights from the Heseltine Institute policy briefings.
Neoliberalism, left behind Middlesbrough and levelling up: an intractable policy task? Luke Telford Abstract
Abstract Philosophical thought may provide an important contribution to the development of the theory and practice of public administration (PA). Notwithstanding such potential, however, philosophical thought has so far been limitedly employed in PA studies. To the extent philosophy has been brought into PA, three philosophies have been mainly used: Pragmatism, strands of Relativism-Constructivism, and Positivism. This paper argues that another philosophical approach can and ought to be considered much more systematically for application to foundational issues in PA studies, namely Critical Realism. The potential of this philosophical perspective is deployed to shed new light on key issues in the theory and practice of public value governance and management, a major area of academic investigation and practical application in the field of public administration and public management.
Why philanthropic foundations collaborate with city governments: an exploration of three English cities Ruth Puttick
Conference programme for UKAPA Conference 2024. Full programme available via link.
Slide deck with title: Structural Barriers and Opportunity Spaces in the UK's Public Health Mission
Accountability as a function of power relationships in public governance networks Peter Eckersley, Katarzyna Lakoma, Pete Murphy, Tom Caygill, & Charlotte Pell Abstract
Realising Prevention: Practical policies for healthier government Dr Jack Newman sets out how the new government should harness tools and evidence to prioritise health for a successful preventative approach.
Abstract: Despite devolution, the United Kingdom possesses no mechanism to represent its four nations at the state level. Consequently, some peripheral actors use their state representative positions to ‘stand up’ for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. This paper explores this paradox by focussing on the descriptive and substantive representation of Wales in the Commons and the Cabinet between 1945 and 2019. We demonstrate that only one-third of Welsh backbenchers still adopt a role of ‘regional ambassador’ and that Welsh ministers tend to adopt the role of ‘state agent’. This research ratifies the radical disconnection between central and sub-state politics since devolution.
Abstract Effective citizen participation in policy decision making depends on the support of all democratic actors involved: citizens, but also politicians and civil servants. Drawing on data from over 4,000 respondents, we explore the existence of so-called ‘multi-actor clusters’, that is, groups of people who are characterised by a positive (or negative) stance towards different modes of local policy decision making, irrespective of their formal-institutional role (politician, civil servant or citizen). Cluster analysis shows two large clusters of respondents that clearly prefer participatory over representative policy decision making. The analysis also highlights a substantial cluster of respondents who clearly prefer representative policy decision making modes over participatory ones. Further analysis shows that a democratic actor’s cluster membership is better predicted by individual (ideological) variables (such as left-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation), com
Abstract This paper examines the role of place in the local development of a circular economy and the potential for consequent social redistribution. Based on a case study of public, private and third-sector approaches to a circular economy in Hull, an industrial city in the northeast of England, it offers a critical analysis of the geographic distribution of socio-economic benefits from local circular economy developments. Policy goals of inclusivity (or a ‘just transition’) are not accomplished. However, attachment to place provides opportunities to bridge sectoral and jurisdictional boundaries and potentially generate more socially inclusive territorial-distributional outcomes.
ABSTRACT Within the field of local government studies there has long been a tendency toconceive and engage with ‘the local’ in a normative way – focusing on itsalleged inherently ‘good nature’ without interrogating what the local actuallyis and means. In this reflective provocation, drawing on the case of England, wecontend that failure to address this existential question risks pushing localgovernment studies into a cul-de-sac whereby its fails to benefit from thepotential of multidisciplinary dialogues, drawing ever tighter boundariesaround the field. In response, we shift attention to how we might harness theplurality of the local, suggesting that the real value of the local, both asa concept and practice, lies in its fuzzy and often problematic nature. Weargue that embracing, rather than dismissing, this intrinsic character of thelocal is essential not just to capture its value, but also to open up new avenuesin the way we study and conceive it.
ABSTRACT This article examines partisan bias in local government grants across Great Britain, testing whether grant-awarding governments allocate more resources to local authorities controlled by their own party. The results suggest substantial pork-barrelling in grant allocations: the UK government allocates more in grant funding to English local authorities after they become politically aligned. A weaker partisan bias is also found in Wales. In Scotland, there is no evidence of such bias, a result which may be explained by a lesser reliance on more easily targetable specific grants, different electoral systems or the intergovernmental frameworks characterising local government grants in Scotland.
Abstract Here, we examine the continuing UK centralising trend for local government in England and the effects of changing accountabilities through the pathway of devolution narratives. We set out the key characteristics of policy change since 1992 and then analyse the most recently announced model Trailblazer Devolution Deals (TDD) single settlements for Mayoral Combined Authorities announced in the UK Budget 2023. We consider how far these TDD confer more devolution on CAs through the proposed creation of a single settlement for an integrated budget within the context of two previous government initiatives that were focused on the same approach, Government Offices for the Regions (GoRs) (1994–2010) and Total Place (2009–2011). We consider what occurred in practice and reflect on their demise as examples of institutions established by the UK government’s approach to transitional territorialism. We conclude with the view that these initiatives represent devolution in name only (DINO).
This article seeks to explain the current crises besetting the UK state, arguing their seeds can be traced back to past failures to reform Britain’s pre-modern state arrangements. We argue the perpetuation of a political cutlure organised round the highly centralising British Political Tradition has proved increasingly incompatible with a fragmented governance landscape driven by forty years of New Public Management informed reforms. We posit this has led to an incoherent state reflected in a dysfunctional approach to public administration. The fault resides with successive governments attempting to deal with governance weaknesses through incremental, rather than system-wide reform. Muddling through has proved insufficient to resolving the deep structural problems in UK governance. We conclude that only a wholesale rethink and reform of the UK’s governance arrangements will resolve the current crises afflicting Britian’s antiquated state.
A five-part cycle: (1) Central government seeks new mechanisms of top-down accountability; (2) Incraesed attempts to control, monitor, and reform local government; (3) Policy churn and short-termism; (4) Fragmentation and incoherence; (5) Weak local and regional government, which leads back to the start with central government seeking new mechanisms of top-down accountability.
The characteristics and risks associated with political spatial inequality: Leadership; Capacity; Policy networks and institutional ecosystem; Local democracy; Institutions and governance arrangements; Funding; Existing socio-economic challenges.
Instability and Inequality in the British State - Parliamentary Affairs Special Issue. Edited by Jack Newman and Patrick Diamond. Journal editors: Louise Thompson and Alistair Clark.
Instability and Inequality in the British State - Parliamentary Affairs Special Issue Edited by Jack Newman and Patrick Diamond
Abstract for The challenge of devolved English governance and the rise of political spatial inequality by Sam Warner, Jack Newman, Patrick Diamond, and Dave Richards. https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsae024
The accountability challenge in English devolution As the process of English devolution takes place against a backdrop of financial crisis and dramatic decline in local government, Jack Newman, Sam Warner, Michael Kenny and Andy Westwood make the case for an approach to public accountability steeped in democratic engagement as a key component of the rebuilding process.
Title slide from presentation. Hyperactive Incrementalism and the Westminster system of governance: why UK spatial policy has failed over time. Jack Newman, Patrick Diamond, Dave Richards, Anna Sanders, Andy Westwood, Sam Warner.
Constraints and enablers of regional environmental policy: governance challenges in England and Wales
Andy Westwood and Adrian Pabst presenting their paper ‘Industrial Strategy is dead - long live industrial strategy’
Three schools of thought on English devolution: federalists, mayorlists, communitarians.