Some sound ideas but on a pedantic note a higher proportion of working people commuted from Rochdale to Manchester than from Medway to central London in 2011 - the 2021 census is obviously not very helpful in this regard. Many towns seem to suffer from a lack of footfall in the evening, everyone drives so few people walk the streets and they become rather forbidding places at night. Eg, I was shocked at the level of homelessness and substance abuse in Merthyr Tydfil a few years back and the town centre was not a pleasant place to be after the shops had shut for the evening. Bringing back people into town centres both as residents and users seems key. I trust your ideas on bringing back empty retail units will work, but we probably still have far to many retail units for present demand and converting more of them to residential uses in town centres will also likely be beneficial to bringing life back to those centres. We also still have shopping hours that assume a significant proportion of the population can frequent them during standard working hours. The busiest time for on-line shopping is in the evening, a time when our town centre shops are shut.
You describe an idyllic paradise (at least for a certain person, at a certain stage in their life). But in an environment where ministers are looking for cost-neutral policies (at best!), how do you go about actually building out the necessary improvements? Consider your town centre proposal, or no-exclusion schooling. Where does a budget-constrained library get the money to open and staff a new branch even if rents are cheap?
It feels to me that a lot of the things here shouldn't be unreasonable things for people to expect wherever they live. But the ravening maws of social care and SEND mean that so many authorities are abandoning universal benefits like the quality of the street scene and civic environment. Until we have progress on social care and SEND, I fear that much other public provision will continue to wither.
I am unconvinced that there is sufficient capacity in the voluntary sector to take on boring parks with little environmental interest - but they are so essential for general wellbeing, for children to run off energy, for amateur sports of various degrees of organisation. But perhaps some brave authority will try it.
I do like the idea that towns should be able to sustain much of a family's needs - there's a question for me about how to promote a town's identity, particularly in a world where HMT is driving the creation of unitary authorities with populations of 500k. What would make people identify with Corby, rather than saying they live in Northamptonshire (I am sure no-one has a particular loyalty to the North Northamptonshire unitary).
Finally, the idea that towns are over-paying for e.g. policing seems rather similar to Sunak's boast the he was taking money away from deprived areas. If we are indeed generating most wealth in cities, where is it going? If you're living in the private rented sector I doubt you feel wealthy - and even in London, many high streets and public spaces feel bedraggled and down at heel. And that's before we get to places like Stoke on Trent and Sunderland where it is unclear that the local tax base could ever meet the costs of providing for needs.
I think that having local facilities, with volunteer input, creates a sense of place, even if Corby and Kettering have similar local facilities. I was not claiming that all parks maintenance would be volunteer - notice that I said that the council would pay the charity, precisely because I know some things have to be paid for. Sorry for the confusion. As to cities - that is for another day
Some sound ideas but on a pedantic note a higher proportion of working people commuted from Rochdale to Manchester than from Medway to central London in 2011 - the 2021 census is obviously not very helpful in this regard. Many towns seem to suffer from a lack of footfall in the evening, everyone drives so few people walk the streets and they become rather forbidding places at night. Eg, I was shocked at the level of homelessness and substance abuse in Merthyr Tydfil a few years back and the town centre was not a pleasant place to be after the shops had shut for the evening. Bringing back people into town centres both as residents and users seems key. I trust your ideas on bringing back empty retail units will work, but we probably still have far to many retail units for present demand and converting more of them to residential uses in town centres will also likely be beneficial to bringing life back to those centres. We also still have shopping hours that assume a significant proportion of the population can frequent them during standard working hours. The busiest time for on-line shopping is in the evening, a time when our town centre shops are shut.
You describe an idyllic paradise (at least for a certain person, at a certain stage in their life). But in an environment where ministers are looking for cost-neutral policies (at best!), how do you go about actually building out the necessary improvements? Consider your town centre proposal, or no-exclusion schooling. Where does a budget-constrained library get the money to open and staff a new branch even if rents are cheap?
Clearly local authorities need a wider tax base - as they would have in every other country in the world...
It feels to me that a lot of the things here shouldn't be unreasonable things for people to expect wherever they live. But the ravening maws of social care and SEND mean that so many authorities are abandoning universal benefits like the quality of the street scene and civic environment. Until we have progress on social care and SEND, I fear that much other public provision will continue to wither.
I am unconvinced that there is sufficient capacity in the voluntary sector to take on boring parks with little environmental interest - but they are so essential for general wellbeing, for children to run off energy, for amateur sports of various degrees of organisation. But perhaps some brave authority will try it.
I do like the idea that towns should be able to sustain much of a family's needs - there's a question for me about how to promote a town's identity, particularly in a world where HMT is driving the creation of unitary authorities with populations of 500k. What would make people identify with Corby, rather than saying they live in Northamptonshire (I am sure no-one has a particular loyalty to the North Northamptonshire unitary).
Finally, the idea that towns are over-paying for e.g. policing seems rather similar to Sunak's boast the he was taking money away from deprived areas. If we are indeed generating most wealth in cities, where is it going? If you're living in the private rented sector I doubt you feel wealthy - and even in London, many high streets and public spaces feel bedraggled and down at heel. And that's before we get to places like Stoke on Trent and Sunderland where it is unclear that the local tax base could ever meet the costs of providing for needs.
I think that having local facilities, with volunteer input, creates a sense of place, even if Corby and Kettering have similar local facilities. I was not claiming that all parks maintenance would be volunteer - notice that I said that the council would pay the charity, precisely because I know some things have to be paid for. Sorry for the confusion. As to cities - that is for another day