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New Year News: Councils in flux, and more…
February 6, 2025
Research for Action and rethinking local democracy 
February 5, 2025
Council tax rises – do we really get a say?
January 30, 2025
National attention on local audit catastrophe :  we saw it coming – now action is needed
November 27, 2024
REPORT: Councillor Experiences of Scrutiny in Local Government
October 31, 2024
Fearless Cities logo
Fearless Cities Sheffield – programme released
October 22, 2024
a crowd of people facing forward
Open Call: Contributions wanted for the UK’s first Fearless Cities summit!
July 30, 2024
REPORT: Democratising Local Governance
April 11, 2024
2023 in review: and looking forward….
December 20, 2023
Open Letter on Audit Reform
November 22, 2023
Council tax rises – do we really get a say?
Posted inCitizen Auditors Current Guest blog

Council tax rises – do we really get a say?

By Andrew Hill  What happened to residents’ right to vote on ‘excessive’ council tax increases? What does this have to do with councils in financial crisis? This article explores the…
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January 30, 2025
National attention on local audit catastrophe :  we saw it coming – now action is needed
Posted inAudit and Accountability Citizen Auditors Citizen Debt Audit Current Events Projects

National attention on local audit catastrophe :  we saw it coming – now action is needed

 On 26th November, the Government’s spending watchdog, the National Audit Office (NAO), refused to sign off the Whole of Government Accounts - for the first time ever. Their press release…
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November 27, 2024
REPORT: Councillor Experiences of Scrutiny in Local Government
Posted inAudit and Accountability Current Projects Publications

REPORT: Councillor Experiences of Scrutiny in Local Government

“There are formal scrutiny committees, but I would see scrutiny as being much broader than that. For me, the point of scrutiny is being able to make issues public... and…
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October 31, 2024
Fearless Cities logo
Posted inEvents Uncategorized

Fearless Cities Sheffield – programme released

The programme for Fearless Cities is out! We are thrilled that the municipalist summit we have been working on all year (with partners from Opus Independents, Citizen Network and European…
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October 22, 2024
a crowd of people facing forward
Posted inCurrent Events Uncategorized

Open Call: Contributions wanted for the UK’s first Fearless Cities summit!

Dear friends from community and campaign groups, neighbourhoods, social movements,  We are delighted to announce that the Fearless Cities summit will be coming to the UK for the first time.…
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July 30, 2024
REPORT: Democratising Local Governance
Posted inDemocratising Governance Projects Publications Uncategorized

REPORT: Democratising Local Governance

  This report describes the findings from an action research project in Glasgow and Sheffield, which examined the relationships between local governance and local activism.  Together with project partners from…
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April 11, 2024
2023 in review: and looking forward….
Posted inAudit and Accountability Citizen Auditors Current Democratising Governance Newsletters Projects Uncategorized

2023 in review: and looking forward….

As 2023 draws to a close, we wanted to share with you some highlights of Research for Action’s work. It has not been a great year for democracy - for…
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December 20, 2023
Open Letter on Audit Reform
Posted inAudit and Accountability Citizen Auditors Current Projects Uncategorized

Open Letter on Audit Reform

21st November 2023This letter was originally published in The Byline Times. We represent a range of organisations and individuals working on audit and accountability, local government and local democracy. We…
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November 22, 2023
REPORT: Local Audit: Why Public Interest needs to count
Posted inAudit and Accountability Current Projects Publications Uncategorized

REPORT: Local Audit: Why Public Interest needs to count

Local government in the UK is in a state of deep crisis. Shrinking of the state, centralisation of power and the hollowing out of the local state have decimated the…
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August 8, 2023
EVENT- Local Audit: Why Public Interest needs to count
Posted inAudit and Accountability Citizen Auditors Current Events Uncategorized

EVENT- Local Audit: Why Public Interest needs to count

Online Event -   Local Audit: Why Public Interest Needs to Count Weds 16th August, 7-8.30 pmPlease sign up for the event here How can we get better local government accountability…
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August 1, 2023
Summer newsletter: posters, films, podcasts and more
Posted inCurrent Newsletters

Summer newsletter: posters, films, podcasts and more

Research for Action Summer Newsletter 2023Hello!It’s been a while since we’ve been in touch, so this is a bumper Summer edition of our newsletter, with some beautiful posters centred on…
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July 25, 2023
Democratising Local Governance Posters
Posted inCurrent Democratising Governance Projects Publications

Democratising Local Governance Posters

Legislative changes in the last decade have increased the power of central government over local authorities. Democratic controls (transparency, participation, accountability and so on) have been continuously eroded. Under a…
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March 30, 2023
orange protest sign that says "the power of the people is stronger than the people in power"
Posted inCurrent Democratising Governance Events

Cities in Action: Democratising Local Governance launch 27 April

Thursday 27 April  7-8.30pm Join us on Thursday for the launch of the findings from our project Democratising Local Governance!  Register now on Eventbrite.  Legislative changes in the last decade…
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March 30, 2023
Posted inCurrent Newsletters Uncategorized

Newsletter: Winter 2022/Annual Roundup

Dear friends of Research for Action, 2022 has been a year of major growth and change for us.We grew our work on public interest and audit, began a project with…
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January 10, 2023
Posted inCurrent Newsletters Uncategorized

Newsletter: Autumn 2022

Dear newsletter readers,    We are very excited to say that we have just launched a report that showcases the work of various citizen auditors across England!  The publication, called…
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January 10, 2023
REPORT – Citizen Auditors: Investigating local government’s accountability gap
Posted inAudit and Accountability Citizen Auditors Publications Uncategorized

REPORT – Citizen Auditors: Investigating local government’s accountability gap

Across the UK, concerned individuals and local groups are holding local government to account. Research for Action has been supporting this loose network to form closer ties, meet regularly to…
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September 30, 2022
Citizen auditor network starting in 2022
Posted inUncategorized

Citizen auditor network starting in 2022

In Spring 2022, we will start to coordinate a network of citizen auditors. The Local Audit and Accountability Act enables the public to inspect council accounts and residents to question…
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December 10, 2021
Reflection of tall London buildings in window
Posted inAudit and Accountability Publications Uncategorized

REPORT: Rethinking local audit and accountability

There is a deep democratic deficit in local government. The UK is one of the most centralised countries in the world. Turnout in local elections is low. In many councils…
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September 29, 2021
GUIDE: How To Read Your Council’s Accounts
Posted inUncategorized

GUIDE: How To Read Your Council’s Accounts

Introduction Local authorities are required to publish accounts every year that show how they spend their money. These cover a financial year: for example 2019/20 accounts would cover the period…
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August 20, 2021
New Year News: Councils in flux, and more…
Posted inCurrent Events Newsletters

New Year News: Councils in flux, and more…

Hello!Happy New Year from us. There is so much going on, and we wanted to share a quick roundup of where we are with local government right now. We also…
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February 6, 2025
Research for Action and rethinking local democracy 
Posted inAudit and Accountability Events fearless cities Uncategorized

Research for Action and rethinking local democracy 

This is an edited version of FJ’s speech at the opening panel at the municipalist summit Fearless Cities, which took place 2-3 November 2024 in Sheffield. The summit, which we…
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February 5, 2025

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