In Episode 4 of The Star Chamber Podcast, we dive deep into the evolving architecture of English localism.

We begin with the new Devolution and Community Engagement Bill, unpacking its implications for devolution and ambition across regions.

We then interrogate the long-awaited Fair Funding Review – asking whether authorities will see it as a momentous milestone, bringing funding certainty and clarity, or as a shift that risks undermining resilience.

Our deep dive this month focuses on fiscal devolution, revisiting the radical recommendations of the Layfield Committee and exploring global models – from land value tax in Germany to local income taxes in the Nordics.

Finally, we turn to Development Corporations – tracing their post-war roots, the blueprint they set for new towns today, and how they manifested the “silken rope.”

In this episode of The Star Chamber Podcast, we unpack the recent flurry of government announcements – the Spending Review, the Industrial Strategy, and the UK Infrastructure Strategy – and explore what they really mean for local government.

We discuss how authorities can respond to these evolving agendas to unlock investment, attract private capital, and drive long-term, place-based growth.

We’re also joined by our first guest, Peter Arnold, EY’s Chief Economist, who shares his insights on the economic forces shaping national policy and local opportunity.

And, in true Star Chamber fashion, we close with a historical turn – tracing how the French Revolution, Earl Grey, and the Great Reform Act helped shape the foundations of the local government system we know today.

In this episode of The Star Chamber Podcast, we unpack the fallout from the recent local elections before tackling the potential moral hazard of central government interventions in local authority debt. We then head north to UKREiiF to explore placemaking, investment, and how these themes tie into the evolving role of Combined Authorities - including a trip through time to Margaret Thatcher’s abolition of the GLC and her clashes with Ken Livingstone (and his infamous banners), a story that foreshadows today’s devolution arrangements. We round things off with a dive into the Tudor origins of business rates. It’s all connected - politics, property, and the persistent tug-of-war over who holds power.

Join Michael Clifford and Marcus Richards for a series of discussions on the world of local government! In their first episode, they talk about the medieval origins of the term Star Chamber, how Liverpool in the 1980s shaped the concept of Exceptional Financial Support and what mountaineers have to do with Local Government Reorganisation.