There is a very real risk that those with the least stand to lose most in the age of austerity. As the government itself has acknowledged, addressing this problem in the long term will need more than just applying better sticking plasters or creating a stronger safety net.
For this to mark a real new start, local and central government need to think carefully about how they engage people and what their needs are. Like political parties, residents need to feel they are being listened to and that they can effect real change.
The issue of jobs was never far off the radar during the election campaign.
By the time you read this, we should have reached the end of the election speculation.
We all want to take action to reduce our carbon emissions (and our energy bills) but we’re not sure where to start.
True or false?
Since my last column on energy efficiency Groundwork has commissioned a little survey into the attitudes of householders towards domestic energy efficiency measures.
I was interested to see that against a backdrop of the Copenhagen summit, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is piloting a ‘pay as you save’ approach to household energy consumption.
It’s that time of year again. The cold starts to bite and the temptation to nudge the heating up seems more attractive than reaching for another woolly jumper.
I spent a few days at the Conservative Party conference recently and found a party setting out to convince us that it has changed its priorities.
After months of gloomy predictions that our job market will be the sick man of Europe for some time to come, the number crunchers now tell us he may actually be responding to treatment and showing signs of recovery.
During the Apollo lunar programme of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the individual missions were considered so hazardous that the astronauts could not secure private life insurance for their families.
There’s something about this time of year that brings back long-buried childhood memories. Last day of term, blackboard wiped clean for the last time, exercise books tossed aside and a long glorious summer holiday ahead..
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.
I’ve got a horrid story to tell you that outdoes anything from the Brothers Grimm.
The unemployment rate hits 2.2m and, all of a sudden, a whole new group of public employees start to worry about their futures. They’re called MPs.
Our current conceptions of urban space need to be challenged to help make the leap to urban centres that have fully functioning green infrastructure that works for local people.
The vision sees new opportunities, but the reality must also see the consigning of the most wasteful parts of our economy to the scrapheap.
With a larger cohort of Neet young people, it will be tempting for agencies to focus on the ‘low hanging fruit’ – those with some ambition – rather than those furthest from the jobs market who need more intensive support.
That politician wasn't an avowed environmentalist - it was Margaret Thatcher. Depressingly, the speech could still be made today. Maybe this year, another conviction politician can turn words into action.
