Institute for Government

To listen to the full conversation visit: https://soundcloud.com/institute-for-government/levelling-up-or-catching-up-what-next-for-public-services

To listen to the full conversation visit: https://soundcloud.com/institute-for-government/levelling-up-or-catching-up-what-next-for-public-services

To listen to the full conversation visit: https://soundcloud.com/institute-for-government/levelling-up-or-catching-up-what-next-for-public-services

The pandemic has hit public services hard, creating backlogs - from children missing out on school lessons, to cancelled hospital operations and unheard court cases – and leaving local authorities facing budget shortfalls. But as the government focuses on post-pandemic economic recovery, its priority is to ‘level up’ parts of the country which have fallen behind in terms of economic growth, opportunity, and wellbeing. With limited resources, how can public services both address backlogs and ‘level up’? Has the pandemic made levelling up harder for public services? How, if at all, can public services contribute to levelling up? What should the government do to help them both catch-up and level-up? To discuss these questions and more, the IfG was delighted to host an expert panel including: Baroness Armstrong, Chair of the House of Lords Public Services Committee Saffron Cordery, Deputy Chief Executive of NHS Providers Georgina Cox, Partner at PA Consulting Rachel Wolf, Founding Partner at Public First and former Education and Innovation Adviser to David Cameron. The event was chaired by Graham Atkins, Associate Director at the Institute for Government. We would like to thank PA Consulting for kindly supporting this event.

To listen to the full conversation visit: https://soundcloud.com/institute-for-government/rail-reform What is Great British Railways? How will it end rail industry fragmentation? And how can it deliver a rail network that works for customers, taxpayers, politicians, and the wider public? The new organisation is at the heart of the William-Shapps Plan for Rail, which reported in May. Keith Williams, Chair of the Review, describes the British railway network as a “complex Rubik’s cube” and says Great British Railways should be a central ‘guiding mind’ in a reformed rail system. This event explored how to make a reformed rail network work for Great Britain’s long-term post-pandemic future, drawing on lessons from previous attempts at reshaping the rail industry and experiences of setting up arms-length bodies elsewhere. Our panel: Keith Williams, independent Chair of the Williams Review The Rt Hon. the Lord Darling of Roulanish, former Secretary of State for Transport and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Maria Machancoses, CEO of Midlands Connect Andy Bagnall, Director General of the Rail Delivery Group The event was chaired by Dr Matthew Gill, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government. We are grateful to The Rail Delivery Group for their support with this event.

To listen to the full conversation visit: https://soundcloud.com/institute-for-government/rail-reform What is Great British Railways? How will it end rail industry fragmentation? And how can it deliver a rail network that works for customers, taxpayers, politicians, and the wider public? The new organisation is at the heart of the William-Shapps Plan for Rail, which reported in May. Keith Williams, Chair of the Review, describes the British railway network as a “complex Rubik’s cube” and says Great British Railways should be a central ‘guiding mind’ in a reformed rail system. This event explored how to make a reformed rail network work for Great Britain’s long-term post-pandemic future, drawing on lessons from previous attempts at reshaping the rail industry and experiences of setting up arms-length bodies elsewhere. Our panel: Keith Williams, independent Chair of the Williams Review The Rt Hon. the Lord Darling of Roulanish, former Secretary of State for Transport and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Maria Machancoses, CEO of Midlands Connect Andy Bagnall, Director General of the Rail Delivery Group The event was chaired by Dr Matthew Gill, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government. We are grateful to The Rail Delivery Group for their support with this event.

To listen to the full conversation visit: https://soundcloud.com/institute-for-government/rail-reform What is Great British Railways? How will it end rail industry fragmentation? And how can it deliver a rail network that works for customers, taxpayers, politicians, and the wider public? The new organisation is at the heart of the William-Shapps Plan for Rail, which reported in May. Keith Williams, Chair of the Review, describes the British railway network as a “complex Rubik’s cube” and says Great British Railways should be a central ‘guiding mind’ in a reformed rail system. This event explored how to make a reformed rail network work for Great Britain’s long-term post-pandemic future, drawing on lessons from previous attempts at reshaping the rail industry and experiences of setting up arms-length bodies elsewhere. Our panel: Keith Williams, independent Chair of the Williams Review The Rt Hon. the Lord Darling of Roulanish, former Secretary of State for Transport and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Maria Machancoses, CEO of Midlands Connect Andy Bagnall, Director General of the Rail Delivery Group The event was chaired by Dr Matthew Gill, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government. We are grateful to The Rail Delivery Group for their support with this event.

To listen to the full conversation visit: https://soundcloud.com/institute-for-government/rail-reform What is Great British Railways? How will it end rail industry fragmentation? And how can it deliver a rail network that works for customers, taxpayers, politicians, and the wider public? The new organisation is at the heart of the William-Shapps Plan for Rail, which reported in May. Keith Williams, Chair of the Review, describes the British railway network as a “complex Rubik’s cube” and says Great British Railways should be a central ‘guiding mind’ in a reformed rail system. This event explored how to make a reformed rail network work for Great Britain’s long-term post-pandemic future, drawing on lessons from previous attempts at reshaping the rail industry and experiences of setting up arms-length bodies elsewhere. Our panel: Keith Williams, independent Chair of the Williams Review The Rt Hon. the Lord Darling of Roulanish, former Secretary of State for Transport and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Maria Machancoses, CEO of Midlands Connect Andy Bagnall, Director General of the Rail Delivery Group The event was chaired by Dr Matthew Gill, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government. We are grateful to The Rail Delivery Group for their support with this event.

What is Great British Railways? How will it end rail industry fragmentation? And how can it deliver a rail network that works for customers, taxpayers, politicians, and the wider public? The new organisation is at the heart of the William-Shapps Plan for Rail, which reported in May. Keith Williams, Chair of the Review, describes the British railway network as a “complex Rubik’s cube” and says Great British Railways should be a central ‘guiding mind’ in a reformed rail system. This event explored how to make a reformed rail network work for Great Britain’s long-term post-pandemic future, drawing on lessons from previous attempts at reshaping the rail industry and experiences of setting up arms-length bodies elsewhere. Our panel: Keith Williams, independent Chair of the Williams Review The Rt Hon. the Lord Darling of Roulanish, former Secretary of State for Transport and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Maria Machancoses, CEO of Midlands Connect Andy Bagnall, Director General of the Rail Delivery Group The event was chaired by Dr Matthew Gill, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government. We are grateful to The Rail Delivery Group for their support with this event.

To listen to the full conversation visit: https://soundcloud.com/institute-for-government/net-zero-how-government-can-decarbonise-homes Decarbonising homes will be among the most difficult elements of reaching net zero. Homes account for 15% of the UK’s total emissions, yet there has been little progress towards reducing these over the past decade. Confidence has been damaged by repeated U-turns and policy failures, including the Green Deal and the Green Homes Grant. Achieving net zero by 2050 will require a huge national programme to deliver the infrastructure needed to reduce residential emissions – retrofitting homes, installing heat pumps and developing local heat networks. The government, businesses and consumers all have key roles to play. But how should the government approach policy making in this area? Will the long overdue Heat and Buildings Strategy be worth the wait and offer a clear plan? How can previous policy failures be learnt from? And how can we ensure the UK’s infrastructure is ready to support zero-emission homes? On our panel to discuss these issues was: Lord Callanan, Minister for Business, Energy & Corporate Responsibility at BEIS Chris Burchell, Managing Director, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution Gillian Cooper, Head of Energy Policy at Citizens Advice Guy Newey, Director of Strategy and Performance at the Energy Systems Catapult This event was chaired by Marcus Shepheard, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Government. We would like to thank Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution for supporting this event.