
Matthew Fright
Senior Researcher
Matthew's recent work
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Local and mayoral elections 2025
This Thursday, 1 May 2025, local and mayoral elections will take place in many parts of England.
How can areas successfully reorganise local government and implement devolution at the same time?
How local leaders and central government can navigate the challenges of 'dual delivery'.
Labour’s Devolution Priority Programme is welcome – but the government must be alert to the delivery challenges
What is the government proposing in its latest devolution plan?
Local government unitarisation
Unitarisation is a type of local government reorganisation that replaces separate county and district councils with a single tier of local authorities
Nine things we learned from the English devolution white paper
What the white paper does and does not contain, and what challenges lie ahead for the government.
More devolution is welcome – but it needs strengthened metro mayor accountability
Current accountability arrangements in England’s mayoral combined authorities are underpowered.
How the government can extend devolution to the whole of England
Half of England's population currently is not covered by any form of devolution.
Vaughan Gething’s successor as Welsh first minister faces three key challenges
Wales is preparing for its next first minster – the third since the start of the year.
The next government needs a new strategy for the union
The devolution agenda needs a rethink.
Six things we learned from the May 2024 local and mayoral elections
IfG experts analyse the results of the local and mayoral elections.