Leadership Spotlight: Jonathan Werran, chief executive, Localis

Jonathan Werran recently replaced Liam Booth-Smith as chief executive of think tank, Localis.

He spoke to NewStart about how think tanks remain relevant to policymakers, improving central-local relations and why a sense of decency should be at the heart of places.

How have your first couple of months in the role been?

You’ve got to embrace challenges, enjoy them and come out laughing the other side.

Localis is all about place, so my challenge is to renew our research. Liam left a very enviable legacy here. In his two very dynamic years he multiplied everything and the number of reports we put out became prodigious. Not just the quality of them, but the impact of the reports we made too.

What I’ve got to do is forge the next iteration of Localis. It’s a bit like Dr Who, I’m the fourth chief executive so I think that makes me Tom Baker!

How do think tanks stay relevant to policymakers?

A lot depends on courage and forming a view and sticking to it. You also need to be flexible, follow thinking and where the data leads.

The misnomer about ‘think tank land’ is that it’s all about access to special advisors and to ministers. There’s an element of that but what’s been good for Localis recently is we’ve got out of SW1.

We need to get out on the road and have as many rich and varied dialogues with local leaders, place shapers, economic influencers and community leaders and capture that in our research output.

A recent Localis report explored what more can be done to encourage entrepreneurial activity at universities. Is University the best place for bright young people who have just received their A-Levels?

Universities have great roles to play as local economic actors, as do FE colleges, but the idea that your path in life has to be defined by school, then A-level, then a 3-year degree is outdated.

There ought to be greater flexibility to combine work with further education. In the UK there’s a two-tier system between classes of education, which you don’t get in continental Europe. The German’s want talented young apprentices and they train them up. This hasn’t, despite successive attempts, worked out here.

Localis has looked at how the apprenticeship levy fund can be better used. We’d like to see more creative ways of using it, maybe in some places where the levy hasn’t been used properly.

We have a great university sector in this country but what we’ve not been good at is generating commercial returns from ideas incubated in higher education.

What is Localis working on at the moment?

We’re finishing a project on modern infrastructure strategy which looks at the clean air agenda and the role infrastructure has in this. It will look at how fiscal, regulatory and other choices by local place leaders impact on an area.

We’re also finishing a report about smart cities and smart energy networks in Liverpool and Glasgow. That’s an interesting direction for us.

Following the delivery of our industrial strategy report we really want to keep on top of our game. We’re looking to put out some reports on how, on the ground level in south-east England, we can deliver strong industrial strategies. We want to find out what skills and collaborations are needed and how local authorities can best use their soft and strong powers to deliver industrial strategies.

We’re also looking at central-local relations, which is a bit of an old chestnut but we want to learn from attempts in the past.

There’s something eschew in central-local relations.

There is a case for setting reset on the relation that is respectful of locality and how different parts of the public sector behaves with each other.

You mentioned ‘local economic anchors’. Someone like Mike Ashley holds more and more power in communities but he has questionable ethics regarding the labour market. Who is holding people like him to account?

As a nation, we now know the impact of zero hours contracts. Can they be morally justified?

It’s down to place and individuals. Our own choices are very important.

At the recent LGA conference, we helped launch Bill Grimsey’s second review of high streets. We have 1500 town centres which each have individual battles against out of town shopping. How do we make city centres like Liverpool amenable, good for families and have lots of leisure activities – rather than them being totally reliant on retail?

We all use Amazon quite happily but they pay what seems like a disproportional amount of tax for being here. That’s globalism writ large and in globalism in our smartphones.

From Localis’ view, we are interested in what can be done at a local level to influence and promote cohesion and wellbeing.

What more can be done at a local level to rebalance the housing market?

Improving private renting terms is a good move. Greater security will be given to young families who are often pushed from pillar to post.

One in six people over 60 own a second home.  Who is renting them? It’s the younger generation, so I think we have to rebalance generational inequality and give younger people greater opportunities to get onto the property ladder.

Could we do something radical? Employers and Government could contribute something towards a young person mortgage deposit savings.

The role of place is to empower the individual to live a free, fulfilled and happy life and a sense of decency has to be the golden thread. People should be able to live up to their highest good and be encouraged by their environment, place and their sense of local patriotism.