Reimagining local government: how councils and anchor institutions can learn from innovation in devolution
What if local government wasn’t just about managing services, but about unlocking the full potential of places, people, and economies?
Across the world, governments are reshaping devolution — not just handing down responsibilities but redesigning governance, finance, and public participation in ways that create resilient, adaptive, and mission-driven places.
From regional autonomy in the Basque Country to mission-based governance in Finland, these global examples show that local government can be a platform for innovation, regeneration, and participatory democracy. But the lessons here aren’t just for councils — local anchor institutions such as employers, landowners, educators, charities, community groups, and utility providers have a huge role to play in shaping this new way of working.
🔍 Beyond devolution: designing for transformation
Too often, UK devolution has been framed as an administrative shift — giving councils more responsibility but without the powers, funding, and flexibility to truly innovate.
The best global examples of devolution show that real transformation happens when local government moves beyond managing decline and starts shaping long-term change.
✅ Mission-led approaches — where places define big, cross-sector goals and mobilise people and organisations around them.
✅ Financial and fiscal autonomy — allowing local areas to control investment and funding in ways that drive regeneration.
✅ Participatory governance — ensuring people, businesses, and anchor institutions shape decisions, not just government bodies.
✅ Alignment with local economic strengths — so that governance structures support local expertise, whether that’s energy, digital innovation, or manufacturing.
In Adur & Worthing, we’re already testing some of these ideas — redesigning how we work with communities, businesses, and public sector partners to take a more mission-driven approach.
So, what does this look like in practice?
🇪🇸 Basque Country, Spain: autonomy with a purpose
The Basque Country is one of Europe’s most successful devolved economies, using financial autonomy and public-private collaboration to build a thriving industrial, social, and innovation-driven economy.
🔹 What makes it work?
- Local control of taxation — giving the region the ability to invest long-term in economic priorities.
- Cooperative business models — Mondragón, the world’s largest cooperative, is an example of how economic democracy can drive resilience and innovation.
- Close collaboration between universities, industry, and government — creating a knowledge-driven economy.
💡 What can UK councils and anchor institutions learn?
- Councils could work with local employers and landowners to develop cooperative business models and mission-led investment strategies.
- Universities, businesses, and charities can act as regional innovation hubs, shaping investment in green industries, skills, and local economic regeneration.
🔹 Adur & Worthing example: Taking a mission-led approach to economic resilience
Adur & Worthing Councils have embedded a mission-based approach to a thriving economy — working with local businesses, skills providers, and anchor institutions to build a more sustainable and community-driven economy.
- We are developing a new approach to social value — ensuring that local procurement delivers real benefits to our communities.
🇫🇮 Finland: designing missions, not just policies
Finland has pioneered mission-driven governance, embedding design, participation, and experimentation into public services.
🔹 What makes it work?
- Helsinki’s Design-Driven City approach — where urban design is used to tackle social challenges, from homelessness to liveable public spaces.
- Mission-based funding — allowing local governments to set bold goals like carbon neutrality or digital inclusion and co-create solutions with businesses and communities.
- Participatory budgeting and civic experiments — giving people a direct say in how public money is spent.
💡 What can UK councils and anchor institutions learn?
- Charities, universities, and businesses should be part of local mission teams, working with councils to co-design solutions rather than competing for short-term funding.
- Employers and utility providers could help shape place-based climate action, learning from Finland’s coordinated local carbon reduction programmes.
- Local authorities could embed participatory budgeting, ensuring residents and community groups shape funding priorities.
🔹 Adur & Worthing example: Placing participation at the heart of regeneration
We are applying mission-led and participatory approaches to our strategy, ensuring that communities, businesses, and anchor institutions have a real say in shaping their places.
- Through Sussex Bay and Sussex Energy, we are testing how place-based mission funding can support regional sustainability efforts.
🇩🇪 Germany’s Länder: federalism that works for places
Germany’s Länder (regional states) have strong financial powers, regional banks, and localised industrial policies — creating some of the strongest regional economies in Europe.
🔹 What makes it work?
- Regional control over skills, infrastructure, and economic policy — allowing areas like Bavaria to specialise in advanced manufacturing and innovation.
- Public savings banks (Sparkassen) — ensuring that capital is reinvested into local businesses and infrastructure.
- Collaboration between local, regional, and national governments — reducing fragmentation and creating long-term stability.
💡 What can UK councils and anchor institutions learn?
- Councils could partner with local banks, pension funds, and credit unions to create place-based investment funds for local business growth.
- Employers, universities, and public sector bodies could help align skills training with regional economic strengths, rather than relying on national workforce programmes.
🇨🇦 Canada: devolution by design, not default
Canada’s cities and regions have strong local powers, with models of governance that blend autonomy with participatory democracy.
🔹 What makes it work?
- City charters — giving municipalities direct powers over transport, housing, and infrastructure.
- Citizen assemblies and Indigenous governance models — creating more inclusive policymaking approaches.
- Flexible funding structures — allowing cities to test community-led public service delivery.
💡 What can UK councils and anchor institutions learn?
- Local businesses, charities, and universities could take a more active role in shaping governance structures, rather than just responding to government policy.
- Community groups and landowners could work together to test community-led housing and local energy projects, learning from Canada’s neighbourhood-based initiatives.
🔹 Adur & Worthing example: Testing new models of local governance
We are exploring how governance can be made more participatory and adaptive, testing:
- Neighbourhood-based teams where we can work together to be visible in our communities.
- Mission-driven workforce models, ensuring that we work as connected teams, rather than in service silos.
🚀 Calls to action: how can we innovate devolution in the UK?
Taking inspiration from these global examples, UK local government — and the businesses, charities, universities, and landowners that shape our places — could help build a next-generation approach to devolution by:
🔹 Creating cross-sector missions — where councils, employers, community groups, and public services work together towards big goals, not just service delivery.
🔹 Developing local financial autonomy — partnering with banks, cooperatives, and investment funds to create long-term, place-based investment strategies.
🔹 Embedding participatory governance — making citizens’ assemblies and participatory budgeting a standard part of local decision-making.
🔹 Aligning economic policy with place-based strengths — ensuring local industry, skills, and infrastructure investment reflect regional expertise.
🔹 Recognising local government as a driver of innovation — not just a service provider, but a platform for bold, mission-led change.
💬 What’s next?
If we want devolution to be about unlocking potential, not just shifting responsibilities, we need to reimagine how power, investment, and participation work at the local level.
✅ What role should local councils, businesses, and institutions play in shaping devolution?
✅ What innovative approaches to place-based missions are already happening in your area?
✅ How can we connect and learn from each other’s work?
Let’s start the conversation — share your thoughts below!
