Monthly Archives: October 2024

The government’s intention to boost house building in part by the creation of a new generation of “new towns” is a welcome measure to ease the housing crisis and boost growth. It is also an opportunity to learn the lessons of the past and factor community capacity building and social infrastructure into the design and delivery of these new towns.

Across the country there are neighbourhoods doubly disadvantaged first by high levels of deprivation and second by a lack of social infrastructure. These areas see worse outcomes across health, education, crime, loneliness and wellbeing compared to equally deprived areas rich in community activity and the places and spaces to meet that foster it. Among these doubly disadvantaged areas are post-war town expansions, New Towns and relatively new developments. The core question the Consultation therefore seeks to answer is how the government’s new developments can build strong communities and prevent these areas from becoming the doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods of the future?

2024 will see 4 billion people (half of the world’s population) eligible to vote in elections across the globe. There has been much coverage about the capacity for AI systems to influence electoral processes. This is a crucial issue for democratic societies, and one that our Consultation will address by bringing together leaders from government, academic institutions, companies and NGOs. During twenty-four hours together, we will consider issues such as:

• What legislation or regulation is needed to deal with the effects of AI on the electoral process?
• What might be the role for companies and civil society in dealing with the effects of AI on elections?
• What technical measures and/or changes to election processes could increase robustness to AI-based interference?
• What lessons can be learned from the UK general election on July 4?
• How can we build public consensus around solutions to address AI risk to elections?

Britain’s Place in the World – Final Report

Much of the public debate on British foreign policy tends to focus on the UK’s policies and priorities. This often ignores two first order questions: what is Britain’s status in the world post-Brexit and what is a realistic aspiration for its place on the world stage in the next two decades? This consultation aimed to tackle the question of Britain’s status in a multipolar, and increasingly competitive and contested, world. It considered three political trade-offs that flow from that assessment: the UK’s relationship with the EU post Brexit; the relevance of the values agenda in an increasingly illiberal world order; the relative importance of Indo-Pacific relationships over the Euro-Atlantic.