Is a progressive national identity critical to progress in local left behind places? Five big takeaways from LEDC’s episode with John Denham

Here at LED Confidential we’ve devoted a lot of episode time in 2025 to exploring what the Reform Party’s political successes might mean for local economic development and placemaking in England.  Our Espresso Shots after the May 2025 local elections, and our episode on political instability, can only scratch the surface of a huge issue with major impacts. So, we were absolutely delighted to welcome Professor John Denham to the podcast. John is a former Southampton Labour MP and Government Secretary of State in the Blair and Brown Governments of the noughties, for Communities and Local Government, and Innovation, Universities and Skills.

John is currently Director of the Centre for English Identity and Politics at the University of Southampton. He recently launched his own Substack – Nation, State and Politics -  which is a collection of his work which provides a granular and evidence-informed understanding of Reform-shaped national identity and progressive alternatives to it. He has also been a consistent advocate of Total Place 2.0 which is influencing current government thinking on public service reform and devolution – perhaps most notably from his New Local 2024 piece with Jessica Studdert.

These are five of the key takeaways we believe the episode surfaces on national identity. It’s a must listen for those of us trying to sustain positive placemaking in today’s political turbulence.

National identity is critical to understanding where the Reform Party is politically successful. It is not necessarily either pro-devolution or necessarily localist

John recognises national identity politics as an important distinctive type of identity politics. The evidence suggests it is both English and British in character. It can be particularly powerful (compared to other types of identity – socio economic, age, gender, place-based/regional) in certain types of communities. Reform’s political narrative has been most potent in communities that believe they have lost their former national profile (e.g. post-industrial), where they feel unheard and unimportant (e.g. some rural and coastal areas), and culturally threatened (e.g. by metropolitan elites). These are often the ‘left-behind areas’ with the socio-economic profiles (income, education, employment) mentioned in our recent Espresso Shot.

Reform explicitly links its ‘offer’ to the preservation of 'British culture, identity, and values.' Reform may use local platforms (like mayoralties and councils) to resist central government policy (e.g., on housing asylum seekers or scrapping net zero schemes). But this is an instrumental application of power to reinforce its national cultural agenda—not an ideological commitment to decentralised governance. 

John argues that the leaders of place-based narratives must also have a progressive national identity story to build support and legitimacy with and in these communities.

Enabling local voice and agency is critical – and must not be captured solely by the ‘loudest’ voice

Perhaps the major strategy for addressing the feeling of communities who feel they are “not being listened to” is to put a lot more effort into enabling genuine local voice and agency. Populist parties thrive by amplifying the grievances of the most vocal, often framing decline through narratives of national betrayal and cultural loss. Facilitating a broader spectrum of community perspectives, and then visibly acting on this, helps avoid reinforcing exclusionary politics and instead fosters resilience, trust, and shared ownership of change.

Too much of recent devolution agendas can be presented as being done ‘to’ communities, with tokenistic consultation, and subsequently without local consent and involvement.

There are many participatory tools that can be supported – citizen panels and juries, participatory budgeting, deliberative polling among others. When applied seriously and authentically, local people most often reach helpful and inclusive solutions.

John makes an important point, not just about doing more of this, more often – but of using it for the difficult and wicked issues in left behind communities – not just for the ‘easy stuff’. As an example, why haven’t local white working-class communities had these types of opportunities for an issue like asylum seeker hotels located in their neighbourhood?  

Total Place 2.0 can be a transformational and affordable part of these processes

John is a strong advocate for a Total Place 2.0. Total Place in the last years of the noughties tended towards a mapping of total spend in a particular geography to reduce duplication and siloed working and deliver savings. To make Total Place much more appropriate for the late 2020s, the model would give greater emphasis to its citizen and community co-design elements, its prevention focus, and the deployment of richer big data to develop and deliver policy, whilst retaining the previous core building blocks.

The challenges in areas where populist narratives have gained traction—often due to perceived neglect and fragmented services — is how and at what territorial level we seek to reorient public investment around local priorities. Is it potentially for Mayoral Strategic and Combined Authorities, Local Authorities, specific cities/towns, or neighbourhood levels (or all four)? John sees positive evidence from similar models like Community Wealth Building and Local Area Initiatives without relying on formal devolution, which might make it politically feasible even in centralist contexts. But whether successes can be scaled up and out is going to require political will and technical support from national to local. And its much more than soundbites about ‘Mayors taking control of Hospitals’ or even the integration pilots.

Reimagining the Local Democratic State

All three of us shared scepticism and some regret that these agendas are going to be limited in both efficacy and their transformational qualities without a fundamental, holistic, reimagining of the sub-national and local democratic states.

The current limited, highly prescribed application of devolution and piecemeal iteration of local government reorganisation has been a missed opportunity for a new national government with a large parliamentary majority. A deeper reform exercise might have built a consensus and possible new constitutional settlement for shared values of a progressive national identity that is translated and delivered regionally and locally.

Whether the Starmer Government – supported sub-nationally with the sort of approaches discussed here – can, even now, begin to craft a new narrative for how a cohesive UK lives together in the future, may well determine the longevity and legacy of this government.

Delivering generational transformations – more modest in the short term; more ambitious in the long term

Pulling together the points above, and our discussions more broadly, John concluded with the comment that maybe we need to be “more modest in the short term yet more ambitious in the long term”. At one level this was a comment about the Starmer government and how its 2024-29 term should be presented. But it applies equally to regional and local leadership teams. Strength of places and communities comes from shared stories, values and ambitions. Continually refreshing and building support for long term visions, values and plans should always be leadership teams’ priority. Changing national and local identities are generational projects. However, not overselling transformation in the short term, and making modest but visible improvement with the powers and resources we do have is equally important. As is enabling local communities to understand the relationship between the two-time perspectives.

Concluding remarks

This is a signature must-listen-to guest episode to launch our autumn series. The conversation with John Denham underscores the scale and complexity of the challenge facing local economic development and placemaking in today’s volatile political landscape. Reform UK’s rise is not just a reaction to economic decline—it’s a symptom of deeper identity fractures and democratic disconnection. For practitioners, this means that technical solutions alone won’t suffice.

We need to deliver modest but visible local improvements, promote deepened local voice and agency across our agendas, and adopt models akin to Total Place 2.0 efficiently and effectively. And we need to continue to promote deeper reimaginings of the national and local state as opportunities emerge in this parliament and beyond.

Please let us know how these types of arguments are playing in your places, communities and institutions, and how LEDC can support and sustain these important debates and developments.

Further reading

On John’s recent work on national identity politics and Total Place 2.0:

• Place-Based Public Service Budgets: Making Public Money Work Better for Communities is the January 2024 New Local report with Jessica Studdert which has influenced a lot of Government thinking on a Total Place 2.0 proposition.

• Nation, State and Politics is John’s new Substack which will gradually present much of his thinking and writing on national identity politics.

• The Politics of England: National Identities and Political Englishness This article with Lawrence McKay provides a more detailed analysis of Englishness in elections and begins to explain the disconnect between populist-leaning voters and devolution.

On the issues discussed here and, in the podcast, more generally:

• Identity issues now a key dividing line in British Politics, the National Centre for Social Research’s analysis of the Social Attitudes Survey that makes the point that identity is now much more important than left/right divisions electorally

• The case for Total Place 2.0 is the Institute for Government’s 2025 pitch for a new Total Place 2.0, building on the earlier 2024 New Local Papers

• Trusting Place: Improving the lives of local people through place-based approaches: is the LGA and ‘Re-state’s’ presentation of positive place-based case studies many of which lean towards a Total Place-type approach

• Place based public service eco-systems is an interesting international comparative ‘debate’ from an exercise in Japan earlier this year