A perfect time to think

• Increase image
• View all images

Thinktanks have long understood the benefits of launching reports in August.

With stand-in editors desperate for stories, there is plenty of room for heavy coverage of the latest ideas from wonk-land. This year's holiday season has seen a healthy crop of output from Policy Exchange, the Institute for Public Policy Research and the New Local Government Network.

Even the Olympics could not deflect the torrent of acrimony that poured down on Policy Exchange's Cities Unlimited report. Its authors, Tim Leunig and James Swaffield had unhelpfully pointed out that the gap between Britain's successful and unsuccessful cities has continued to grow despite massive regeneration efforts. They went on to propose that London and the south-east should be allowed to expand.

The report also included a powerful argument for local political autonomy as an element in the solution of left-behind areas. The scale and tone of the response to the Policy Exchange report suggests its authors had pointed out something the political class simply did not want to hear.

The NLGN managed two bites at the August news schedules. First, a report was published proposing the abandonment of the 2011 population census. Its author claimed the Office for National Statistics (ONS) would not be able accurately to produce timely or accurate estimates of who lived where. The Commons Treasury committee had already proposed that the next census should be the last. £500m could be saved by scrapping the 2011 exercise.

Chris Leslie, the NLGN's director, was also in the news for signing a letter to the press which pushed the idea that councils should be encouraged to offer mortgages in an attempt to rekindle the housing market. A number of senior Labour local government leaders also signed the letter. The NLGN had already published a report outlining this proposal back in June.

This week, the Institute for Public Policy Research trailed a forthcoming report about the benefits of migration to the UK economy. Migrants improve the skills mix in an area and are more likely than existing residents to set up new businesses. Once established, they create links to their country of origin that can benefit their adopted city or town. Although the anti-migration organisation Migration Watch popped up to point to the service needs of the new populations, the IPPR's key points appear well made.

Thinktanks are now an essential element in Britain's body politic. They can think thoughts the government, councils and other 'official' organisations are afraid to consider. Because they are well networked with the national political parties, they are often highly influential. Local government would do well to keep abreast of what these bodies and their brainy researchers are up to, especially in the run-up to a general election. Today's bright idea may be tomorrow's legislation.