Imogen Sinclair: Burke offers a solution to the decline of community

Increasingly there is a recognition that the little platoons can alleviate a range of modern social ills.

Anna Firth: Local Government, not central Government, has the power and the tools to combat loneliness

In Sevenoaks, we are using public health funding to pay for advisors working in GP surgeries to help tackle the non-medical causes why people visit their doctor.

Heather Harper: The key to tackling knife crime starts in the home

My decades of experience suggest that the knowledge, experience, and will to combat this crisis is out there. We need to tap it.

James Brokenshire: We need a new unionism to bring our country together

It should be about the relationships between towns, cities and regions, as well as between the four nations that make up our United Kingdom.

Judy Terry: With eighteen pubs a week closing, community life is under threat

Council planning officers impose extra costs, which make it harder to restore redundant buildings.

Andy Street: Our 12-point plan to revitalise 
the High Street

We need to take a dynamic new approach to our High Streets with ambitious thinking. The future is not just retail.

Gerard Hargreaves: The long journey in Kensington and Chelsea to rebuild local trust

Our borough is still recovering from the Grenfell tragedy. We’re working hard to share information on how decisions are made.

The power of song

The human condition is a sometimes conflicting mixture of reason and emotion.

Nick Hargrave: The Conservative split is coming. Indeed, it is already here. Unless…

Perhaps, against all the odds, we will find a way of muddling through and preserve our broad church for a time after the era of Brexit has passed.

Emily Barley: What does the Conservative Party stand for?

It feels like our Party has forgotten that even a broad church needs shared values on which its different wings and traditions can agree.

Councils have sold off 4,000 surplus assets in the past year. That is not nearly enough.

Far from being a loss to the community they are more often derelict buildings and surplus land which can be used for housing.

Rob Wilson: How government must change to deliver real social reform

It is too fragmented to deliver this successfully – so a senior Cabinet minister should be tasked with bringing about change.

Javid’s integration strategy is long on plans, but short on measurable goals

Social cohesion is a tricky thing to quantify, but the Communities Secretary should explain how he plans to decide if his pilot programmes are a success or not.

Nicky Morgan: Helping people to learn English empowers individuals and strengthens communities

Women in particular suffer from being dependent on their husbands or children to translate for them.

Jennifer Glover: Councillors need to seek new ideas from the community

At a time of budget cuts there is an opportunity for residents to help improve value for money.