President Update - November 2026 - latest news from ADEPT
Hello everyone and welcome to this month’s update. It’s been a significant few weeks for ADEPT, with two major documents published and our Autumn Conference just around the corner.
Perhaps most importantly, I’ve been working with our Leadership Team to provide input into the government’s discussions relating to ‘Rewiring the State’. This was also the focus for the Joint Presidents meeting, where we have developed some common themes to carry forward into our respective engagement with Ministers in coming months, as we seek to ensure the voice of local authorities in the ultimate ‘rewired state’.
We also responded to the Autumn Budget 2026 on 28th October, welcoming plans for full devolution and 100% business rates retention and highlighting the vital role of councils. You can read our full response here.
In the last few weeks, I caught up with Kate Carpenter, the CIHT President. We identified opportunities for collaboration around Kate’s priorities in embedding Equality, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EEDI) in the delivery of highways improvements, along with my focus on the Place Director of the Future. We also continued our series of introductory meetings with MPs.
We’ve also written to the Rt Hon Miatta Fahnbulleh MP to congratulate her on her appointment as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero – you can read the letter here.
I’m especially proud to share The Little Book of Live Labs 2 - a practical guide showing how cutting carbon on local roads can also save money and time. Launched at Highways UK on 14th October and presented to MPs at a parliamentary briefing on 20th October, the book brings together the most important lessons, evidence and tools from the £30 million, DfT-funded Live Labs 2 programme. Its central message is that cutting carbon doesn’t have to cost more: the hard work of testing has been done and the next step is putting it into practice. Please take a look and share it with your teams, your leaders and your supply chain. You can read it here.
We’ve also published Digital Infrastructure Capability: Why local place-based leadership matters, a practical toolkit from our Digital Connectivity Working Group on protecting local digital infrastructure capability through local government reorganisation (LGR) and devolution. It explains why local teams are essential to reaching the hardest-to-connect places and includes a checklist for those designing new operating models. You can read it here.
Finally, this is your last chance to book your place at the ADEPT Autumn Conference on Thursday 26th and Friday 27th November at the DoubleTree by Hilton Brighton Metropole. Under this year’s theme of Making Better Places for People, we’ll be exploring the wicked issue of how to tackle the NEETs crisis, whether the natural environment is as an enabler of growth, whether water is a constraint on growth, the latest on LGR and devolution, and some exciting developments in our efforts to champion and support the place director of the future. Bookings close on Tuesday 10th November, so please don’t miss out. Book your place here.
For more updates on ADEPT's latest news, publications, and the work of our boards and groups, visit our website: www.adeptnet.org.uk
