Judy Hirst

About Judy Hirst

Judy Hirst is deputy editor of Public Finance magazine and publicfinance.co.uk. She has written extensively on public and social policy issues, for the Guardian, the New Statesman, Community Care and other publications. You can email her at editorial@publicfinance.co.uk.

Infra digging

20 January 2012 | Judy Hirst

Off-plan, off-balance sheet and largely financed by private investors. What’s not to like about the chancellor’s plan to revolutionise Britain’s creaking infrastructure, and stimulate jobs and growth ahead of his March Budget? Read more

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Things fall apart

18 November 2011 | Judy Hirst

In the past few weeks, Europe’s political class might have felt inclined to follow Bertolt Brecht’s famous advice for beleaguered governments: dissolve the people, and elect another. Read more

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No safe havens

19 August 2011 | Judy Hirst

Who’s minding the shop? This is the question being asked – literally in the case of looted and burnt-out high streets – after a summer of social and economic turmoil. Read more...

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Fight or flight?

29 June 2011 | Judy Hirst

Easy councils. Remember them? They were meant to be the no-frills, low-budget authorities that supplied only the most residual services – and outsourced everything that wasn’t nailed down. Read more

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Beyond the fragments, by Judy Hirst

19 April 2011 | Judy Hirst

Localism used to be something councils got excited about. Give us the financial and legal freedoms, they would say, and we’ll do great things. Just like the French communes, Swiss cantons and Swedish municipalities. The clamour for a new localist agenda got ever louder under the dirigiste New Labour regime. Read more...

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Another country, by Judy Hirst

24 February 2011 | Judy Hirst

Are you, or have you ever been, a deficit denier? The term is being bandied about with near-McCarthyite fervour, as debate hots up in anticipation of the Budget. Read more...

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Entente frugal, by Judy Hirst

4 November 2010 | Judy Hirst

Necessity is the mother of invention. So, with revenue funding for local government cut by 26%, all sorts of things that were once unimaginable suddenly look eminently doable. Read more...

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Chequebook politics, by Judy Hirst

7 October 2010 | Judy Hirst

It’s not just ‘the size of the cheque we give people’ that matters, Prime Minister David Cameron told us this week in Birmingham. Read more...

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In a hole, by Judy Hirst

16 September 2010 | Judy Hirst

Unfilled potholes. Crumbling schools and community centres. Is this an overly alarmist vision of the future state of public infrastructure? Read more...

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Life after death, by Judy Hirst

2 September 2010 | Judy Hirst

So what did the Audit Commission ever do for us? Not much, judging from the chorus yelling ‘good riddance’ as soon as Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced the watchdog’s death. Read more...

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