Author Profile

Paul O'Brien

Paul O'Brien

Paul O'Brien is chief executive of APSE

Articles by Paul O'Brien

Local solutions are best

By Paul O'Brien | 24 January 2018

Paul O’Brien reflects on the collapse of Carillion and urges local government to plan for the lon...

Parks and recreation: why we need to invest

By Paul O’ Brien | 05 December 2017

Public spaces and parks are vital to the prevention agenda. Surely that's worth investing in, wri...

Hidden in plain sight: the frontline answer to devolution woes

By Victoria Bettany | 15 September 2017

Paul O’Brien and Victoria Bettany discuss the findings of their new report, which explores the po...

Councils are plugging the gap

By Paul O'Brien | 12 July 2017

There are some who criticise local government for being bureaucratic and lacking in creativity. I...

Whoever is elected must offer sensible housing policies

By Paul O'Brien | 24 May 2017

With the General Election debate starting to heat up, it’s pleasing to see the housing crisis is ...

Door knocking on neighbourhoods

By Dr Peter Kenway | 28 April 2017

The cuts meted out to neighbourhood services are shortsighted, damaging to communities, and gross...

Malnourished things grow very slowly

By Paul O'Brien | 05 April 2017

Paul O'Brien says we must not starve out places of the things that make them desirable and habita...

Learning the lessons of history on housing

By Paul O'Brien | 14 February 2017

By imposing Right to Buy restrictions on local authority housing companies, John O'Brien argues t...

You are the industrial strategy drivers

By Paul O'Brien | 13 December 2016

Local government should be critical to a localised industrial strategy agenda in the midst of an ...

The right response to commercialism

By Paul O'Brien | 26 October 2016

Councils are taking very different approaches to commercialism but success can be ensured with on...