Dermot Finch

Content is king

Things are going to be very different under the Coalition. Public affairs will need to become more "content-driven". Here's why...

First, this Government will be harder to penetrate than usual. The Coalition Agreement in May was super-clear, pinning down loads of commitments on banking, deficit reduction, local government, etc. Tory and Lib Dem ministers are intent on delivering it all, and have been extra-impervious to external pleading. The scope for changing their minds is rather limited.

Second, there's less cash to spend. After the phoney, cross-party pre-election silence on spending cuts, the penny is finally starting to drop (or disappear). The overall shape of the impending Spending Review is starting to become clear, with up to 40% cuts in some departments. The scope for whingeing about less cash is rather limited.

Third, government is going local. Cameron and co seem determined to devolve power from Whitehall - rhetorically, at least. Those wishing to engage with ministers will increasingly need to look beyond the Whitehall beltway, and engage as well with local government. The scope for stitching up policy from the centre is rather limited.

So, Government has (1) a very clear agenda, (2) less cash to spend, and (3) a clear intention to deliver locally. That means public affairs also has to change. As I said to PR Week recently:

"I want our public affairs team to become renowned for helping promote innovative policy ideas to government...I'll be taking a content-driven approach, rather than just picking up the phone and speaking to someone I know."

In the old days, it was much easier to engage with central government. Long periods of one-party rule, plenty of manoeuvre on spending, and a very centralised state. Flick a few switches, policy result.

It's not so simple now. Ministers are much more constrained, and less keen on open-ended "meet and greet" sessions. But there are still opportunities. Ministers are looking for ideas on difficult issues like welfare reform and infrastructure finance - pragmatic, fully costed thinking; innovative new approaches that require less public funding; and more local variation.

Public affairs should be part of this new approach to policy-making. Active not just in Whitehall & Westminster, but across the wider policy landscape. Bringing policy ideas to the table, as well as contacts. Helping to answer the big policy challenges of this Parliament - on public service reform and sustainability, as well as financial services and infrastructure.

New job, new blog

Welcome to my new blog - part of my move to Fishburn Hedges, where I'll be Head of Public Affairs from 31 August. Am off to Sri Lanka for most of August, so will start blogging properly once I arrive at FH.

I'm just finishing up at the Centre for Cities, which I set up in 2005 - it's an independent thinktank focused on the economic performance of UK cities. Over the last five years, the Centre has helped to shape several chunks of the Coalition's urban policy - on elected mayors and local enterprise partnerships, for example. Here's the Centre for Cities blog, which I kicked off in 2007.

Before that, I was a civil servant for 12 years. First in Belfast, where I was responsible for deregulating Northern Ireland's milk (seriously). Then I did 10 years inside the Treasury - including two years as private secretary for both Ken Clarke and Gordon Brown's ministerial teams; and three years at the British Embassy in Washington DC, as economic attache to the US.

During that time, I was involved in a lot of different policy stories - the demutualisation of building societies, set-up of PFI, Gordon Brown's first budget in 1997, the euro "five tests" statement, Lord Rogers' Urban Task Force, and the Bush Administration's response to 9/11 and Enron. Here's my account of that, in a Daily Telegraph interview from 2008.

Am looking forward to starting at FH, especially with the Coalition now in full flow. From 31 August, I'll be reporting on all three party conferences, the Spending Review, Banking Commission, and all those new bills that were announced in the Queen's Speech.

So, bookmark this - and follow me in a few weeks...