Luke Balir | The London View

Luke Blair is a director at London Communications Agency, the specialist consultancy focusing on the capital.

Luke Blair: Getting the basics right

Getting the basics right is a phrase that perhaps most often pops up on training courses, in interviews, or during pitches.

The Evening Standard's opportunity with community TV

Just after Boris Johnson was elected for a second term last year, an announcement was made by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport which we would have all been forgiven for missing - even those of us in the business of public sector communicat...

Luke Blair: When to be proactive and when to be reactive

One way of judging an organisation, especially a public sector organisation, is what kind of proactive or reactive stance it takes to communications.

We need better comms for our London schools

In this week's column, London Communications Agency director Luke Blair looks at findings from research conducted by his agency.

Who will take the lead amid calls for NHS clarity?

I spent a whole day last week taking part in some fascinating discussions about the future of the NHS in London and how to communicate the vision and strategy associated with this.

Luke Blair: From practitioner to leader

The trend to make frontline practitioners the leaders of our institutions is exemplified by a number of current high profile figures.

Taking stock of a bright summer for PR

I think we can safely say summer is over and, with this thought, I would point out what a good summer it has been for the public sector and for public sector communications.

Luke Blair: Trust is the key

Is the public sector trusted more than the private sector? Or vice-versa? Who should be trusted with public services? Is the profit motive more powerful than the public spiritedness?

Luke Blair: When a leader's colours truly show

Extraordinary times breed extraordinary leaders and, as various parts of the public sector have become ever more difficult to manage recently, we have seen a lot of different leadership styles of late.

Lessons from The GREAT Campaign

I wrote in one of these columns three years ago that watching different parts of the public sector trying to talk to each other was rather initially amusing, but ultimately rather depressing.

Luke Blair: Handling work-life balance amid the penny-pinching

There are many unintended consequences of belt-tightening and penny-pinching, especially in the public sector. Being urged to deliver 'more for less' creates a strain on public finances, on timescales, on resources, and on people.

Luke Blair: Time to cut the jargon

It is often said that the public sector talks a different language and I must say over the past few weeks I've heard earfuls of evidence to prove it.

Luke Blair: corporate culture should be a priority in public sector

Communications professionals employed by the public sector do much more than pump out press releases on behalf of their organisations.

Luke Blair: Localism provides interesting challenges

The new drive towards this thing called localism poses some interesting challenges for communications professionals in the public sector.

Luke Blair: It's time to allow room for creativity

The thing about creativity and the creative process is that it can all too easily become tangled up in jargon and management-speak, whenever it comes up as a subject for discussion.

Luke Blair: Reforming business rates calls for simple language

If I start this column with the words 'local government finance' in the first paragraph, I realise that you may read no further.

Luke Blair: Councils should follow Twitterthon example

So another public body - this time Tameside Borough Council - has turned to social media to reach out to its customers.

Luke Blair: Hard times for the in-house magazine

These must be hard times for the in house magazine. When times are tough, expensively produced internal communications publications are probably the first to feel the pinch.

Luke Blair: Loyalty to public sector being replaced by loyalty to self

Everyone is fighting for themselves out there in the public sector at the moment.

Luke Blair: Council comms must stand by cuts

Town halls across the country are heading into perhaps their most challenging months since the dark days of the 1980s, when they all came under siege from the government of Margaret Thatcher.