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Think tank

Sarah Longlands

Chief Executive, Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES)

Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) is based in Manchester Central — the organisation’s base, not a personal address.

Press citations

2

Topics

2

Hospital discharge / bed-blocking

Last quoted

Aug 2026

Sarah Longlands: key facts

Kind of voice
Think tank
Role
Chief Executive
Organisation
Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES)
Organisation based in
Manchester Central
Quoted on
Hospital discharge / bed-blocking, Adult social care & reform
Tracked press citations
2
Most recently quoted
27 Aug 2026

Who Sarah Longlands is

Dr Sarah Longlands is Chief Executive of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), a Manchester-based charitable think tank that develops progressive economics for people, planet and place. She rejoined CLES in June 2021 having previously served as Director of IPPR North and, before that, as Director of Policy at CLES from 2005 to 2011; she began her career in economic development roles in County Durham and North Yorkshire local government. She holds a PhD in Urban Studies from the University of Glasgow. In health and social care, she has written on the role of Integrated Care Systems as economic anchors and on the consequences of rising adult and children's social care costs for local government finances. In September 2025 she was appointed a Non-Executive Director of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, continuing in her CLES role alongside that position.

“private equity involvement in public services created 'conflicting motivations' that were driving”

References for this biography

  1. 1.Sarah Longlands | CLES staff page — Confirms current role as Chief Executive of CLES, career background, and PhD
  2. 2.Dr Sarah Longlands appointed Non-Executive Director at MHCLG | CLES — Confirms MHCLG NED appointment in September 2025 and ongoing CLES CEO role
  3. 3.Non-Executive Director – Sarah Longlands | GOV.UK — Official government record of her MHCLG NED role; confirms CLES CEO position and background
  4. 4.Getting healthier and wealthier | The MJ — Documents her commentary on Integrated Care Systems as economic anchors and health/social care workforce
  5. 5.Sarah Longlands: Labour should move from securonomics to loconomics | Local Government Chronicle — Documents her published arguments on rising adult and children's social care costs and local government finances
  6. 6.Centre for Local Economic Strategies appoints Sarah Longlands as new CEO | CLES — Establishes her appointment as CEO in 2021 and career history including IPPR North and earlier CLES roles
  7. 7.CLES has moved office | CLES — Establishes CLES head office address and postcode: 52 Oak Street, Swan Square, Manchester, M4 5JA

Notable achievements

  • Appointed Non-Executive Director to the Board of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in September 2025, while continuing as CLES Chief Executive. Source ↗
  • Led CLES's work with the Birmingham Anchor Network, examining how Integrated Care Systems can use their economic weight to support local employment and health outcomes. Source ↗
  • Authored commentary in Local Government Chronicle arguing the spiralling costs of children's and adult social care are structurally damaging local authority finances, calling for a place-based response. Source ↗

What Sarah Longlands has said

  • “This is public money, our money, that we're talking about. But the way in which private equity companies are structured puts downward pressure on a service, and ends up creating an environment which is really bad for workers. There's increasing evidence about the lack of quality of care that's being delivered, too.”

    chief executive of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies · Adult social care & reform · 27 Aug 2026 · ‘Treating children like cattle’: what happens when private equity takes over a UK care home? ↗

Recent social activity

  • What a day! And I’m not talking about the weather https://t.co/fRVhsjnYxO

    x.com ↗

Where Sarah Longlands has been quoted

  1. ‘Financial pandemic’: £1 in every £11 spent on UK public contractors goes to private equitytheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
  2. ‘Treating children like cattle’: what happens when private equity takes over a UK care home?theguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Related media coverage

Recent UK press coverage of their topics — not necessarily citing them directly.

Contact & links

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.

Chairs, directors and heads of policy institutes, foundations and think tanks speaking for their organisation’s research and policy position. Citations are counted by an automated scan of UK press coverage and may be incomplete. Roles, biographies and contact details are researched and human-reviewed before they appear here; anything not yet reviewed is simply absent rather than shown unverified. This profile was last updated on 5 Oct 2026. See the methodology for how this page is built, or email contact@bridgeheadcommunications.com to correct anything on it.