## Notes from 15 December 2025 [[2025-12-14|← Previous note]] ┃ [[2025-12-16|Next note →]] Read [Annabel Smith's piece](https://futuregovforum.substack.com/p/the-quiet-work-that-makes-public) on the UK's new Test, Learn and Grow Community, announced by Josh Simons MP at the Britain Renewed 2025 conference. The text itself is fairly standard practitioner writing (networks, peer learning, shared language, trusted spaces) but what caught my attention is the broader ecosystem it signals: a visible connection between the growth/abundance movement and the public sector reform agenda. There's something exciting happening in the UK around state capacity. The [Growth and Reform Network](https://growthandreform.org/), [[Future Governance Forum]], [[Looking for Growth]], [[Centre for British Progress]], [[Britain Remade]]... it feels like a coherent movement is forming, with think tanks, practitioners, and parts of government actually talking to each other. This sits alongside the growing [[Abundance Agenda - Progress Studies|abundance ecosystem]] in the US ([[Ezra Klein]], [[Derek Thompson]], [[Jerusalem Demsas]]) and similar [[Build Canada|conversations emerging in Canada]]. These discussions remain strongest in Anglophone countries. There are parallel movements elsewhere—maybe [[European Accelerationism]] fits here, with its focus on competitiveness, industrial policy, and cutting red tape... but the framing and institutional infrastructure seem less developed. Or maybe I just don't know where to look. What are the continental European equivalents? Germany has some debates about state modernization, but they seem narrower in scope. The Nordics? In France, I recently came across the [[Institut pour l'Audace Politique (IAP)]], which seems to operate in adjacent territory. Thinking about it, Macronism was perhaps an early attempt at something like abundance politics... pro-growth, reformist, trying to cut through left-right gridlock. The results haven't been as bright as the initial promise: the _gilets jaunes_, pension reform chaos, the current political fragmentation. Still a political project I admire in aggregate, even if it's become fashionable to dismiss it. --- **About the [Test, Learn and Grow programme](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/communities-across-the-country-to-benefit-from-innovation-squads-to-re-build-public-services):** The Community that Smith writes about is one piece of a larger £100 million, three-year Cabinet Office initiative launched in mid-2025. The programme deploys "innovation squads" (policy officials, tech specialists, and other experts) directly into local authorities to test solutions with frontline workers and residents. Ten communities across England are participating in the current round, working on challenges like family hub uptake, neighbourhood health services, and violence against women and girls. The consortium delivering the programme includes [[Public Digital]] (prime contractor), the [[Government Outcomes Lab]] at Oxford's [[Blavatnik School of Government]], and [[New Local]].