Vidhya Alakeson

Director of External Relations │ Leader of the Labour Party at The Labour Party

Share
External Relations Director, Leader’s Office, Labour Party

Vidhya Alakeson is the founding Chief Executive of Power to Change, an independent trust established in 2015 to support the growth of community businesses across England as a means to creating more prosperous and cohesive communities.

Vidhya has extensive policy experience, having worked in a number of think tanks and in government in both the UK and US. Prior to setting up Power to Change, Vidhya was Deputy Chief Executive at the Resolution Foundation, a leading public policy think tank working on issues that affect low and middle income families.

Vidhya was a member of the Government’s Expert Advisory Panel on High Streets in 2018. Most recently she co-wrote Taking Back the High Street: Putting communities in charge of their own town centres. She regularly advises organisations, including local and national government, on the role of community business in promoting regeneration and writes and speaks regularly on issues relating to community-led development and inclusive growth.

Vidhya is a board member of More in Common, a global initiative seeking to reduce polarisation in developed societies, and a trustee of the Young Foundation which aims to develop better connected and more sustainable communities across the UK.

  • 21 October 2021, 3pm

    CSaP annual meeting & reception 2021

    On 21 October 2021, CSaP hosted its first in-person networking event since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The annual meeting and reception, held at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London, provided an opportunity for 115 public policy professionals, industry leaders, and researchers to meet and share their experiences to improve decision-making.

  • In news articles

    What form should the government’s levelling up agenda take?

    Levelling up was an amorphous policy pledge in the Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto. Since then, numerous academics and policy organisations have focused on what ‘levelling up’ means, and how it should be achieved. The upcoming Levelling Up White Paper is expected to specify a precise policy programme for this agenda.