Paul Raynes is Programme Director at the Local Government Association, with particular responsibility for economic issues, culture, and local democracy. He led LGA campaigns on place-based budgets, regional economic devolution, local democracy, and quango accountability. He joined the LGA in 2006 from Essex County Council, where he founded the Strategic Policy Unit. A former Treasury official who headed the private office of three cabinet ministers in the 1990s, Paul also worked in the British Embassy in Paris on the lead-up to the introduction of the euro, and as a financial editorial-writer.

Outside the office, he led, as chair of governors, the transition of London’s second-largest comprehensive into two new Academy schools.