Aaron Blowers Email & Phone Number

London, Gb

London, England, United Kingdom

• Working with industry, consumer and Governmental partners to forward the UK Government’s commitment to introduce a private parking Code of Practice.• Developing proposals for parking charges and debt recovery fees.

Leading teams to develop and adopt Government policy around various elements of the local government finance system, including supporting the system through the COVID-19 pandemic and shaping the approach to reforms that improve the local government sector’s financial sustainability and efficiency.• Efficiency: Exploring opportunities to realise efficiency savings in local government to protect public services whilst reducing costs, and to strengthen local government’s financial sustainability.• COVID-19: Led the organisation’s team overseeing financial support to local government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, adapting the team’s direction and workstream as the situation developed to reflect the Government’s broader response.• Business Rates Retention: Developed the Government’s position on Business Rates Retention reforms, covering £15 billion annually, negotiating agreement with Treasury in particular and supporting Ministers to determine approaches to Spending Reviews and the system’s operation.• Exceptional financial support: Secured agreement with Treasury and local partners to support three councils to balance their budgets through exceptional financial support, negotiating with various relevant groups to secure flexibility in the use of £50 million of capital receipts to meet revenue pressures.• Devolution: Supported colleagues’ development of policy to devolve funding to local areas, identifying and exploring opportunities within the local government finance system to support broader devolution objectives.

Delivering a series of different initiatives, including project management of parking-related infrastructure schemes, development of proposals for future schemes, and thought leadership in aligning the partner organisations to enhance their combined contribution to sustainable transport objectives.• Through establishing a multi-disciplinary, cross-partnership coalition of officers established foundations on which an integrated parking policy without precedent in the UK could be built, recognising the constraints the lack of such a policy had on wider partnership objectives.• Enhanced working relationships around parking policy and management between the partner organisations by bringing a new focus on shared objectives, demonstrating how prior arrangements (such as the separation of on- and off-street parking policies) constrained those objectives.• Explored and exploited opportunities to embed consideration of matters outside my specific scope, such as public electric vehicle charging and increased cycle parking, in local parking policies – demonstrating how parking policy could be a valuable tool in delivering wider modal shift and environmental efforts.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Coordinating and contributing to the development and agreement of the Greater Cambridge City Deal between five local partner organisations and Government, working closely with senior officers and local political leaders to confirm and implement the deal’s programme to enhance the economic prospects of the Cambridge city-region.• Secured agreement of the Greater Cambridge City Deal between five local partners and central Government – coordinating the project from inception through to delivery, providing policy support to senior-level negotiations, and negotiating elements of the deal myself.• Unlocked £500 million for a transformative transport infrastructure programme by leading a project to demonstrating the benefits deliverable as part of that City Deal, along with measures to improve the alignment of spatial planning, affordable housing and adult skills provision.• Secured political adoption of the first phase of £100 million for investment in transport infrastructure, working with consultants and local authority experts to develop and prioritise a proposed programme and advising officer and political leaders.• Established a joint governance arrangement across three councils, along with the local business and academic communities, with delegated responsibilities to lead this agenda on behalf of the partnership.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Supporting the Leader and Chief Executive to ensure that they were properly prepared for their roles, including preparing and presenting reports for senior management and political meetings, preparing briefings, correspondence and speeches, and undertaking ad hoc research to inform internal and external engagements.Ensuring that strategic directions were translated into physical application across the organisation.Contributing to negotiations to agree the Greater Cambridge City Deal, including governance structures and proposals for an innovative 'gainshare' mechanism that was proposed to see local retention of a share of additional tax revenue generated through enhanced economic outputs, to repay the borrowing incurred to drive those outputs.Building, maintaining and utilising strong networks and partnerships across Cambridgeshire.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Leading the delivery of a series of favourably received cycling projects, including harder infrastructure-based and more behavioural-based interventions.Key projects included:* Successfully budding for a Cycle City Ambition Grant for Greater Cambridge, bringing in £10 million as part of a 10-year vision for cycling in the city-region.* Delivery of a 12-mile stretch of solar-powered lightning along the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway maintenance track, opening up a well-used rural cycle route for journeys in the dark.* A successful countywide workplace cycle challenge, which increased levels of commuting to work by bicycle in Cambridgeshire.Whilst undertaking this role I also continued to contribute to negotiations and the preparation of proposals for the Greater Cambridge City Deal.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Rotating around a variety of teams relating to growth, planning and transport.Coordinating work around the implementation of the Cambridgeshire Future Transport initiative to replace subsidised scheduled bus services with more flexible community-focused services.Leading work to develop proposals for pooling retained business rates across the six Councils of Cambridgeshire, including developing a governance structure, shared objectives and the proposed creation of a strategic investment fund.Analysing options for localisation/devolution proposals.This position saw me work on a wide range of areas - key examples:* Capital transport infrastructure delivery* Community engagement/consultation* Transport planning/policy

Msc, Transport Planning & Management, Merit

Studying a variety of aspects of transport policy, my focus was on the links between transport and economic growth/regeneration. My.

Ba, History And Politics, 2:1

My key area of interest and focus during this course was international relations in various forms. My main dissertation focused.