Local authorities can reframe communities as the golden thread running through everything they deliver, writes the director of secretariat at the Independent Commission on Community & Cohesion. Councils are holding the front line of the UK’s cohesion crisis, dealing with increased tension and volatility. When we launched the Independent Commission on Community & Cohesion last year, we warned that the country was a tinderbox, with a dual crisis threatening the very fabric of our society. In short, the evolving relationship between citizens and the state is having a profound impact on the nature of community cohesion – the relationships between citizens themselves. Emeka Forbes, director of secretariat, the Independent Commission on Community & Cohesion