CWB Summit 2025: Programme

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Wednesday 2 July 2025

6-8pm: pre-Summit drinks

All delegates to the Summit are invited to join the CLES team and our partners for informal pre-Summit drinks at Feel Good Club, in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Feel Good Club is a venue with a social mission – to normalise conversations around mental health and explore how success and struggle can co-exist – could there be a more perfect location to mentally prepare yourself for the networking ahead?! We’ll keep it casual and low pressure, and you’ll leave feeling excited for the next day’s discussions with like-minded folk.

Thursday 3 July 2025

This year’s Summit will take place in the Geoffrey Manton Building of Manchester Metropolitan University – please use the entrance on Jenkinson Street.

9am: registration and refreshments

9.30am: opening plenary

Community wealth building, a strategy for stronger economies

The opening session of this year’s Summit will set the context for the day with a thought-provoking challenge on the role of local economies and the forces that drive them. We will be welcomed by Manchester Metropolitan University’s Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Steve Rothberg, before CLES’s Chief Executive, Sarah Longlands, kicks off proceedings by reflecting on the rapidly changing context for our places and considering why taking a local lens to economic change is more important than ever. Our Deputy Chief Executive, Tom Lloyd Goodwin and Cllr Angela Moran, Deputy Executive Member for Finance & Resources at Manchester City Council, will then share insights from a new jointly developed toolkit for using public expenditure to create public value. Read more about this session →

10.15am: morning breakouts

Public value = local transformation

Our morning breakout sessions will be united by a common purpose: to explore how local systems, institutions and communities can drive transformative change by embedding wellbeing, equity and sustainability into the heart of local economies. The sessions will offer a deep dive into the policy, practice and potential of place-based approaches that put people first under the following headers:

11.15am: refreshment break

11.30am: pre-lunch plenary session

The next economy: wellbeing, devolution and the power of place

Our pre-lunch plenary will be a keynote discussion between Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Derek Walker, moderated by Carnegie UK’s Chief Executive, Sarah Davidson. Together they will explore how devolution offers a unique opportunity to embed the wellbeing of future generations at the heart of economic decision-making. This conversation will challenge conventional thinking on local, regional and national economic strategy and inspire bold leadership. Following the keynote, a panel of place leaders from across the UK will respond, exploring how these ideas can be translated into action through community wealth building and a renewed vision for resilient, people-centred local economies. Read more about this session →

1pm: lunch

2pm: post-lunch plenary session

The case for grassroots economic change

Our post-lunch keynote will be delivered by author and economist, Grace Blakeley, who will be sharing insights from her forthcoming book exploring grassroots struggles for economic justice. Grace will be introduced by Neil McInroy, The Democracy Collaborative’s Global Lead for Community Wealth Building, and her speech will feature case studies of successful community organising and social movement campaigns. Read more about this session →

2.30pm: afternoon breakouts

Putting the people in policy making

Supported by Power to Change, these energetic, participative workshop sessions will pick up from the themes of Grace Blakeley’s address, and look at how communities, councils and strategic authorities can strengthen dialogue and co-design economic decision-making. Grounded in a shared belief that local people know their places best, we’ll use case studies from Greater Manchester and the Reclaiming Our Regional Economies regions of South Yorkshire, the West Midlands and the North East. Together, we’ll identify the barriers to more democratic local economies and crowdsource practical solutions. Participants will leave with fresh insights, stronger relationships and examples of best practice to apply in their own places.

3.45pm: closing plenary session

Is Westminster trying to dismantle local government?

This short, punchy closing session will be all about addressing the elephant in the room. Our closing keynote speaker, Carla Denyer MP, Co-Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, will provide a provocative but constructive response to the question of whether Westminster is actively trying to undermine local government. The session will encourage a sense of collective challenge and shared resolve as delegates leave this year’s Summit. Expect sharp analysis, provocation and a rallying call for renewed purpose in local leadership. Read more about this session →

4.30pm: close