CLES Manifesto for local economies

This CLES Manifesto is underpinned by our values and principles and is based on the experience of our work in local economies over the past thirty years.

Top down approaches to local communities come and go. Whitehall always has a solution to hand, from Urban Development Corporations in the 1980s, to Local Enterprise Partnerships today. But the same issues persist which characterised the 1980s and which stimulated our formation – unemployment, poor quality jobs and entrenched poverty.

Trickle-down economics has no more answers for the communities left behind by social and economic change today than it had thirty years ago. We have worked with localities to adopt different approaches to economic development, regeneration and local governance – and approaches which have been successful. This manifesto offers policy solutions based on these experiences which will enable an economy for all, and bring new hope.