2009
Our knowledge and skills developed around local wealth building was applied to policies in the fields of banking, food, cooperatives, and land.
Example: The importance of community anchor organisations to empowerment issues in the North West
The first day sought to orienteer the delegation with the City of Manchester and its history, as well as introducing CLES and what we seek to acheive. We explained how economic growth in the City has been imbalanced and has failed to address inequality. A tour of the city centre and surrounding areas sought to explore this imbalance further.
There has been progress in this agenda, but there is work to do to ensure that everyone is paid a fair wage for a fair day’s work. It is not enough to view job creation as success, we need good employment, which is secure, paid fairly, and provides opportunities for progression. This blog highlights why the advancement of a true Living Wage is important.
Devolution is an opportunity yet to be fully realised. Devolution to some areas of England has been broadly focused on local economic growth and managing austerity through public sector reform. But with more power to local areas and the advent of Metro Mayors there is potential to forge a new relationship between business, the local state, social sector and citizens—a new local social contract.
As councils struggle with cuts, one Lancashire city adapted a pioneering grassroots approach from America to tackling inequality and keeping profits local.
For many years the dominant approach has failed to build a local economy for all. Brexit makes the challenge harder and we need to take a huge step up.
Under the auspices of devolution, mainstream economic development has followed traditional lines around investment in hard infrastructure, civic boosterism, city centres, planning relaxation and post-19 skills. Overall it has slotted into and complied with the Treasury economic model – favouring agglomeration economics and narrow wealth concentration. As a result, mainstream economic development has been socially failing, and presided over growing economic imbalances.
In her conference speech, Theresa May committed her government to achieving ‘an economy that works for everyone’. In this, she is touching on a point that many of us have known, and sought to respond to, for decades – that poverty and inequality persist, that this is unacceptable and that the prevailing economic model leaves too many people behind. The question is, how far is the government prepared to go in solving systemic poverty and inequality?
Theresa May must rethink devolution to stop post-Brexit Britons feeling even more abandoned by the Government, report finds.
Devolution is a great opportunity. After years of oppressive centralisation, devolution deals offer local and combined authorities a chance to break free and forge their own distinctive economic and social destiny. Devolution is not, however, without significant risks and challenges. Our new joint paper ‘The Real Deal: Pushing the parameters of devolution deals’, a collaboration between the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) and the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI), explores the restrictions in the current devolution agenda, and presents ideas for new types of deals, heralding a more progressive devolution.
Crowdfunding isn’t the only way to get projects off the ground. There are other ways to encourage investment. With government grants disappearing and banks more reluctant to fund small businesses, local communities are seeking new ways to find investment.
The UK is in the midst of a low pay crisis. Over 5 million people do not earn a wage which is sufficient to afford them a ‘decent’ quality of life. Wages across a raft of sectors are not rising in line with the cost of living and particularly costs associated with housing, fuel and food.
In this CLES 10, we introduce ten ways in which places are addressing poverty through a place and relationship based approach. ... 
In this CLES 10, we introduce ten ways in which places are addressing poverty through a place and relationship based approach. ... 
