The Preston model: UK takes lessons in recovery from rust-belt Cleveland
As councils struggle with cuts, one Lancashire city adapted a pioneering grassroots approach from America to tackling inequality and keeping profits local.
Anchor Institutions
Whatever happened to economic development?
Budget day for the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) used to be one of intrigue and relative excitement. In the 2000s, the Budget was supplemented by a specific annex focused on economic development and regeneration. Indeed, the Budget was where we saw exciting new renewal initiatives announced; reviews of sub-national economic development formulated; and new duties and funding initiated.
Inclusive growth: Making an economy work for a few more?
The report from the RSA inclusive Growth Commission has now been launched – ‘Making our economy work for everyone’. Chaired by Stephanie Flanders, of JP Morgan Asset Management, this work sought to identify practical ways to make local economies across the UK more economically inclusive and prosperous. However, it is arguable that the ideas are limited in terms of wider social justice and economic resilience. Instead of making an economy work for everyone, it’s more likely that it will merely make our economy work for just a few more.
For many years, economic development has been a thin gruel for social inclusion; based overly on economic growth (sometimes at all costs), trickle down and spatial agglomeration. So, it is heartening that the commission seems to have partly picked up on the ideas of CLES and others (you can read our RSA submission here). This includes the understanding (if not a truism) that investment in social institutions and people is as important as investment in economic infrastructure; or, how the spheres of the economic and the social are not separate, but linked. They also highlight the excellent practical work CLES are engaged in: Community Wealth Building and Anchor Institutions.
Manchester Council playing ‘pioneering role’ in progressive procurement
Manchester City Council is playing a ‘pioneering role’ in reinvesting spend back into the local economy with its progressive procurement policies, report says.
Progressing procurement processes and practice in Manchester
Around ten years ago, the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) started undertaking work around public procurement. Our interest in procurement was three-fold. First, we wanted to understand more effectively where procurement spend went and the impact in particular it had upon local economies. Second, we wanted to shift the behaviour of procurement officers so that a wider range of factors informed the procurement decision. Third, we wanted to influence the behaviour of suppliers so that they delivered greater benefits for local economies and people through the provision of goods and services.
PROJECT REPORT
The Power of Procurement II: The policy and practice of Manchester City Council
This 2018 report describes how Manchester City Council has made their procurement practice more progressive, and the impact of thi...
A blueprint for a new local economic development
The function of local economic development needs to evolve. Understanding and working with the wealth of local anchor institutions is one way forward, says Matthew Jackson
PROJECT REPORT
Community wealth building through anchor institutions
This 2017 report documents 6 years of local wealth building work with anchor institutions in Preston......
Community Wealth Building through Anchor Institutions
Places across the UK are striving to find new ways of attracting wealth, enhancing economic growth and addressing poverty. For the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), the attraction of wealth through inward investment is important; but of more importance is understanding and harnessing existing wealth for the benefit of local economies and communities.
Bournville again: can a new Birmingham hospital recreate the Cadbury effect?
“Cities need to understand and harness the potential of their existing wealth,” says Matthew Jackson, deputy chief-executive of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, who helped create the Preston model and is now running the Birmingham project.
Victoria Bettany
Senior Researcher
Making Wealth Work for all
Birmingham City Council is joining with the Centre for Local Economic Strategies and Barrow Cadbury Trust to examine how anchor institutions can boost local economic opportunities. Neil McInroy and Matthew Jackson explain the approach and the need for a closer look at growth.
