growth

Bang for our buck

How investing in local public services is foundational for growth

Investing properly in local public services is prerequisite for delivering economic growth to places across the UK and in ensuring that the impact of that growth is meaningful. That was the argument of Kickstarting economic growth: maximising the contribution of local council services, a paper that we collaborated on last year, with APSE and the University of Staffordshire.

Our local governments enable local growth directly – through activities to support economic development, regeneration, investment, skills provision and more – and indirectly – by improving how attractive their places are to investors and talent, and by supporting a healthy, mobile workforce through the provision of services like care and transport. The value this creates was no doubt considered in the recently announced Final Settlements for local government.

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Squeezing the zones to the max

This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal.

If nothing else, special economic zones (SEZs) are resilient. Spatial zoning – offering tax incentives, simplified regulations and other benefits to attract inward investment and deliver growth – have been a mainstay in central government policy in the UK since the 1980s and have survived the turbulent transitions from Boris Johnson’s Levelling Up agenda all the way through to today.
“a potential lifeline”
SEZs can be diverse in actual policy form – although most readers will recognise their current incarnations: freeports, greenports, investment zones and enterprise zones – but they all have a shared aim to stimulate local economies, thus offering a potential lifeline to many local authorities who struggle to find ways to do so.

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Devolution white paper risks growing nowhere

This article orignally appeared in the Local Government Chronicle.

The growth of England’s economy is at the heart of the government’s vision for devolution. But this is a missed opportunity for Labour to widen the remit of devolution: to see it as not only a chance to rebuild trust in democracy but take a more radical approach to economic change – change that rewires our economic system so that we are less focused on simply increasing the rate of GDP for UK plc and more on increasing the flow, circulation and ownership of wealth in our places.

Whilst more organized than the previous government’s approach, the essential subtext of English devolution remains intact: Westminster will hand over power and resources to mayors – as long as they enlist their regions in the battle to ‘relight the fire’ of GDP growth for UK plc.

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Measuring success beyond growth

Senior Reseacher, Sean Benstead, reflects on work we have been doing in Oldham, to help the Council there understand how local interventions can deliver on their plan for place.

Since the start of this year, my CLES colleagues and I have been working with Oldham Council and the Oldham Economic Review Board to develop a framework to assess interventions related to Oldham’s Place Plan 2030 and it’s Independent Economic Review. These interventions span themes relating to skills and employment, civic pride, business and innovation, transport and housing.
“look beyond traditional metrics”
As the Oldham Place Plan strives to achieve broader positive life outcomes for residents through good and sustainable economic activity, the framework has been designed to look beyond traditional metrics for economic success. It operates as a live dashboard, with baseline analysis and SMART targets, which crystalise focus and supports the prioritisation of interventions in target areas.

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Making the missions happen

This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal.

Done properly, community wealth-building can provide the Government with a means to deliver their election pledge of change and to maximise the impact of that change on people and places. That was the clear message from the first of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies’ (CLES) Community Wealth Building Conversation events earlier in the month.

Labour needs living standards to improve and, in last month’s Budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves again made the case for economic growth, wealth creation and opportunity for all, arguing that these were the only way to deliver that goal.

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  • RESEARCH

    Kickstarting economic growth

    1st October 2024
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    • 5 ways for the government to keep the good in planning

    This article originally appeared in the Local Government Chronicle.

    Two months in, there is no doubt that Labour are committed to delivering on their manifesto promises to “rip up the rule book on planning”. The new government have placed planning reforms at the heart of their mission to drive growth, proposed a Planning and Infrastructure Bill in the King’s Speech and, barely two days after their landslide victory, announced a consultation on a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

    When complete, the new NPPF will act as a guide for local planning authorities and developers by outlining the government’s planning policies and how they should be applied locally. And, even within the language of the consultation, we can read the runes on where the government places the blame for the lack of delivery on housebuilding and infrastructure projects in the UK. “Our antiquated planning system delays too many [development] projects, stymieing Britain’s ability to grow its way to prosperity”, it reads. But, in setting its sights on the system itself, is the government overlooking an important piece of the puzzle?

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    Planning for human welfare

    This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal.

    Years ago I asked a planner what it would mean to develop a plan which prioritised human welfare. He responded by arguing that what his place really needed was some new humans because the humans they did have were too poor, too unqualified, too sick…which was why there were executive homes on greenfield sites, to “drive growth”.

    I have been reminded of this conversation in recent weeks as planning reform has headlined Labour’s mission to boost economic growth. The current planning regime is being presented as a major brake on growth which needs reform in order to support the development of housing and infrastructure.
    “cut it down to size”
    But isn’t that what the Conservative government argued in their reform of the national planning policy framework back in 2011? Eric Pickles called planning a “drag anchor” to growth and promised to “cut it down to size”.  During the last fourteen years we’ve seen the ability of planners to negotiate social and economic outcomes including good design, affordability and infrastructure for communities systemically squeezed. At the same time the power of developers to get what they want has expanded – along with their profits.

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    Right place and time for change

    This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal.

    This week all eyes will be on the Autumn Statement. While the headlines will likely focus on questions of tax and public funding on the national level, the question of whether local government will receive any relief from more than 13 years of austerity will probably not make the cut.

    Yet the systematic defunding and devaluing of local government is – I would argue – one of the reasons why there are growing levels of poverty, hardship and destitution, creating huge vulnerability in places across the UK, generating significant pressure in the NHS and in social care and undermining the potential of local economies. For decades, every chancellor has stood at the dispatch box and argued their plan is the one that will set this country on the path to prosperity for all. That they will deregulate, bulldoze, cut through regulation, look under stones in the pursuit of growth. Few are bothered about the quality of the economy they are nurturing, merely the upward trajectory. Often the most important question is missed: who benefits?
    “The gap between those who have least and most is growing”
    Take Greater Manchester, for example, where recent CLES research shows the city region’s economy has more than doubled since 1998. Yet a third of children live in poverty, there are 16,000 live applications for social housing and 390 neighbourhoods are among the most deprived in the UK. The wealth of the average Greater Manchester resident, including property and other assets, is around £84,400 while the 11 richest individuals in the city region have a combined wealth of more than £9.3bn. The gap between those who have least and most is growing year-on-year.

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    Growth = wealth? Not for everyone.

    Yesterday the Chancellor of the Exchequer will stood at the dispatch box and argued that his plan is the one that will set this country on the path to prosperity for all. He’s not the first. He almost definitely won’t be the last. And yet here we are.

    The climate emergency, austerity, growing inequality and political inertia mean that across the UK and beyond, many people and their families are struggling to make ends meet.  These are not new crises. And yet, for decades Chancellors have set out the ways in which they will deregulate, bulldoze, build, cut through regulation and overturn every conceivable stone in the pursuit of growth. Few are bothered about the quality of the economy they are nurturing, merely the upward trajectory. Often the most important question is missed: who benefits?

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    Growth for growth’s sake?

    Policymakers should focus on building an economy that generates good lives, not just GDP.

    This article originally appeared in the New Statesman. 

    Labour’s proposals to fight the next election on economic growth were cleverly timed to help put the Tory leadership candidates on the back foot ahead of the public debate in Stoke-on-Trent this week.

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  • Latest regional GDP figures: ‘levelling up’ has its work cut out

    13 Feb. 2020