Local economic development

  • Changing places

    25th April 2024
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  • RESEARCH

    This must be the place

    23rd November 2023
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    • Be brave when times are tough

    This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal, where our Chief Executive, Sarah Longlands, writes a regular viewpoint column.

    Inflation may have eased, but there are tough times ahead. Sarah Longlands urges local authorities to step outside their comfort zone and reimagine economic growth

    Early in my career, I worked as an economic development officer at Barnard Castle, with the objective of marketing the town to visitors in order to support local businesses and jobs. Little did we know at the time that all we needed to put this vibrant historic town back on the map was a certain person’s eye test.

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    Gender inequality and community wealth building: where are we now?

    Four key takeaways

    At CLES, we host monthly communities of practice (CoPs) for three sectors – housing associations, the NHS and local government – which bring together practitioners working at a local level to share  and develop practice on advancing community wealth building. To mark International Women’s Day we themed this month’s sessions on how community wealth building can be mobilised to tackle gender inequality. Here we draw out four key themes from the discussions and pose the question, where next for gender equality in community wealth building?

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    Lay the foundations of social, economic and climate justice

    This article originally appeared in the LGC.

    In recognition of today’s Global Climate Strike and Fridays for Future’s demand for intersectional climate justice, CLES’s Ellie Radcliffe explores the role of local authorities in the UK in delivering a future where people and planet are jointly prioritized.

    Since the autumn of 2018 – when Bristol City Council became the first – no less than 319 of the UK’s local authorities have declared a climate emergency. However, while committing to tackling the climate crisis is an important step, ultimately actions speak louder than words.

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    Time for local economic development to muscle up

    This article originally appeared in the Local Government Chronicle

    For some in the local economic development community there is talk of a post crisis “bounce back” – reflective of an idea that the economy is on a purely temporary freeze, but will eventually thaw, and whilst an unprecedented situation, we will get back to something akin to “normal”. While this may be comforting for some, it is fanciful. Instead, we are going to need a massive reset to our local economic development thinking and practice.

    We are experiencing irreversible structural and societal change. Our local economies are collapsing; we were trundling along with stagnant growth even before Covid-19 arrived and now a growing recession with unprecedented levels of business failure and unemployment is heading down the tracks. The economic and social geography of the crisis is emerging, and where before we may have had to battle local economic sluggishness and poverty, we will now be fighting dereliction and destitution.

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  • Building a New Local Economy in Wales Conference

    09 Aug. 2017

  • Ancoats Dispensary Trust - community ownership and local economic development in action

    12 Jul. 2017

    • A progressive post-Brexit economic development

    As we move towards Brexit, there are three possible paths for local economic development, says Neil McInroy.

    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.

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  • RESEARCH

    Forging a good local society - Executive Summary

    28th July 2016
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