News & Views
A pioneering new unit to ensure everyone in the region benefits from the work of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has been established.
The Inclusive Growth Unit is a ground-breaking collaboration between the WMCA and a range of organisations to ensure policy and decision-making tackles issues such as poverty and unemployment.
They include Public Health England, the Barrow Cadbury Trust, and a range of national and regional bodies focused on social change and economic inclusion.
By Daniel Timms
What brings businesses to particular cities? And what can cities do to attract high-value companies?
These questions are uppermost in the mind of US mayors from Atlanta to Washington right now, as the battle to host Amazon’s second headquarters intensifies across the Atlantic. The effect on Seattle of Amazon’s presence has been dramatic (not only to the good), and the huge shot in the arm it would offer the lucky winner is absorbing all focus in municipal governments. This has led to frenzied media speculation about who will be picked, and how much they will need to offer in the way of incentives.
By José Reis
There is no doubt that local areas are paying increased attention to inclusive growth. Metro Dynamics recently launched an Inclusive Growth Toolkit to help places assess the inclusive growth outcomes of interventions or investments. The number of positive responses received from across the country is testament to the fact that places are taking inclusive growth seriously, and are set on developing adequate responses to the issues faced in their area. A number of places have even created senior positions dedicated to inclusive growth, such as a West Midlands ‘Lead Economist for Inclusive Growth and Public Services’ or a ‘Director of Inclusive Growth’ in Barking and Dagenham.
With the publication of the Government’s Industrial Strategy late last year, there is now a clear impetus for LEPs and CAs to develop robust Local Economic Strategies for their areas. Metro Dynamics are currently working with places around the country to develop clear Industrial Strategies that support local sectoral growth. Compared to SEPs, Local Industrial Strategies must:
More detail on our work on Local Industrial Strategies can be found here.
Metro Dynamics has recently developed an Inclusive Growth Toolkit to help places make informed investment decisions. This is an important step towards allowing places to assess the inclusive growth outcomes of interventions or investments, placing inclusivity at the heart of decision-making. The work is an open source contribution freely available to view and use.
Inclusive Growth is becoming an increasingly important issue in the UK. There has been a growing feeling in the country that economic growth does not benefit all places or groups equally. We believe that if future economic growth is to become more inclusive, robust and logical thinking is required.
As the new Mayoral Combined Authorities take control of new investment funds, and further spending is devolved, areas have more control over how money is spent locally. This is a real opportunity to change places for the better. However, if outcomes from spending are to improve, places need new tools to allow them to assess the potential of interventions and investments to foster Inclusive Growth.
By Ben Lucas and Duncan Selbie
This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal.
That is why we have teamed up to set out the opportunity that devolution has opened up to integrate health and wellbeing into an inclusive growth agenda.
Improving people’s health and promoting economic growth may not traditionally have been seen to have much in common.
But health and wealth are flip sides of the same coin.
Developing national and local understanding of the connection between better health and the potential for productivity growth is a key priority for Public Health England (PHE).
Metro Dynamics were commissioned by Public Health England to produce a report on the relationship between health and wealth and the opportunity that devolution presents to promote prevention and early intervention across the life course.
The report argues that improving people's health and wellbeing is fundamentally about creating prosperous local economies that benefit everyone. Health and wellbeing are not only impacted by the quality of NHS care and health-related behaviours such as smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and exercise, but also by other factors, such as one's childhood or whether one lives in high quality housing in an area which has good air quality, encourages social contacts and encourages outdoor activity.
Building the foundations
From late 2012 to early 2015, the Coalition Government released a series of Industrial Strategies covering 11 sectors. Whilst they contained some important analysis and some sensible proposals, they felt decidedly low-key – as though the Government at the time were still a little afraid of the stigma of being seen to ‘pick winners’. They were also very much national strategies. Places were mainly acknowledged insofar as they were the site for existing assets or future investments.
The publication of the Industrial Strategy yesterday was very different. The message was that Government - and local governments and LEPs – have a key role to play in supporting the development and growth of new industries and addressing the challenges the UK faces in the 21st Century. In concentrating on five ‘foundations’, the Industrial Strategy has articulated the key elements needed to drive economic growth and has set out to address each of these.
Yesterday’s Budget comes at a challenging time for the Government, local government, LEPs and the UK economy. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has reduced its forecast of GDP growth for 2017 by 0.5%, with growth expected to weaken further through to 2020. In large part this reflects poor growth in productivity since the recession. And, of course, all of this is before we factor in the possible impacts of Brexit.
By Ben Lucas
This article originally appeared in the Local Government Chronicle.
In the last couple of weeks both the president of the Confederation of British Industry and the Industrial Strategy Commission have noted that the East Midlands is one of the most significant areas of the country not to have its own clear voice on industrial strategy.
The success of the Midlands Engine and the imminence of the white paper on industrial strategy brings this into even starker focus.
It’s a large region that comprises several overlapping types of economy including urban/metro, former coalfields, market towns and rural areas. Each of these has distinctive as well as interconnected challenges and opportunities. They are represented by every tier of local government, from districts, through cities to counties.
Their football teams may both have been managed by the legendary Brian Clough, but until recently the idea that Derby and Nottingham had much in common would have been anathema to many of their citizens.
But a detailed study prepared for Derby and Nottingham’s City Councils hails progress by the two cities to develop joint services and recommends extending this into a combined industrial strategy that will enable them to operate as a ‘metro’ unit economically.
By Mike Emmerich
What’s good for London is good for the UK, right? Well yes, but that’s not the whole story.
Advocates for further devolution and public investment for London can point to myriad statistics which show how reliant the rest of the country has become on the capital. The latest ONS figures show that London produced a £26.6bn fiscal surplus (just over £3,000 per head) which is redistributed to fund public services in struggling regions. And if by ‘struggling’ we mean anywhere receiving more in public spending than it raises in tax, we can include every single region outside London and the wider South East.
And with London’s GVA running at about 170% of the UK average, it’s easy to make the argument that investment in London delivers a bigger bang for the buck.
By Mike Emmerich, Director
To paraphrase a certain politician, is no deal better than a bad deal?
That’s the question many in South Yorkshire will be scratching their heads over following the apparent demise of the Sheffield City Region’s push for devolution. For many, the decision by Barnsley and Doncaster to walk away represents a huge lost opportunity. But some may be feeling a certain sense of relief, coupled with a ‘told-you-so’ satisfaction.
I’m writing this having been drawn into a debate with academics Martin Jones and David Etherington concerning a recent blog post based on their report, Devolution and Disadvantage in the Sheffield City Region. The original paper is good and makes many valid points. But my concern was, and is, that in some circumstances analysis of a kind found in the subsequent blog can overcomplicate matters and play into the politics of the issue in a way I fear we might live to regret if followed to its logical conclusion.
By Mike Emmerich, Director
Britain loves nothing more than to build up people and institutions in public life and then to participate in the spectacle of their destruction.
Not even three months since the election of a crop of new metro mayors for Combined Authorities across England, we’re already seeing the process start. The National Audit Office (NAO) report in early July said little more than that it is early days for Combined Authorities and much remains to be done to make a success of them. Yet some of the reporting of their findings seemed gleefully to anticipate their failure.
By Patrick White, Director
This week’s Queen’s Speech was notable for its absences. Many of the least popular election pledges – widely blamed for the Conservatives’ disaster at the polls – were summarily junked.
Denounced by Labour as “threadbare”, Theresa May’s programme for the next two years certainly seemed to come from a government with few new policy clothes. Coming the same week as the start of the fractious Brexit negotiations, it’s becoming clear that serious structural reform for local government will now be put firmly on the backburner. Any legislation that might attract even a murmur from backbench dissenters is unlikely to be contemplated.
