Devolution and regional government
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have different forms of devolved powers. Each of the devolved governments is seeking to expand its programmes for economic development activities, even though most economic powers are reserved to the Westminster government. Both Scotland and Wales have established national development banks to support their economic investment strategies. (See Stakeholder Banks.)
In England local authorities have some economic development powers but many argue that the geographic scale of government needs to be larger. Since the abolition of the Regional Development Agencies in 2010 semi-independent Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs) have been tasked with supporting business development, but these have widely criticised for inadequate powers, funding and democratic accountability.
Where they have been established, combined authorities and city mayors are developing economic strategies at the 'city region' level; all argue that they need more powers and greater resources to do this properly. Some have called for the creation of larger regions in England comparable to those generally found in other developed countries. But the issues of regional identity and democratic control remain a source of debate.
IPPR’s proposals for an industrial strategy for the North of England have at their core more pan-Northern collaboration in transport, trade and investment, innovation and more. It separately argues for decentralisation of power in England and calls for a new constitution that would permanently reform central-to-local relationships.
Nesta argues for a much greater role for Metro Mayors in leading local strategies that are the core to national recovery. It suggests that this will require greater resources from national government as well as local leadership from Mayors to convince local people that “local politics is something worth caring about”.
Former banker and Tory minister Lord Jim O’Neill argues that city-region mayors must be given greater powers if the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda is to work.
The Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) proposes three "central tenets to reshape local economic development in the UK… devolve, redirect, democratise”. The authors give a history of regional inequality and English devolution, and argue that 'levelling up' will require constitutional change, rather than "top-down tinkering".
Harvard University’s Growth Lab's Metroverse is a data visualisation tool comparing the local economies of different cities.
Community wealth building
'Community wealth building' is an approach to local economic development which seeks to retain as much wealth and economic activity as possible within a local area, and place local assets and democratic control in the hands of local people. It aims to promote more resilient local economies and local job creation.
Core to this idea is harnessing the spending power of local 'anchor' institutions, such as local authorities, hospitals and universities. By using their procurement budgets to buy wherever possible from local small and medium sized businesses, such institutions can support local economic and civic renewal and retain wealth and jobs within the community. At the same time the local authority can support the development and financing of such businesses.
Many community wealth building initiatives are particularly focused on socially-owned enterprises such as cooperatives and community businesses. The best-known application of the model in the UK is the city of Preston, where the city council has transformed local models of procurement and quadrupled the local spend of its anchor institutions.
The Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) has helped shape the community wealth building approach in Preston. Here they describe how they did it and the key lessons learned. In particular they highlight how replicating the success is not a one-size-fits-all but must evolve from the people and resources within each place.
Making Spend Matter, a network of 7 cities exploring best practice in progressive procurement, released their final newsletter detailing their 3 year journey of sharing learning from partner cities across Europe.
Community Wealth Building and citizen-led transformation are key to the Amsterdam City Doughnut. This is the first city-scale application of Kate Raworth’s model of doughnut economics, which sets delivering wellbeing within environmental limits as the goal of economic policy.
Community wealth building initiatives and proposals in the devolved nations include: the Bevan Foundation’s proposal for ‘Anchor Towns’ in Wales; proposals by CLES and Development Trust Northern Ireland; and CLES's work with the Scottish and Welsh Governments.