On October 18th City-REDI and PA Consulting hosted a workshop with key regional stakeholders on the progress of an ESRC-Impact Acceleration Account project to test the feasibility of applying PA Consulting’s COMPETE model at the subnational level. In this blog, Tasos Kitsos reports on the day and next steps. An informative and very productive workshop … Continue reading “City-REDI/PA Consulting ESRC-IAA workshop on developing an innovative and collaborative approach to localised industrial strategy delivery for the West Midlands”
Author: Tasos Kitsos
Economic resilience: addressing the challenges to come
Economic crises have happened long before the great recession of 2008 and unfortunately will happen again in the future. Maybe not as bad as the 2008 one but they will happen. We can spend years discussing why recessions happen and we can use plenty of insights in psychology, economics as well as ideological arguments. This … Continue reading “Economic resilience: addressing the challenges to come”
Birmingham Policy Lab: Financing Local Public Services
The University of Birmingham and City-REDI would like to invite you to a Birmingham Policy Lab workshop to explore the theme of the financing local public services. As demands on public services grow and austerity looks set to continue, the need to reform and look afresh at the financing of local public services is more … Continue reading “Birmingham Policy Lab: Financing Local Public Services”
The economic black hole at the heart of the shift to electric vehicles
Source: Charging more? nrqemi/Shutterstock This piece was written by City-REDI’s Professor John Bryson and Anastasios Kitsos The ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040 is perhaps the most significant policy announcement made by the UK government in the past decade (with the possible exception of Brexit). It feels like a … Continue reading “The economic black hole at the heart of the shift to electric vehicles”
West Midlands’ Service exports to the EU: Brexit will not be the same for every region
On July 11, the ONS has released its estimates of regional Service exports for GB regions. The release is here – https://goo.gl/4d7Kjx Doing one of my favourite things and turning absolute figures to percentages, a number of interesting insights come up. Below, the commentary focuses only on Manufacturing; Wholesale and Motor Trades; Information and Communication; … Continue reading “West Midlands’ Service exports to the EU: Brexit will not be the same for every region”
Last day to register to vote! Why be bothered?
In this blog, City-REDI’s policy and data analyst Tasos Kitsos discusses economic insights on voting. Claxon! Last day to register to vote! It takes more time to read this blog than register to vote so if you only have 5 minutes, I’d rather you spend them here and ignore the text below. There are tens … Continue reading “Last day to register to vote! Why be bothered?”
Local Authority funding in the UK – More ‘graphs of doom’ ahead?
Local government funding has been under severe pressure since the 2008 crisis. This has stress-tested the local authority finances and capacities to identify efficiency savings leading to severe warnings such as Barnet Council’s graph of doom. In this blog, I am bringing together official figures of the drop in local authority funding in order to … Continue reading “Local Authority funding in the UK – More ‘graphs of doom’ ahead?”
Fiscal devolution in the UK – the facts
Local government funding is once again coming to the fore, especially now that we are approaching the mayoral elections next week on the 4th May. In this blog, City-REDI’sTasos Kitsos discusses fiscal devolution in the UK compared to international experiences. No big introduction needed. This post looks into the numbers related to the extent … Continue reading “Fiscal devolution in the UK – the facts”
Employed worklessness and other oxymora
Tasos Kitsos comments on the latest ONS release of employment on zero-hours contract. On March 15 2017, ONS released its latest estimate (Oct to Dec 2016) of people employed on contracts that do not guarantee a minimum amount of hours. Ready? Here it is… 905,000 (or 2.8% of those employed). The figure itself may not … Continue reading “Employed worklessness and other oxymora”
Data from the producer perspective: Two days with the ONS
City-REDI’s Tasos Kitsos is back from attending the International Economic Statistics Conference hosted by ONS. Here he provides a round-up of his experience. These are some of my favourite ingredients for a conference; A line-up of great speakers, An audience full of interesting people, A great balance between talking, debating, questioning and breaking up for … Continue reading “Data from the producer perspective: Two days with the ONS”