Engaging Universities in ‘Pride in Place’ and Levelling Up

  In June, Rebecca Riley, Anne Green and Des McNulty published a paper, Engaging universities in ‘Pride in Place’ and levelling up. In this blog we look back at the Universities and Region Forum: Universities, Pride in Place and Levelling Up policy briefing, on which the paper was based. The Levelling Up White Paper from 2022 … Continue reading “Engaging Universities in ‘Pride in Place’ and Levelling Up”

General Election 2024: Whatever Happened to Levelling Up?

Hannes Read and Abigail Taylor look at how in the 2024 election campaign, ‘levelling up’, the initiative to address regional inequalities, has been largely neglected by major parties, despite its ongoing importance. The phrase ‘levelling up’ – which refers to tackling inequality between places – has been cast aside in the 2024 election campaign. There has … Continue reading “General Election 2024: Whatever Happened to Levelling Up?”

How Do We Know When a Place Has Levelled Up?

Maryna Ramcharan addresses the methodological challenges in determining when a place has levelled up. The Levelling Up White Paper brought together a wide range of policies and programmes happening across government, each with its own monitoring frameworks and outcome/output targets. In the Levelling Up analysis released recently, we use a set of metrics and Sustainable … Continue reading “How Do We Know When a Place Has Levelled Up?”

London Wins Again – The Debacle of the UK’s High-speed Rail ‘strategy’ 

Donald Houston and Rebecca Riley discuss the scrapping of HS2 and the significant economic impact on the North of the UK. This blog was originally written for the Birmingham Business School Blog. A branding failure HS2 has always suffered from a branding failure. HS2 sounds rather anodyne and the ‘2’ reminds those north of London … Continue reading “London Wins Again – The Debacle of the UK’s High-speed Rail ‘strategy’ ”

The Impacts of Government R&D Funding in the UK: Key Questions for Improving Investment Allocations

Professor Simon Collinson was recently quoted in a House of Commons briefing on Research and Development (R&D) Funding policy. Here, he provides further detail on the issues involved with using Government R&D investments as a tool to support balanced economic growth.   Promoting R&D and innovation The UKRI, as the main UK funding agency responsible for promoting … Continue reading “The Impacts of Government R&D Funding in the UK: Key Questions for Improving Investment Allocations”

WMREDI Policy Briefing: Pride In Place

Pride in place is one of four overarching objectives in the Levelling Up White Paper as well as the least detailed of its twelve missions. This policy briefing by Rebecca Riley and Des McNulty explores this objective from the perspective of the role universities could play. The underlying argument of the pride in place mission … Continue reading “WMREDI Policy Briefing: Pride In Place”

What is Next for Levelling Up?

Rebecca Riley recently appeared on a panel session hosted by The Policy Institute at Kings College London. In this blog, she discusses how Levelling Up should be about giving people the capacity, confidence, and courage to drive change. This article was first posted on the UK in a Changing Europe blog. It isn’t a new … Continue reading “What is Next for Levelling Up?”

The Role of Universities in ‘Levelling Up’ the Region Post-Pandemic

John Goddard discusses the challenges of ‘levelling up’ within the higher education sector and how they can play a leading role going forward, post-pandemic. The challenges of ‘levelling-up’ cities and regions of the country will not go away. Universities can and do play a leading role as ‘anchor institutions’ throughout the country with a huge … Continue reading “The Role of Universities in ‘Levelling Up’ the Region Post-Pandemic”

“I Blame the Green Book”- Why has Guidance Become the Scape Goat of Public Funding Decisions like Levelling Up?

Rebecca Riley outlines some of the misconceptions around the use of the Green Book. As part of the Y-PERN conference held recently, I had a slot on a session about the Green Book, partly because I chair the Green Book User Network Steering Group, but also because City-REDI does a lot of work helping partners … Continue reading ““I Blame the Green Book”- Why has Guidance Become the Scape Goat of Public Funding Decisions like Levelling Up?”

West Midlands Economic Impact Monitor – 3 March 2023

This week the Prime Minister and the President of the European Commission announced a new agreement – the Windsor Framework – to change the way the Northern Ireland Protocol operates, including by removing checks on goods from Great Britain remaining in Northern Ireland. Inflation in the Euro area is decelerating. Concerns about the impacts of … Continue reading “West Midlands Economic Impact Monitor – 3 March 2023”