All Change – Policy Ideas for the Labour Government

With the general election now concluded, City-REDI reflects on our research to see what ideas we can draw out for the Labour government. Competitive funding is bad for places Back in 2022, we looked at levelling up in an edition of REDI-Updates. In drawing together all the lessons we learnt from understanding and measuring levelling … Continue reading “All Change – Policy Ideas for the Labour Government”

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?”

REDI-Updates: How Does the Cost-Of-Living Crisis Impact People’s Health and Well-Being?

The latest edition of REDI-Updates is out now – providing expert data insights and clear policy guidance. In this edition, the WMREDI team investigates what factors are contributing to the cost-of-living crisis and the impact it is having on households, businesses, public services and the third sector. We also look at how the crisis in … Continue reading “REDI-Updates: How Does the Cost-Of-Living Crisis Impact People’s Health and Well-Being?”

The LPIP Hub: Can Productivity Bring Around the Change We Need in Places?

Rebecca Riley recently attended an RSA Urban Futures Roundtable looking at the potential of the UK’s cities. In a series of blogs, Rebecca reflects on the challenges facing places in building regenerative economies. This blog is for the Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub which launched early this year. The Hub seeks to address nationwide issues … Continue reading “The LPIP Hub: Can Productivity Bring Around the Change We Need in Places?”

WMREDI Policy Seminar: Challenges and Opportunities for Business Growth

WMREDI keeps a finger on the pulse of the biggest trends, opportunities and challenges facing the West Midlands economy. In June 2023, WMREDI held a series of policy seminars at The Exchange, in Centenary Square, Birmingham, to bring the most up-to-date information and insights to inform policymakers and business leaders’ decision-making. Our first policy seminar … Continue reading “WMREDI Policy Seminar: Challenges and Opportunities for Business Growth”

Boosting and Measuring Regional Innovation, Adoption, and Pan-University Partnerships

On 28th June, WMREDI held a hybrid seminar with Dr Helen Turner and Tyler Rickard to discuss innovation policy and pan-university innovation partnerships. This seminar gave an overview of the big challenges facing innovation policy: measuring and boosting the adoption and diffusion of innovations. Tyler Rickard outlined how innovation policies are adopted and used to … Continue reading “Boosting and Measuring Regional Innovation, Adoption, and Pan-University Partnerships”

The UK Regional Economy and the Uneven Impacts of Brexit

Donald Houston and Iain Docherty highlight that insufficient attention has been paid to the regional implications of economic policy choices such as Brexit, which has hampered efforts to address place-based inequalities. This blog was originally posted on the UK in a Changing Europe website. For almost a century, the UK policy system has – with … Continue reading “The UK Regional Economy and the Uneven Impacts of Brexit”

Skills and Regional Economic Development

Anne Green and Abigail Taylor discuss skills policy in the UK. How can we improve skill provision to reduce regional economical disparity? This blog post was produced for inclusion in the Birmingham Economic Review for 2022.  The annual Birmingham Economic Review is produced by the University of Birmingham’s City-REDI and the Greater Birmingham Chambers of … Continue reading “Skills and Regional Economic Development”

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 Makes a Cluster and Who (and Where) Benefits?

Policymakers are once again focused on the potential of clusters to boost regional growth. However, as James Davies and Simon Collinson demonstrate, a cluster’s contribution to growth can cross regional, national or even continental boundaries. Policymakers, consultants and academics have focused on the potential of clusters to contribute to regional economic growth for a long … Continue reading “What Makes a Cluster and Who (and Where) Benefits?”