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September 2011 So much of the focus of government sub-national economic growth and development work has focused on cities, that it was extremely interesting to undertake an August commission with the Welland Partnership (WP). The partnership covers the 300,000 market town and rural populations of East Northamptonshire, Harborough, Melton, Rutland and South Kesteven. WP asked 3LE to work with the five local authority chief executives to look at the case for economic collaboration across a geography, that, in the new economic development landscape, now covers parts of four different LEPs. The new national and local economic agendas for market towns and rural communities are embryonic and proposals that emerged from the commission will be considered by WP at a forthcoming meeting later this month.
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August 2011 The Guardian Local Government Network Advisory Board, of which I am a member, held a first collective meeting this month. The network now has over 3000 members and provides both weekly blogs, on-line discussions, and an extensive resource of links to research and practical material. The Advisory Board discussed the shape and themes on which the network focuses. We considered that the development of a 'proud, valued public service narrative' provides a strong focus for network development in an era of extensive 'market failures' and consequent public service reductions.
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August 2011 The riots this month, commencing in Tottenham, seems to raise massive questions at the heart of 'regeneration' over the past 25 years. Given the huge investments in area-based regeneration over that period, can so little seem to have changed since the Broadwater Farm riots of 1985? I covered this in the R&R Blog - 'Aspiring for the champions League...where does Tottenham go next?'. Later in the month, the Mayor of London did announce a commitment to investment in the stadium redevelopment project, although it remains to be seen if this is part of the more comprehensive (and innovative) approach I recommended. But this 'crisis of regeneration' is not confined to Tottenham. A piece later in the month on Birmingham, inspired by their 1991 City Strategy - 'Back to the Future: Birmingham 2010' - shows similarly modest progress at city scale. A new way of looking at the High Speed Rail2 investment, explored in my personal blog in early September - 'Railroad to nowhere, fast track to prosperity...or none of the above' - may be part of the solution for Birmingham.
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June 2011 A fabulous 'carnival' month - associated with a piece of work being undertaken for UK Centre for Carnival Arts (UKCCA) in Luton. Besides Luton International Carnival, this included visits to Bristol Carnival, and a side-visit (personally) to Alicante's Hogueras, an amazing Spanish fiesta - its a tough job but someone's got to do it! Read more on my blog at 'Community Arts goes global...' on http://tinyurl.com/62nx75u
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May 2011 David will be chairing the economic development stream at the forthcoming 7th National Regeneration Summit taking place on Tuesday 17th May at the Business Design Centre, London. For further information about the event, please visit the Summit website
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April 2011 Last month DBIS denied that government was sidelining local authorities and local enterprise partnerships from the major decisions affecting local economic growth. Yet, the recent announcements in the Budget - enterprise zones, technology innovation centres - emphasises areas where local leadership in economic strategy remains invisible. Read the full article by David in the LGC here
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March 2011 Whilst it is good to see The Economist turning its attention to sub-regional economic development policy in England, David highlights some important misleading quotes in his comments. Click to view the original article in The Economist and here to view David's comments.
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March 2011 Enterprise Zones: why they are just a distraction from the cuts... The government's latest idea to boost economic recovery is more like an episode of Life on Mars than a workable proposal. Read David's article on Enterprise Zones here in the guardian
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March 2011 Inward investment has been one of the major priorities of local authorities and local enterprise partnerships since the announcement of the demise of the RDAs.Yet, the government's White Paper for Trade and Investment for Growth fails to mention local authorities or LEPs at all. What implications will this have... Read the full article, written by David, here in the Local Government Chronicle
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February 2011 Barely had government time to congratulate itself on the favourable manufacturing news from CIPS, than they were hit by the closure announcement from Pfizer - 2400 jobs and a global R&D centre in a key sector devastating the high growth economy in East Kent. Alongside this, government has launched its White Paper on Trade and Investment for Growth. This is strong on exploiting domestic R&D overseas markets. Read the full piece, written by David, here on the Guardian.
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January 2011 Happy New Year andgood health to everyone.As we move into2011, Third Life Economics will be continuing to assist clients to make sense of how 'big' themes of government thinking - localism, rebalancing, big society, perhaps 'happiness' - can contribute to delivering their priorities.
News for 2010 - Archive
News for 2009 - Archive
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