Inclusive Growth and Community Wealth Building

The role of anchor institutions in supporting local communities

This article provides an overview of how the anchor institutions approach has evolved in the US. It highlights the role of universities and hospitals (typically not-for-profit entities) in managing procurement and other practices to strengthen the local economy with an emphasis on creating opportunities for SMEs and disadvantaged communities.

A Lesson for Localities: The NhS Supports Anchor Institutions

This blog looks at how a recent NHS decision that it's newly established Integrated Care Services should take an anchor institutions approach is playing out in the mid-Essex ICS. It highlights the connection which the NHS is making between healthy local economies and healthy communities and stresses the importance of health and care authorities carrying out their activities in ways which support local economic development.

The Power of Procurement II - the policy and practice of Manchester City Council 10 years on

This report from the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) tells the story of the development of social procurement practice within the Manchester City Council, practice which has been an exemplar for others to follow.

The Preston Model: UK takes lessons in recovery from rust-belt Cleveland

This article discusses the development of the Preston model of community wealth building, linking it to the Greater Cleveland University Circle experience with social procurement and social enterprise and tracing both back to the Mondragon cooperatives in the Basque country of Spain as an exemplar of locally driven economic development. It provides a wealth of linkages to community development and community governance resources.

Preston: Progress towards the Fairness Charter

This article from the Preston City Council details the approach which it has been taking to placing fairness at the heart of all of its decision-making. As an approach this may seem unusual for a local authority but it has been a major contributor to improvement for the city. Research carried out in 2018 by the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and the thinktank Demos, which used a range of measures including employment, workers’ pay, house prices, transport, the environment, work-life-balance and inequality to rank 42 UK cities, found that Preston had improved the most in its 2018 Good Growth for Cities index.

Inclusive growth for people and places

This report from the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA) is part of the background research undertaken for its Inclusive Growth Commission. It presents case studies of three places all facing challenges for economic development; Bradford, Cardiff Capital Region and Newcastle. Three questions are examined: the scale and nature of their inclusive growth challenge, their economic assets and how they are responding to the inclusive growth challenge and how to strengthen their role as place-based enablers of inclusive growth.

Inclusive growth commission interim report

This interim report from the RSA’s inclusive growth commission looked primarily at what national government should do to support place-based inclusive growth.

Inclusive growth commission final report

This report outlines a new model for inclusive growth that combines social and economic policy. It argues that reducing inequality and deprivation can itself drive growth. Investment in social infrastructure - including public health, early years support, skills and employment services - should go hand-in-hand with investment in physical infrastructure, and in business development.

Citizens and inclusive growth

This report from the RSA sets out to explore whether inclusive growth strategies require an equilibrium where strategic leaders, innovators and citizens participate in the process of change together. Here, citizens are not only the beneficiaries of change, but are understood to be fundamental to the success and sustainability of change strategies.  

Inclusive Growth in action

This report from the RSA provides practical examples and stories of initiatives across the world that have had success in promoting inclusive growth. They have been selected and curated to illustrate what an inclusive economy can look like in practice for places.

UK’s Inclusive Growth journey 

This presentation to Economic Development New Zealand’s 2018 conference provides an overview of the development of inclusive growth thinking and practice in the UK. The presenter, Ben Lucas, was a member of the RSA’s Inclusive Growth Commission.