Industry Strategy - Two Cheers

BY Mike Emmerich

The much awaited Industrial Strategy Green Paper has arrived. The Metro Dynamics team have run the rule over it, looking at what’s in it and what it means. Two cheers rather than three is our view. It’s a start and not a bad one at all, but it’s what happens next that matters most.  And that needs local places as much as central government to be bold with their ideas and proposals.

It’s hard to argue that the Green Paper is, in essence, wrong. But it’s equally hard to argue that the Government or indeed places have yet to rise as fully as we need to the challenges facing post-Brexit Britain.  On the one hand this is fair enough, those implications are not yet clear.  But the nation is hungry for a new approach to business and growth. The Government has fed us a little, and yet as we digest the voluminous Green Paper sandwich it has offered, we’re left wondering: where’s the meat? The Green Paper is very necessary indeed. But is it sufficient?

Green paper - Industry Strategy

By Ben Walters

On the 23rd January, the government released a green paper on its new Industrial Strategy, as a public consultation. This is the first major strategy since the new government, and further clarifies the changing economic approach that will be taken over the coming years. It continues an increase in interventionist policies (such as the 2016 Autumn Statement), as well as a focus on regional inequality and productivity. While the main influences of these policies (Theresa May, Greg Clark and Phillip Hammond for the Autumn Statement) of the strategy were not ‘Leavers’, they are all seen as governments response to the referendum, and how to adapt the economy to best meet the challenges and opportunities this presents. 

Inclusive growth: the new challenge

By Ben Lucas

At the Core Cities Summit last week, city leaders were understandably frustrated by the suggestion that inclusive growth is on the agenda because of the EU referendum.They didn’t need Brexit to tell them that the economy is not delivering for their residents. But, as chief market strategist for Britain and Europe at JP Morgan Asset Management, Stephanie Flanders, said to those leaders, Brexit has created a unique opportunity to change our economic model

Prime minister Theresa May has said her number one priority is to develop an ‘economy that works for everyone’. In her speech on becoming prime minister she asked to be judged on the extent to which she succeeds in this.

Metro Dynamics supports the newly launched West Midlands Land Commission

Metro Dynamics are acting as strategic advisor and secretariat to the West Midlands Land Commission (WMLC). The role of the West Midlands Land Commission is to take a fresh look at matters affecting the West Midlands' land supply.

The commission will provide independent advice and recommendations to the authority as it seeks to secure an improved and balanced supply of land to meet its goals for economic growth, new jobs and housing.

Dark Fibre Cities – the upside of Brexit

By Caroline Haynes

There aren’t a lot of jokes about regulators. Here’s one. A regulator marches into a compliance manager’s office and slams down a stack of 3,331 complaints. He yells that the (banking/pharma/telecoms) company has until next Friday to respond. “And if we don’t?” “You’ll have 3,332 complaints” the regulator responds sheepishly and slinks out.

Last week, yet another UK regulator followed the script of that joke. Following an extensive investigation, Ofcom, the communications regulator, has decided to leave BT’s quasi monopoly over the UK’s broadband infrastructure essentially unchanged. This is not just bad news for the country. It is really bad news for UK cities.

City leaders need to channel spirit of Chamberlain

By Ben Lucas

This is a moment of great risk and opportunity for British cities.  Post EU referendum, post Cameron and Osborne, the stakes have never been higher.  Cities have patiently and persuasively made the case for rebalancing growth and power, and for devolution to combined authorities with Metro Mayors.  They now face some big challenges, as we set out in Adieu: the impact of Brexit on British Cities - on EU funding, trade, investment, universities and the progress of their devolution deals.

The Search for Inclusive Growth

By Mike Emmerich 

 

To the ambition of growth, long the goal of local policy makers, have been added a variety of qualifying adjectives over the years. Sustainable growth, having once been a fad has now entered the lexicon as an established term of art referring to a growth imperative that is environmentally responsible yet also in some sense socially responsible, building communities that people want to live in. Today, our concern is with socially inclusive growth.