The Inclusive Growth Network will focus on reducing inequalities, alleviating poverty and improving productivity in communities across the UK.

There can be fewer more important or tricky challenges facing the British economy than levelling up the performance of our towns and cities by kickstarting the innovation economy.

The 2020 Public Services Commission started its work in 2008, and our final report was published in the early months of the Cameron Coalition Government. We spanned two governments and the greatest financial crash of modern times.

This is not yet the worst recession in modern history, but there is a very good chance that it could be. In April, unemployment spiked with the one-month increase in new claimants rising at its fastest rate since 1947.

The economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are set to be vast. Recent forecasts from the Bank of England suggest that UK GDP could fall by over 25% in Q2, with unemployment rising to 9%[1], despite almost 9 million jobs being supported by the Government’s furlough scheme. These are eye-watering figures.

How has Covid-19 changed how we move around in cities? And will people go back to them when it's over? Watch our video explainer.

Most local authorities have recorded cases of Covid-19, but some have recorded more than others. Metro Dynamics has explored the relationship between the levels of deprivation and the rate of cases of Covid-19 across local authorities.

Today’s events, as we are repeatedly told, are unprecedented. No-one can say with confidence how this pandemic will pan out, in terms of duration, severity, and impacts on the wider economy.

One of the first commitments made by the new government since the December 2019 election, and previously in their manifesto, is to re-balance the UK economy and “level up” the regions. In short, this means to raise the level of economic performance across the country and reduce regional inequality.

Towns are now in the policy spotlight.The reasons for this are all too clear: Brexit; the productivity puzzle; economic inequality; the decline of traditional high streets; and, a concern about what this means for local and national culture and identity.

Last Thursday, as the starting gun was sounded on UK’s general election campaign, every front page of every local newspaper in the North of England carried the same message: whoever wins, this election must close the North-South divide. 

What do 21st century London and 2,000 BCE Babylon have in common? It turns out, the answer is “quite a lot” as Monica Smith, Professor of Anthropology at UCLA argues in her book Cities: the first 6,000 years.

Amidst all the discussion surrounding the newly released deprivation data for England, one finding stands out – wherever you are, there are clear correlations between the different “domains” of deprivation.

The release of the English Indices of Deprivation provides a base from which to track the country’s progress since 2015, both socially and economically. An EU referendum and three Prime Ministers later, the past four years have brought with them two simple, but interesting questions: What has changed, and where has it changed?

Think about a simple agrarian economy, with only very basic technology. Individuals grow crops and trade them, bartering for other things they need.