This webinar delves into the crucial topic of place-based strategies and how they can effectively tackle regional inequalities. It also explored how the alignment of good public financial management with non-financial factors can help drive impactful change.
CIPFA Chief Economist Jeffrey Matsu and his co-authors revealed their newest research publication, ‘Investing in regional equality: four English examples’.
This report offers insights gleaned from successful approaches adopted in international cities and city regions, drawing on four English examples.
All right thank you very much everyone uh for being patient my name is Jeff Matsu and I’m the chief Economist at Sia we welcome you today to our webinar we we will be discussing um the launch of our new report in partnership with the University of Birmingham um City Regional Economic Development Institute
Um the the theme of uh this webinar is around Regional inequalities and what governments can do uh to reduce them the thinking behind uh This research U evolved two years ago when we looked into 10 International examples of successful strategies that cities and city regions across the world have
Embraced um in their attempts to reduce inequalities in places in local places and we focused primarily on four places um fukoka and Japan non in France lepic in Germany and Cleveland in the US and through these examples we identified um some good practices but also some gaps in where public policy um
Has been uh useful in resolving some of these dislocations that local communities face the second stage which is the topic of uh today’s webinar is around mapping that to a UK content and um that was very important for us to kind of do it from that Global
Perspective to see what lessons the UK can learn because we often tend not just in the UK but in many countries to be quite introspective and looking at okay this is what we’re doing these are some of the steps that can be used to improve and we don’t always take the time or
Have the bandwidth to appreciate and understand what other places have done and why they’ve done it so we’ve contextualized that to four UK places um and those places as um you will see are um Enfield in um the four case studies that we’ve investigated are all based in
England uh two are local authorities and two are combined authorities the reason why we took that approach was to kind of have that um very on the ground look at what specific local places are doing and how they link up with um Regional partners and how both of these then
Collectively engage with central government and so it’s Enfield um Dudley in the West Midlands we have um the two combined authorities of South Yorkshire and uh teas Valley and so with me today um I’m very pleased uh to have uh three uh people who represent three of the case studies um we have
Uh Jonathan from the West Midlands combined Authority who will be reflecting on the experience of one of its local authorities Dudley uh we have Paul Johnson uh from South Yorkshire Mayo mayor combined Authority uh who will speak directly to um our case study on that we have Sarah from local London
Which is the regional partner of uh collection of local authorities based in greater London of which Enfield is one um but before we get to them I would like to turn over to my colleague Abigail Taylor who is a research fellow at the University of Birmingham uh City
Ready and she will um shed some light on some of the uh details that we unpacked in the four case studies so over to you Abby thanks very much Jeff um this diagram summarizes is our research approach um in this research we’ve examined the relevance of some of the
Key reasons for Success that we identified in the international work that Jeff has just described in the four um English case study areas Dudley Enfield South Yorkshire and teas Valley and the key questions um that we wanted to explore included which of the nine success factors that we identified
Internationally have been in evidence in England um which have worked well which have been somewhat successful which have not um worked at all and then what are the key barriers to success in the English context we selected these um case study areas as they’re of different sizes they’re located in different
Regions and they have buied governance structures and socioeconomic histories and the case studies are of relevance in identif policy learning in the context of the spring budget and the pending general election um in terms of methodology they’re based on an Evidence review and qualitative interviews that we conducted in each area um we
Interviewed a range of stakeholders from various scales um of government um from Academia stem assets business and education providers um the breakdown of the interviewing vared by case study and is detailed in our report um over the next few slides I’m going to draw out some of our key
Findings from each case study rather than going through all the points on the sides because we definitely don’t have time for that what I’m going to do is focus on two or three success factors and how they relate to each case study so um in terms of clear strategy and
Vision um Dudley uh led by the council have developed a creative creative and targeted approach to economic development through repurposing of Legacy assets the council um has brokered land transaction deals um with the black Country Living Museum and Dudley College a key anchor institution to spearhead um Redevelopment in the
Area uh in terms of adequate and responsive funding funding appears to be less responsive um in England than in our International case studies but we found examples of places trying um to develop responsive funding approaches um an example of an of um funding being somewhat challenging in dadley is how some national funding
Guidelines lines are not responding um well to local conditions so for example affordable housing subsidies tend to be kept at1 15,000 pounds per unit but um abnormally High development costs in Dudley as a result of land contamination and um the existence of M shafts mean that actually
Um uh subsidies of around 80,000 May um be required sorry just see that the slides are not coming up in presenter mode um I’ll just try and change that they are coming up in presenter mode on my screen um sorry just need to try and adjust that
Just try that again are they now in presenter mode can someone tell me no not yet because of the panel around the top I can’t actually click on it I’ll just stop sharing and be Shar I’m sorry about this um are they now in presenter mode it’s
Not in presenter mode but it’s in it’s we can’t see the notes but we can it’s still not in presenter mode see I don’t know why because here on my screen they are oh there oh no we went back no it’s not we went back to
That nope are you able to click on the top right uh top left of the orange bar at the top of your screen on the presenter icon on the left side of the orange bar you see there’s that uh oh to the left to the left left
Oh no on the orange bar itself you should see uh go to the left uh on the orange bar yeah a little to the left you see the ey cons for yeah there is that J it um no it hasn’t but I thought it might how about you just
Speak from where you are here because this is I think fine for the for the which slide are you on are you on we’re on the speaker uh slide if you advance forward to um so go back here uh dley yeah y yep I don’t know why that’s
Not working it’s making no difference when I um change I’m very sorry about this um so where was I up to had quate sponsive funding I think which was this second slide here um so as I was saying a challenge in Dudley is the um that affordable housing subsidies often are C at1
15,000 uh per unit but due to uh land contamination issues actually um uh subsidies of £80,000 may be required um and an example of an Innovative approach in dadley is how dadley Council are looking to co-commission a development plan with the West Midlands combined Authority in lie a brother um
Of Dudley um whilst this is at an early stage it could offer um opportunities uh to streamline resources and address capacity challenges um Dudley also illustrates how we found examples of um diversification in Dudley um this involved um building on the area’s manufacturing history um to move into very light
Rail are the slides moving with me yes the nfield yes okay um so compared to in our international Case Study areas we found few examples of long-term Investments um local authorities I think have been hindered by short-term funding and frequent policy change um where an example of how this has though been
Tried is how in Enfield Partners have collaborated on the long term um on the Meridian water development 20-year Housing and Development and heat network uh program and um long-term relationships between public public and private investors have been really important there yet um nonetheless um the program has been scaled back due to budget
Challenges the second really interesting finding um from Enfield relates to Shared political will and Partnerships um Enfield Council has demonstrated a proactive commitment to working in Partnership and collaborating it’s worked particularly well with um local London subnational Partnership of outer London um burs uh to address issues that transcend um local Authority boundaries
Such as employment support and Sarah muray from um local London is part of our panel so I’ll leave it to Sarah to go into specifics of that moving on then to our third case study South Yorkshire um a couple of points I wanted to highlight um from South Yorkshire in our International
Work we stress the role of key players in driving forward strategic initiatives and it’s the same here in South oia like in Te Valley um they it demonstrates how in England combined authorities um with an elected mayor are key players in coalescing City Regional Partners around shared goals
And a really good example of this is how in South Yorkshire the South Yorkshire Mar combined Authority um LED uh negotiations with central government um around uh as as well as um working with local uh stakeholders the coales stakeholders around a shared vision for scy oia’s recently announced Innovation
Z and Paul Johnson from scythia um m minders appe is also on our panel then um the two further points from Sy auction um we found local authorities and combined authorities have a detailed understanding of their local area strengths of weaknesses within them Devolution means that combined authorities have particular levers um
Although these are um less extensive than in um many of our International case studies um Simka has used its knowledge um when assessing um bids um for example to Pivot from focusing solely on conventional measures of um Economic Development to be more uh inclusive so for example um looking not
Just at the number of jobs created but at the quality of those jobs and then also um in terms of monitoring and evaluation I think overall this was one of the weaker um areas compared to in our International case studies and that’s because um a lack of capacity and
Short-term funding have meant that um this has been hindered in many areas so for example short-term funding can mean that monitoring and evaluation is added on after a project is developed veloped rather than from the start and then finally on to our last case study teas Valley te’s Valley
Offers learning in how local areas can develop a clear strategy and vision um supported by the te Valley maral combined Authority local authorities within the region have made progress in local have made progress in recent years in developing a distinct identity so for example um middleb has developed a strong identity around
Um a strong business focus with a growing office space whilst um Harley pool has developed its Leisure and cultural offer and what’s been important in this has been how combined Authority devolve funding such as the indigenous growth fund has been aligned well with national funding such as um the leveling
Up fund and the town’s deal also I think um local authorities realizing the importance of not duplicating um each other has been important and then um onto my final slide Keith Valley um Illustrated uh tenth factor that we identified in England transferable learning and knowledge exchange and regional and
Local stakeholders in Te Valley have um developed a rich learning culture which has been important in developing service provision um within the region um and also externally um with other regions such is how heartly pool has developed a mentoring partnership with North K St um Council and um designing
And utilizing investment Master plans I’ll stop there um Jeff and pass back to you thank you great thank you very much for that Abby and apologies for the technical issue uh sometimes these things happen it’s not a big deal because we carried on anyway um having said that so just to
Recap so this report and um builds off of the nine success factors we identified in the international Case Study work I referenced at the beginning of the webinar and those can be found on our website the sit for website if you just go to um the sit for web page and
Search for addressing Regional equalities um you’ll come up with not just the 2022 International case studies where we reviewed 10 different places but also the current four UK case studies as well and um so we built off of those nine success factors and in the current report we highlight that 10th
Factor around transferable learning and knowledge exchange and so um one of the per F uh a good example of sort of this transferable learning and knowledge exchange has been what’s happening in the West Midlands um they are are in the Vanguard of the Trailblazer Devolution um uh attempts by central government in
Terms of getting uh single funding pots to uh local places and they are also um planning for things like a strategic productivity partnership so a lot around this idea of um working with other players across the landscape not just focusing on um silos and so with me
Today or with us today is Jonathan Skinner who is the head of economic policy and Partnerships with the West Mills combined authority over to you Jonathan excellent thanks Jeff and uh yeah good afternoon now actually to to to everybody on the call so um as you’ve
Said um in fact it’s almost a uh a year ago exactly to the day that the West Midland um struck that deeper Devolution deal with government um on behalf of of kind of all of of its constituent authorities um and so in the context of
That I just wanted to be able to explore really a few of those specific kind of opportunities that it provides us within the West Midlands to be able to um ultimately secure better outcomes for our our places and our people um in terms of of kind of unpicking that and
In particular how that um work between the combined Authority Dudley uh Council in in in the instance of this case study and our wider partners um ensures that we’re able to to kind of deliver those outcomes um importantly I think it’s probably just useful to to to note that this specific activity that
I’ll go on to talk about in a second builds upon that um ongoing relationship um the kind of bilaterals the collective discussions that we kind of have regularly all built upon a really kind of strong shared evidence base where we kind of work with our our partners particularly through the the state of
The region report that kind of we do every year but the the um deeper Devolution deal um includes I think about 192 specific commitments um that we will will look into um I’m only going to focus on kind of two of those in in the few minutes that I have this morning
You’ll be reli to know um but they’re really around both the single settlement and what that means for uh kind of relationships and work between um the combined Authority and and a local Authority and then the development of the Strategic productivity um Partnership if you described so first of
All um the single settlement um is basically the uh approach to simplify and Empower uh much greater Regional uh collective decision making around the money that that kind of comes into the region um there was a memorandum of understanding struck in the Autumn statement um which sets out the scope
For the work that that we will be pursu ising and the single settlement will be based upon Five Pillars those are local growth in place transport skills housing and Net Zero um and through the next spending review process the region will uh negotiate a a a um an agreement with
Government across all of those pillars that really um kind of sets out what will be delivered and importantly giving the region and its constituent authorities the power to kind of flex and prioritize and plan um in a much kind of Greater way than has been done in the past uh around that
Issue um so right now we are in really intensive work with uh D and the government Department around exploring exactly what the scope of that activities are um in terms of the benefits of that particular for kind of Public Finance audience on on the call
Um obviously it it we hope that it will reduce the transaction costs some of the kind of problems that you you identified in the report around the the kind of cost and capability of some of the bidding work that we’ve seen um in many cases we we also hope that that then
Follows on into simplified reporting um you mention again the uh funding simplification pilot that happening locally but we want to do that in a kind of much bigger way across the the the region um but I think there’s a really vital element as well in the by empowering better planning that it also
Means that places can be able to take a much more informed and long-term approach um on kind of risk appetite um uh because the through some of the other arrangements that we have around the the kind of 10year business right retention that’s included in the um DEA Evolution
Deal that that means that constituent authorities can come together to be able to um across all of the functions of the uh single settlement be able to get and calibrate that right level of of kind of risk and reward that we want to see um in order to inform that activity um from
A kind of much more bottomup lens uh the combined authorities working with its Lo constituent local authorities on what we call place-based strategies so these will all articulate from a kind of place perspective what some of the particular kind of thematic priorities are in terms of those skills and transport and and
Kind of business productivity needs that I described before but that they were also be an opportunity for a place to be able to articulate the particular kind of spatial areas of development that that they see so that might be um particular kind of town centers um areas
Of spal development depending on on kind of what what local plans say um and in the West Midlands we’re really uh kind of delighted that that that that is another way for local authorities like Dudley to be able to kind of champion some of the um uh
Powers that have been kind of won through the dev deeper Devolution deal in terms of what we in the West Midlands call our leveling up zones and and kind of in in in national government is called the kind of growth zon so these are the areas of 25 years worth of of
Kind of uh retained business rates that give that opportunity for much more fundamental uh kind of intervention to be able to uh unlock the kind of growth particularly in you know really tricky or difficult or complex sites um I know that in Dudley’s case uh the kind of
Work is ongoing and and we’re developing that with the uh combined Authority at the moment um but yeah really delighted to see how that particularly focuses on some of the uh kind of town center work that they have been at the Vanguard of particularly cross I know Abigail
Mentioned the kind of lie work before but Halo and stbridge and rley Hill are also big elements of that um and I think that the kind of minute or two that I had left as well um I did also commit to to kind of say a few words about the
Strategic productivity partnership um so this is much more kind of rather than the the bottom uh kind of work that happens within the region um this is about ensuring that the West Midland’s voice is kind of heard um loud and clearly across uh Westminster um and really our our aim
For the Strategic productivity partnership is to um kind of secure a bit of a paradigm shift um so that business policy uh firm level uh kind of business support policy isn’t um kind of driven by a a whiteall version of what is a policy problem and then developing
A program to kind of solve that instead that from a place perspective we are able to put a business at the center of that system and then be able to ensure that there is a kind of single coherent conversation about what what the skills the exporting the access to finance the
Regulator issues the any business might be uh kind of experiencing at Key moments key trigger points in that business’s life cycle um and so that is is uh what we’re kind of seeking to achieve I think early indications are that government is interested in that activity um but that you know given kind
Of you know National politics really Keen to understand uh how we we make that happen um and so yeah just to finish off we’re keen that that that then uh underpins our approach to to kind of business productivity in a really experimental way how kind of in
The West Midlands and and and and perhaps in Greater Manchester too that we can uh do things uh in a slightly more empowered place-based business centered way than than has kind of been seen in government in the past because we know the evidence says um whether be
It be in Scotland or abroad that that is the way to to to kind of tackle some of the firm level productivity challenges that we have I think Jeff that’s probably my my clock up thanks thank you very much Jonathan uh for those really good insights of what’s Happening um not just
Within the combined Authority itself at a regional level but how it’s working with some of the um individual member authorities uh I would just like to um ask that anyone who has questions please post your questions in the Q&A box and we will um address all of the questions
At the end of the um the webinar towards the end of the webinar so as you have questions for each speaker please feel free to just post them you don’t need to wait till the end um and we will be Distributing a link to this recording the slides that we’ve presented and to
The report itself um once this webinar is completed so so um we will make sure that each of you have access to those resources so thank you very much Jonathan and next we’ll be moving to Paul Johnson who is the head of economic policy and strategic funding at South
Yorkshire mayoral combined Authority and he’ll be sharing um a bit about what they are doing in terms of developing Innovative funding streams with partners and also a bit of context around ma building capability and capacity around monitoring and evaluation over to you Paul thanks Jeff afternoon everyone yeah
As Jeff said I I look at South Yorkshire mayoral command Authority it just rolls off the tongue doesn’t it um so the two areas I want to talk about are yeah how we’re working as as Jeff alluded to with Partners but particularly around Innovation funding um and then the
Second B probably not the most glamorous element of regional economic develop development but still important around monitoring valuation um so on the first one in South Yorkshire in terms of I guess really how we’ve been working with Partners um for those that don’t know the region I guess if you’re looking
From the outside it’s South yorkshire’s always been I guess in Labour’s heartlands the local councils have always been labor had a labor May when the combined Authority was started um so from the outside you might look in and think oh well they always get along EAS be easy to collaborate develop
Relationships plan strategies to be honest that hasn’t always been the case and with the Devolution deal things in South Yorkshire that was on the table for a number of years due to local tensions um and actually I would say relationships in a much better State
Now in the region um not just with the local authorities I think with the universities they’ve always been pretty good between combined Authority and universities but they’ve been getting even better over recent years and I just think one it was definitely helpful when the Devolution deal was agreed with the
Government um because also when you’ve got moreone money at stake um funding and you got the local authorities have their influence over that that was really important I just think in terms of relationships um across the region now it’s in a much better place in terms of our submissions to government things
Like the budget Al statement definitely South yoria has um One voice now which maybe wasn’t always the case um but where that’s been really helpful particularly having a may I think one of the real benefits of having a an elected mayor is the convening powers that they
Bring um so we’ve been doing that particularly around investment um and that’s been helped in terms of some pretty honest discussions with the local authorities um with the four Lo authorities in the region and the combined Authority really G to a place of acting as five equal partners and
That’s been helpful and actually having some maybe some quite difficult conversations at times of clear roles and responsibilities of what the ca should focus on and what the local authorities should focus on um and investment was definitely one more for the local author for the combined Authority sorry um so what we’ve been
Doing is particular with the private sector but also with big public sector investors as well of trying to convene and um really work together in a much better way like I saying with the universities and local authorities have been doing so some quite interesting developments I guess in south yor over
The last couple of years we signed a 500 million pound um agreement with South yoria pensions authority of how they can invest more of their funds into the region more of a place-based approach to that uh We’ve also ROM mou with the Viva of how they can invest with a base in in
South auction how they can invest in the economic development of the region and we’re also working with other institutional investors another element of that is we’ve been working really closely with UK infrastructure bank with British Business Bank uh with homes England and also with innovate UK and ukri because all all of these
Institutions do have invest a lot of money in terms of that there isn’t always a shortage of cap especially around capital investment um but it’s how can we better Corral all these different funding organizations into I guess in the investment strategy of having a more place-based approach to that um so we’ve
Been working close with those Partners we also been working with that with um with government very closely particularly D we had a session again one of the benefits of having a m been able to bring all these Partners together and get the chief exec and Senior People in one room together so in
November we hosted with the look and treasury um a session with all those organizations I just mentioned and we had contributions from Michael Gold from the chief secretary to the treasury um of really how we can better work together in South yoria to get a place-based um INF investment strategy
Particularly around some of our Innovation Side Access to funding some of our capital investment around housing um so we we’ve really been trying to make strides with that and the chancell alluded to this in the Autumn statement trying to test this in Pilots across the country whereas I think South Yorkshire
Would’ve been trying to be on the Forefront with all of this um that’s been re re really positive it’s not always been easy actually particularly around the Innovation side because in South Yorkshire out of innovate UK sou yor does really well out of in innovate
UK investment I think if you look at the spend ahead we do better than greater Manchester uh West Yorkshire and other areas but actually most of our money goes to the university and particular we got s to the Catapult some of you might know the advanced manufacturing Research
Center and and we’re really happy with that but the ratio of our investment is two to one public to private in most areas it’s the other way around of two to one private to public um we want more to go into industry we want more to be
Spread around the region you look at some of the big Investments by inovate UK over the last five years there’s been more investment into one post cod in Sheffield than barns in Doncaster put together so we’ve been trying to work with some of those uh with innovate UK
And UK about how we can get a more place-based approach to investment get more money into the businesses and Industry that that need it um as you can imagine so those discussions aren’t always the easiest but when you’ve got a mayor who can convene and you have a
Session with um Michael go and others and all Chief exective other organizations it’s quite hard to them push back so there’s definite benefits of being able to have those convenient powers and bring together so this collaborative approach we been trying to improve in the region um yeah we’ve been
Trying to do that not just with our local Authority Partners but with the private sector with government and other public sector investors as well um so we’re trying to make big strides in that and try and um I guess as the MCA we’ve taken approach as well our investment is
Often been quite transactional in the past around grant funding around investing in roads and infrastructure Investments for some big Logistics sites but actually we’ve not really turned around our economy so we’re trying to do things in a different way of how we can do our investment a bit differently to
Try and turn around some of those um decades long um economic inequalities we’ve had and the second point I wanted to talk about was around monitoring and evaluation as as I mentioned not always maybe the the the top thing that people might talk about what needs to change
But actually for us at the combined Authority and our relationship with government um it’s it’s not always easier and there’s been huge capacity constraints within the combined Authority and local authorities but definitely this is almost a plea to government as well and um in terms of
This that we can have they can do this a lot better so for example early notice of monitoring evaluation requirements will be immensely helpful you often get new funding programs that they’re designed by government departments with very limited consideration of the monitoring evaluation they want from that program these requirements need to
Be known and planned before any delivery commences it makes it easier for us for command authorities and local authorities to plan for that and get the right right capacity and resource in place um and another issue as well is not having a defined set of core and supplementary performance indicators um
We’re important different indicators this can change even within program you might have D asking for one thing and then defra asking for slightly different thing I know in the UK share Prosperity fund you’ve got the skills element with DFE and then you’ve got the multiply slightly different again that’s not
Helping things but I think actually having if all combined authorities had a defined list of comes and outputs um that would having that core set of indicators will be much much better and I think single Pock is an opportunity for that that’s how the regional development agencies worked it allows
More comparison across other areas and performance of programs and also allows and enables command authorities and local authorities to plan for that and the last bit as well is is um is in terms of Education and Training on evaluation methods um we’re not alone in this combined authorities recruitment is
Hard businesses the public sector across the economy at the moment but it’s very difficult to recruit staff with experience or skills in research methods data analysis program and program program evaluation um experience of assurance it’s it’s really difficult so I think equipping pro project managers and coordinators with the skills for
Evaluation will be really helpful I think building that in with government would be a big advantage to especially it’s combined authorities trying to recruit the right kind of staff and improve the skills of people working in this area um so it’s it’s even I say it’s not the most exciting element of um
Economic Development it’s um this report did allude to it that monitor and evaluation is is an important part of it I think I’ll leave it there Jeff I’m back to you thank you very much Paul very insightful and next I would like to move over to our final speaker Sarah Murray
Who is the director of local London which is a subregional partnership of of nine Northeast and Southeast London borrows um Sarah you’ve worked with a number of Partners um across this uh subregional partnership that link with um other groups such as attemps Estuary growth board and UK Innovation quarter
Could you speak a bit about those types of partnership workings and looking at the Q&A we’re also starting to get lots of questions around um the design of funding schemes um lead effective outcomes um so over to you Sarah thanks Jeff and thanks Abby so as
You say I’m going to speak about how Enfield is actively collaborating across bar boundaries and is Levering investment and support through this kind of subregional working and Beyond in a way that it might struggle to if uh try if it was trying to work on its own given its capacity constraints I’ll I’ll
Also talk as you say thanks to the prompt about um the learning from buron subal funding uh from national parks in particular and how the funding regimes in the future need to be better designed to meet local needs um I’ve structuring my comments around the key success factors identified in your your 2022
Report because I found those quite useful so thanks for that um just by way of context and background Enfield is part of the fastest growing sub regions of London um and yet as an outer London burough it really isn’t reaping many of the benefits of London as a global
Globally competitive City uh so for example res Enfield residents don’t benefit from the public transport infrastructure that many of you be familiar with um and are enjoy by residents of of inner London bars uh particularly orbital connections are very difficult and that’s a constraint for for businesses um and also by way of
Comparison to the mar combined Authority examples that you’ve heard about uh Devolution in London rests primarily with greater London Authority um however sub region Partners have have evolved as kind of voluntary structures to enable buroughs to be able to engage uh with GLA and and relevant parts of government
Uh and in particular with funding streams so srps of regional Partnerships have evolved uh to become an effective channel for targeting external funding uh initially EU funding and over time many streams of the gr L authorities pots and national funding are being designed and devolved uh to be delivered
At um by sub Regal Partnerships in London though it should be said that uh none of the srps in London have uh any of the devolved Powers um that will be familiar to those in Marl combined authorities I suppose I should also say just what is local London so it’s a
Subregional partnership of nine barers to the Northeast and southeast of the capital we’ve got a population about 2.6 million altogether uh on 100,000 um businesses um and the fundings as we said we will talk about afterwards come from a range of sources um including the meril business retention Strategic
Investment po uh sh UK share Prosperity fund uh dwp’s work in health program and and others um I’ll just touching moving on to the the the theme of shared political will and partnership which was brought out in in your report and in the slides um Enfield is a really engaged
And active member of our subal partnership um and has got really strong leadership so for example councelor kisin is a leading member on London councils um with the the skills remit and until very very recently actually she was also SK chairing our skills and employment board at local London um
We’ve got a chief executive board and that’s shared by the CEO of Enfield um and uh Enfield is a really active member of the UK Innovation Corridor and I’ll touch on what that is now resulting in um but nfield like many London bars and indeed local authorities have seen
Significant Cuts over the years which is really limiting its ability to to deliver um and that came out in in your report um however as part of the upper Le Valley Opportunity area and that’s a designation that that’s in the London plan uh Enfield is exploring opportunities to share capacity with its
Neighboring bars of walon forest and haringay um which will both adjust capacity deficits in all of those Burrows and enable the three oper London up upper Le Valley Burrows to work more closely together on common areas like inward investment um for example just touching on scales
Uh at a subal level we undertook uh an elip local skilles Improvement plan these have been undertaken around the country um and it was a really collaborative exercise um which has provided an Evidence base for Enfield as well as all the other local London Burrows which means that Enfield doesn’t
Necessarily need to develop its own skills strategy or if it does it can drill into that existing evidence base which makes for a more coste effective exercise so for example one sector which um although isn’t one of the biggest uh sectors uh employment sectors in in our
Sub region but is growing importance uh in Enfield and and actually in in its neighboring local Authority areas is the film and TV production sector um and therefore we decided it should be prioritized in the elip and in the subsequent LF which is the funding stream that DF is is rolling out to
Support the development and delivery of the elip um in addition to delivering programs designed to support buroughs loand is providing a narrative uh for the buroughs to use to support their individual investment needs for example transport infrastructure needs for the uh the sub region to support its growth
And I think really what what we’re saying is that by working in Partnership when resources are really really stretched these kind of resources like our data warehouse which is s your report provide a wraparound support for our priorities now turning to uh invest ing for the long term and as your report
Sets out the Meridian water Housing Development is one of the largest regeneration sites in London uh which together with the council owned energetic company has the capacity to be really transformational for communities um it’s a six billion pound 20-year regeneration project aiming to create 10,000 new homes and 6,000 jobs quality
Jobs um and develop a district heating Network how however the short-termism of Public Funding and the design of national programs is is failing to match that that long-term strategic Vision um and this uh and we’re seeing this across other regeneration pro programs across London um however I think you know
Having had that that strategic uh plan in place undoubtedly helped Enfield to be ready and able to compete uh for one of the very very few allocations um of of leveling up f funding uh that London attracted in in all of the three rounds and it it came through and the third
Round recently attracted 11.9 million there were only two London uh projects approved in that thir third and final round um which turns me to the theme of adequate and responsive funding which is fundamentally what our local authorities need to be able to direct investment and structure um structure it in a way that
Meets the needs of communities and I have to say that you know from our engagement with all of our burs and taking all of that learning the national uh current the funds for supporting local growth um do not meet that need and particularly UKF and the leveling up
Fund um so what we’ve done is taking that learning and experience from burs who have either bid successfully or indeed unsuccessfully for funding we’ve put together a series of recommendations for our leaders to consider consider in the next uh weeks and months um to use in their engagement
With both local Lo London government and central government and lead up to the the the the the relevant elections and because much of of the funding that we are involved with and and burs are are uh relying upon is coming to an end in 2025 and and are facing a cliff Edge
Indeed the one and only year of ukpf um funding for people in skills means that as stand the staff that are only starting to to work on that particular strand are already being put at notice of redundancy so what we’ve done is we’ve we’ve pulled out and I’ll just
Mention a couple of the the strands that um of the themes that that came through uh that what we want to see in in the next future funding regime um it needs to be longterm it needs to have a program approach it needs to be at least
Five years uh long with with continuity built in to endure to ensure stability through political change we we need a me mixture of Revenue and capital to ensure that for example the employment of skills outcomes um can be delivered as part of a longer term Capital infrastructure project um indeed the the
Learning that uh colleagues have talked about is is not often built into National programs as the uh Committee of Public hands rep recently reported um I’ll just uh give one final example of how we are working to adapt National Frameworks to address local needs and uh
Just going to cite one of our uh programs which we’re delivering in Enfield and across the sub region um we have a digital infrastructure program which is uh funded through uh the gla’s the maral Sip program and what we’ve done with that is help Enfield and other burs build a high-speed dark fiber
Network um because essentially there’s been market failure in digital infrastructure which is so fundamental to uh addressing productivity and and other challenges such as the digital divide um this work has really turned the tide and got Market players interested we’ve leave in between 50 to 100% additional investment from
Operators um but also and most importantly it’s shun a light on um uh the the the the national project gigabit program which um isn’t uh currently able to be accessed by urban area so we’re now in a really constructive conversation on the back of that evidence that we have to show how we
Need project gigabit um BD UK’s National program to be able to be accessed by urban areas not just in London but beyond um I’ll I’ll pause there but I suppose the only other project which I think is worth mentioning about in terms of that collaboration point is how enfields now working with Walton
Foreston and Harring gate and the national productivity Institute is um is going to be able to deliver uh very soon a place-based uh productivity initiative um and again Levering in that great National resource um in Manchester um and and really Drive productivity in the sub region but I’ll pause there because
Run over time thanks thank you very much Sarah um at this point we will um open up to the Q&A session we already have a number of questions that have come through if you have a question please uh post it in the Q&A box and I will um try to get through
As many of them as we have as we can over the next few minutes um um one of the first questions I want to ask um is around um the question comes from Jack Newman and it’s how do we ensure funding policies for Local Economic Development also contribute to other priorities
Examples Public Health Green um inequalities um anyone care to answer that um clearly we’re in an environment with very tight spending envelopes um not much more more money is likely to come through that pipeline so how do we make sure that we’re not taking like a tunnel vision
Siloed approach but we’re trying to find and maximize spillovers across the types of projects that were engaged at a local level who would like to take that question Sarah I’m happy to J in there Jeff just very briefly just to say that I think this is a really good example of
Your your 10th recommendation about promoting knowledge exchange uh because we do have less resources but by working together whether that’s across different sectors or using channels like in our case uh tempestry growth board UK Innovation card or productivity Institute um Center for cities use and and exchange those ideas and share um
Share learning between uh really great people in the NHS or diff different parts of of the system to be able to to maximize the impact of the small resources that we have great thank you Paul do you want to jump in yeah thanks Jeff um yeah I think yeah
Jack I think you linked to your other question as well um in the chat as well there but I think actually in terms of what we’re trying to do in South Yorkshire of um you know trying to contribute to other priorities like public health that’s a big priority for
Our May and inequalities um we’re trying to focus we’ve got chuch approach for more of an economy that’s not just stronger but Greener and fairer um it’s quite hard when you’ve got national funding poorts that aren’t always designed in that way um so for example S I mentioned ear the UK share Prosperity
Fund there was more options than before than what we got under erf but it’s still you still going to dance to government’s tune on that if it was true Devolution and you could decide what’s right for your area you’ve got more flexibility over that and also the kind
Of the whole monitoring Reporting System that’s in place at National level it’s more about you end up especially through UK SPF again you end up delivering schemes that are more deliverable rather than transformational and actually given local areas and Regional areas more say over the design of it but also how they
Report it they should still be held accountable but actually the the kind of the the the difference between the regional and the national approach this it’s not married and that makes it tricky I think so that that does need to change with true Evolution I would suggest thanks for that um next question
Is from Helen Martin who asks um she’s interested to hear views on how money redirected from hs2 um that the nearly four billion from that um has affected the Midlands and the North and I guess this question is much broader in the sense of um mapping to our fifth success factor around
Adequate and responsive funding when opportunities sort of emerge in this really tight fiscal environment that we are in and have been for the past 12 or so years how agile are we in reshaping how funds are used Jonathan would you like to jump in on that
Question uh yes so um as you said Jeff there’s probably kind of at least two layers to to kind of dis answer one is the I guess the kind of the the technical accounting of of kind of where the money has gone and I know that certainly in the West Middle things like
The um West Midland rails Hub was was kind of one of the uh beneficiaries from that but I think that you know your your point is kind of more more strategic and longlasting which is kind of as a country um can we ensure that all you know um both nationally regionally and
Locally kind of significant infrastructure activity is kind of um bed and delivered with a a kind of a better pipeline of funding kind of rather than than kind of chopping and changing and looking at this mix in a slightly different way so um I mean yeah
I I think that that is is vital and also that and I guess you know particularly uh following on from some of the work that we did in the West Midlands kind of just last week looking at the impact of actually the kind of hs2 announcement um
Certainly the bit that that is being built now um that that that certainty kind of gives the private sector confidence to invest as well um and being able to um yeah ensure that both the kind of the quantums uh what it’s going to be used for and then um you
Know where there are those those kind of development opportunities particularly kind of Helen will will know in Dudley um uh you know how some of then the kind of The Wider Metro connectivity benefits and connects kind of some of those Town centers that I was discussing earlier
That I think that that all together adds up to a bigger much more compelling story that that that certainly combined authorities local authorities and others need to be able to um ensure that this levers that private sector investment too thank you very much Jonathan that’s quite insightful um we are running out
Of time and I want to make sure I can do a wrap up so I’ll just kind of reflect on a couple of other questions that I see that were quite interesting one was around um the role of consultants in the whole process of local government engagement with funding that comes from
Central government um Consultants obviously play a key role in the sense that um if you downsize of funding and overall resource to local communities then it’s very difficult for them to respond in a Consolidated way when opportunities arise and that’s a big point that we highlight in our report that when you
Hollow out some of this capacity it’s very difficult for it to come back when say funding is only available for 12 months so that institutional capacity and memory is something that we really need to uh nourish and sustain um it’s can’t be a one-off because that’s just
Not how that’s just not how any organization public or private operates um so in the meanwhile um many uh local authorities are reliant on external capacity and that is um uh costly and um in many in many cases it can lead to um embedding some of these inequalities across places that don’t necessarily
Have the funds to access external resource um and finally there was another really good point around um local community engagement and the health of local democracy um and I think this is a point that we all need to kind of really think about that it’s not just about the economy and finances but
People really need to feel connected to some of the issues that we’ve discussed um during this webinar and that we discuss a lot more in detail in the report how connected do uh local people feel how do we make them feel more connected Ed um so I’ll just leave those
As kind of thought points that we can all reflect on just due to some time constraints so in um conclusion I just want to wrap up with some of the key takeaways and recommendations we have from the report um there’s five of them one is around this concept of
Insufficient funding so that percolates down to a lot of the problems that appear not just near term but much longer term as well if we’re not investing in things that are preventative in nature for example because those are the first things that get cut then that creates a
Lot of pressure for uh what happens in our services whether that’s in health care um our our social care system even in within housing Supply homelessness and people who rough sleep um a second uh observation is around capacity we really need to make sure that we have
That capacity there so that we don’t have um uh highs and lows that this volatility that kind of reflects the uncertain environment in which we’ve been living over particularly the past few years learning is the third Point um we’ve discussed that quite at length during this uh conversation today and
That’s that we need to be working with each other um but that when there’s so much that’s being asked of local government and there isn’t sufficient capacity to do that level of work then it becomes a challenge for local authorities and combined authorities to do that knowledge exchange that is
Really really important for productive outcomes longer term we need more flexibility in funding structures so less small pots and less things that you know last only 12 months those things um aren’t particularly helpful for practitioners in local government and that is something that we work um continuously with central government to
Address and the fifth and final sort of observation is around collabor collaboration and Partnerships and we’ve heard from all of our panelists today how important that really is we’ve heard how that works within example such as local London um we know that works within combined authorities in some
Cases better than other and that’s where um sort of leadership and vision is really really important to make sure that we support the leaders of these places so that they can help sort of Corral and motivate um the individual Partnerships within a collective organization
So that was sort of a wrapup of uh this discussion today uh thank you very much for to all of you for joining us thank you very much to our panelists um in terms of next steps we have we always want to make sure that it’s not just
We’re talking about here and now but that we have an eye to the Future there’s a few things I just wanted to share briefly um we will be initiating some work around um Devolution approaches um with the University of Birmingham and we will be partnering in this work looking at what’s happening in
Japan specifically Ally the city of Osaka which is um one of the larger cities in Japan and we’ll be contextualizing that with um Birmingham and seeing how these two places have um evolved their Devolution approaches and we think uh that should hopefully um give us insights not just to these two
Places but those will be two examples of what works and um the sequencing of how uh these structur should be put in practice um to other places across the UK as well we’ll have a forthcoming uh paper coming out in partnership with uh the University of Oxford blatnik school
Where we’ll be looking at um how we monitor funding and performance and outcomes um with a specific example the leveling up fund um so we will be kind of again this maps to our monitoring and evaluation uh theme that we have in this report and last but not least we have
The lpip Hub which has already launched as of last year um I always forget what lpip the acronym stands for Abby do you want to just jump in What what was lpip for it was local PRI local anyway um we have this Alit Pub which is a policy Innovation partnership
Yes and it is an esrc funded grant that lasts for three years and we will be working with four L Pips from each one each from the four um Nations and we’ll be working with them in terms of how they want to tackle some of these issues
That we’ve been talking today around um socioeconomic issues and so please uh visit the lpip hub web page which is being hosted by the University of Birmingham and has a um about a dozen or 15 Partners involved in that uh National Endeavor so thank you very much again to
Jonathan Skinner from the West mland combined Authority Paul Johnson from the south Yorkshire mayoral combined Authority sari Murray from local London and from Abigail Taylor from the University of Birmingham city ready have a great day guys byebye