Deep Place Engagement

We believe that places must be central to understanding barriers to inclusive growth

Places are our communities, our homes, our jobs. From social care to skills, housing and planning, local economic development and inward investment, place is at the heart of peoples’ lives and must be key to understanding barriers to inclusive growth and opportunities for system change. Inclusive growth must build on the assets and opportunities of place.

Deep partnership working is central to how the Centre for Progressive Policy achieves real world impact. Working with our local partners from across the UK, we devise effective, innovative and pragmatic solutions to increase productivity and shared prosperity for people and places.

CPP has been working with WMCA and partners to design and set up a new Inclusive Growth Unit for the city-region, which is now in its early stages. CPP continue to support its development through strategic advisory and research capacity, helping WMCA to identify actions for inclusive growth and drive impact. Additionally, CPP are part of the WMCA Inclusive Growth Expert Advisory Panel which advises the Unit alongside other city region stakeholders.

CPP provides strategic advisory and research capacity to support the establishment of the new North of Tyne Combined Authority Inclusive Growth Board, in partnership with Metro Dynamics. As part of this, we have been working to explore options for bringing in additional funding into the combined authority to pursue inclusive growth objectives. In addition, we are building on our skills mismatch analysis to offer a firm evidence base on the supply and demand for skills to design and deliver effective inclusive growth interventions in the local labour market.

Deep dive research is at the heart of our partnership with the West of England Combined Authority, where our focus is on skills and labour market analysis to support the development of their local industrial strategy and wider approaches for inclusive economic growth in the region.

In Bristol we are supporting the development of an inclusive growth strategy and action plan, as well as the ongoing establishment of the innovative City Office model for whole-place leadership and governance. In addition, we conduct research on particular groups or ideas in order to co-design testable propositions for inclusive growth in the city. We are also working with the City Office’s wider partners to help design outcome measure for social investors in Bristol.

CPP is working with the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership to identify how skills provision in the area can be better aligned to the needs of local businesses and help to achieve inclusive growth. CPP and D2N2 are currently exploring how the skills mismatch data could be best used to better align the supply and demand for skills in the area.

In Chicago we are working together with the RSA US and Coda Societies to set up a group of inclusive growth champions and to shape a shared vision for the city and wider metropolitan region. This project also seeks to develop potential pilots and metrics to drive forward inclusive growth over the short – longer term.