The Work Foundation

Year of publication: 2012

This report discusses whether economic and regeneration policy should be more focused on people rather than places.

It investigates two questions:

1. What were the successes and failures of regeneration and economic development under the ‘old’ regime?

2. What does this imply for whether policy should focus on people, places or both?

The report covers regional and urban policy up until 2012, with particular focus on Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and the New Deal for Communities (NDC) and the impact these policies had during their lifetime. Local Enterprise Partnerships were the government’s new economic development policy at the time of the report.

It concludes that RDAs and NDC had limited success, and the challenges ahead require an approach aimed at supporting both people and places.

Recommendations include:

• Strengthening Local Enterprise Partnerships, citing the combined authority model of Greater Manchester;
• Joining things up locally with community and place-based budgeting;
• Focusing policy on skills and mobility of people, and
• Learning and building on what has gone before and adapting them for the future.

Content type: Economy

Tags: Report

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