Blog

The Heseltine Institute blog provides a space for policymakers, practitioners and academics to share their aspirations, knowledge and policy ideas across a range of topics to influence and inform public policies for tomorrow's cities and city regions.

Blogs from our archive can be accessed here.


 

 

Things might actually get better: Trends, discontinuities and the future for ‘Levelling Up’Things might actually get better: Trends, discontinuities and the future for ‘Levelling Up’

Things might actually get better: Trends, discontinuities and the future for ‘Levelling Up’

While the immediate economic outlook is certainly gloomy, the medium-term outlook is better.

Posted on: 15 February 2024

Untangling the effect of insecure work on local economic performance: towards a new research agendaUntangling the effect of insecure work on local economic performance: towards a new research agenda

Untangling the effect of insecure work on local economic performance: towards a new research agenda

Insecure work can have a cost for individuals, but how does insecurity affect local economies? This blog proposes a new direction for future research, that quantifies the effect insecurity is having locally in order to inform new approaches to improving the quality – and not just quantity – of work.

Posted on: 6 February 2024

The Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review: can ‘transformational’ growth be delivered? The Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review: can ‘transformational’ growth be delivered?

The Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review: can ‘transformational’ growth be delivered?

Heseltine Institute Research Associate Dr Tom Arnold reflects on the new Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review and discusses whether the right policy levers are available to deliver the ‘transformational’ economic growth it proposes.

Posted on: 7 December 2023

The 2023 Party Conferences: long-term decisions for next year’s electionThe 2023 Party Conferences: long-term decisions for next year’s election

The 2023 Party Conferences: long-term decisions for next year’s election

With both the Conservative and Labour party conferences visiting the North West over recent weeks, Heseltine Institute Research Associate Dr James Hickson considers what the key announcements from both parties suggest about the state of play ahead of the next general election.

Posted on: 17 October 2023

The case for social broadbandThe case for social broadband

The case for social broadband

By providing social broadband through cheaper tariffs, so the argument goes, we can overcome the vagaries of digital exclusion and poverty.

Posted on: 26 September 2023

The Power of Plans - in Shenzhen, Dublin and New YorkThe Power of Plans - in Shenzhen, Dublin and New York

The Power of Plans - in Shenzhen, Dublin and New York

In three unmissable podcasts with international guests, Profs. Lucy Natarajan at UCL and Ian Wray at the Heseltine Institute explore what makes for a powerful plan.

Posted on: 15 August 2023

Do We Need a Plan for England?Do We Need a Plan for England?

Do We Need a Plan for England?

Back in the 2000s an enthusiastic Regional Development Agency chair went to visit his responsible Minister and asked if we could have a national spatial plan. The response was telling: ‘Oh, we don’t want one of those. Everybody would be able to see what we were doing’. Recently an eminent transport planner made a similarly downbeat point: ‘We are so far adrift on coherent strategic thinking (our strategy is to make it up as you go along) that a spatial plan looks like a fantasy. Maybe it’s something we could get to, after development of a set of coordinated measures’.

Posted on: 21 June 2023

Revealing the political foundations of the UK’s COVID-19 crisisRevealing the political foundations of the UK’s COVID-19 crisis

Revealing the political foundations of the UK’s COVID-19 crisis

To celebrate the launch of COVID-19 and the Case Against Neoliberalism: The United Kingdom’s Political Pandemic, co-author James Hickson provides an overview of the book’s central arguments and its implications for post-pandemic policymaking.

Posted on: 4 May 2023

Unleashing imaginative power in the Liverpool City RegionUnleashing imaginative power in the Liverpool City Region

Unleashing imaginative power in the Liverpool City Region

In the second of a two-part blog, Heseltine Institute Visiting Fellow Mark Swift discusses how policymakers can work with communities to harness imagination. Highlighting a range of positive examples from Liverpool City Region, the blog also identifies a variety of strategies designed to promote imaginative policymaking.

Posted on: 20 January 2023

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