Making the case for culture: rethinking how we value the creative industries in Liverpool City Region
Recent University of Liverpool graduate and current Heseltine Institute intern Martha Cook assesses the place of creative industries in the UK’s industrial strategy and discusses the potential to rethink how we value culture.
Posted on: 11 July 2025
Unlocking social imagination: breaking free from fatalism
In part two of a three-part series on social imagination, Heseltine Institute visiting fellow Mark Swift discusses the importance of tackling fatalism in public policy.
Posted on: 8 July 2025
Community organising – part of a renewed vision for higher education?
Just over six months on from Liverpool Citizens’ Founding Assembly, this week we joined over fifty delegates from health, community, housing and education organisations from across Liverpool to hear about the progress made across towards change.
Posted on: 26 June 2025
Unlocking social imagination: reawakening the public sector’s capacity to transform
In the first of a three-part series, Heseltine Institute visiting fellow Mark Swift discusses the importance of imagination in policy development.
Posted on: 17 June 2025
Local Growth Plans: challenges and opportunities
As Local Growth Plans are developed by combined authorities across England, Tom Arnold highlights the challenges and opportunities associated with developing these strategies.
Posted on: 9 May 2025
Driving growth and overcoming barriers in Liverpool City Region
The UK’s new Industrial Strategy is emerging at a critical moment. As the government moves from consultation to delivery, it faces mounting pressure to identify and implement solutions to unlock economic growth and accelerate the net zero transition.
Posted on: 6 May 2025
The reality of the Northern Arc
The ‘Northern Arc’ is a uniquely important area of national economic potential and performance. It has many of the positive economic and labour market characteristics of the ‘golden triangle’ (Oxford, Cambridge, London) – but without the almost insoluble problem of housing unaffordability. This part of the North is more than capable of ‘winning’ - but risks being overlooked.
Posted on: 2 May 2025
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The defence dividend and the Northern Arc
The Prime Minister’s decision to increase UK defence spending will have significant economic consequences and is widely seen as a growth opportunity for defence contractors. Ian Wray asks what might be done to deploy the ‘defence dividend’ funding more effectively and how greater benefits could be secured for North West England especially as part of a ‘Northern Arc’.
Posted on: 25 March 2025
Shaping a city-region that works for women
The Feminist City Network based at the University of Liverpool contributed to and chaired a panel on accelerating gender equality in Liverpool City Region at LCR Women Together’s International Women’s Day celebrations.
Posted on: 11 March 2025