Date: 1300-1700, Tuesday 21 June 2022

Venue: Zoom

Seminar Organisers:

Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS), Newcastle University, and Housing, Planning and Cities team, HM Treasury

Context and aims

Dealing with disruptive change and uncertainty have become critical issues for local economic development policy in the decade since the 2008 global financial crisis. Economic shocks have become more complex and frequent, ranging from the short-term and localised impacts of firm closures to the medium and longer term, multi-level, and ongoing effects of Brexit, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ukraine conflict. Planning for adaptive and resilient local economic recovery has become a policy priority.

The seminar provided a unique opportunity to understand the policy context and issues, learn from international research and recent practitioner experiences, and engage with approaches to policy monitoring and evaluation.

Programme

 

13:00 Introduction and aims of the seminar
(Professor Andy Pike, CURDS, Newcastle University, and Faith Quigley, Deputy Director, Housing, Planning and Cities, HMT)

Session 1: The challenge and policy context
(Chair: Faith Quigley, Housing, Planning and Cities, HMT)

13:10 Local responses to economic shocks and planning for economic recovery
(Professor Andy Pike, CURDS, Newcastle University)

13:25 HMT/UK government approach
(Anam Shahab, Housing, Planning and Cities, HMT)

13:40 Participant questions, feedback and discussion

14:00 Break

Session 2: Learning from experience
(Chair: Professor Andy Pike, CURDS, Newcastle University)

14:15 Managing high carbon industry closure and just transition
(Sally Weller, UNISA Business School, Australia)

14:30 Reflections on the Rover and West Midlands Task Forces
(David Bailey, University of Birmingham)

14:45 Learning from the Honda Task Force
(Paddy Bradley, Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership and Honda Task Force)

15:00 Participant questions, feedback and discussion

15:15 Break

Session 3: Monitoring and evaluating
(Chair: Catharine Banks, Housing, Planning and Cities, HMT)

15:30 Monitoring and evaluation
(Victoria Sutherland, What Works Centre Local Economic Growth)

15:45 Learning from ReAct/ProAct in Wales
(Eleri Lewis and Kim Wigley, Welsh Government)

16:00 Participant questions, feedback and discussion

Session 4: Closing panel: sharing good practice and local learning
(Chair: Professor Andy Pike, CURDS, Newcastle University)

16:15 Participant questions, feedback and panel discussion:

Seminar speakers

16:45 Wrap-up and next steps (Andy Pike)