EVERY DECISION THAT SHAPES A PLACE IS AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DECISION
The Local and Regional Economic Development Handbook
Everything the field expects you to know — in one reference you can trust, for the whole of your career
Read it once and you’ll have the grounding the job assumes you already have. Keep it on your desk and you’ll reach for it for years — when you’re making the economic case to elected members, testing a business plan that has to stack up, designing a programme that needs to deliver, or briefing a partner who’s relying on you to know. Thirty-two years of UK practice, distilled into a single working reference that spans every discipline in the field and shows you how the work actually gets done. Whatever your role in shaping places and economies, this is the book that makes you more confident, more credible, and more effective — in the room and on the ground.
The grounding you wished you’d had at the start. The reference you’ll still be using when you’re running the team.
What experts and professionals are saying about The Local and Regional Economic Development Handbook
“The breadth and depth of the evidence is impressive, written by someone who has worked extensively in local economic development for many years and is presented in a clear and accessible way. It should be essential reading for all practitioners, policy makers and leaders who want to bring about real change in the places they serve.”
“Glenn Athey has for decades been a leader in practitioner-based learning of how to understand and address local economic change. This impressive volume is intellectually rigorous and full of insight. Place professionals that need to take the economic consequences of their ‘silo’ actions more seriously should start reading now.”
“As a practitioner in economic development for forty years this handbook is the best resource on economic development that I have ever read.”
Gordon Kennedy, Former Deputy Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise Glasgow
“If you work in economic development, this will become your go-to resource. I love the practical focus, the case studies and the relentless focus on making lives and communities better.”
“This handbook is an exceptionally comprehensive and authoritative guide to local and regional economic development, in which Glenn has combined deep expertise with practical, real‑world insight. Its clear structure, strong evidence base, and actionable frameworks make it an invaluable resource for practitioners, policymakers, and leaders seeking to deliver meaningful economic change. Highly recommended!”
“Based on more than three decades of experience in the field, this handbook provides an in-depth introduction to economic development. It is peppered throughout with real-life examples, both from across the UK and internationally. The breadth of coverage is impressive. The focus on practice and impact shines throughout.”
“This handbook bridges the gap between theory and practice beautifully. A must-read for local government leaders, planners, and economic development professionals alike.”
“This economic development handbook is a ‘must have’ for anyone in the place-based economic field and provides valuable insights from Glenn’s extensive practical experience which is grounded in strong evidence and research.”
“This is a must read book and an added value accessary to anyone involved in economic development. You will learn a lot from his book and it is articulated in a way where you can translate good practice into your own locality.”
“A highly engaging, carefully crafted and thoughtful work grounded in reality and the practice of placemaking.”
Mark Beresford, International Trade, Tech Business and FDI expert, Director, Kinetic Cubed
The Practitioner's Guide for Everyone Whose Work Shapes Places and Economies
Written by Dr. Glenn Athey — practitioner, consultant, and advisor with thirty-two years of frontline UK economic development experience — this is a 500-page working reference that covers the full breadth of the field. From the economic theory underpinning place-based intervention to the political realities of making strategies actually work, from enterprise and inward investment to skills, inclusion, climate transition, and regeneration. It doesn't tell you what should happen. It tells you how things actually work, where the evidence is strong, where it is contested, and what implementation in the real world requires of the people responsible for it.
There is no other book like it.
I Work in Economic Development
This is your field’s reference — the one it has never had. Whether you’re finding your feet, deepening a specialism, leading strategy, or building a team’s capability, you’ll find your level here and a resource you’ll come back to as you grow. Every discipline, the way it actually works in UK practice, from someone who has spent thirty-two years responsible for the results. → Find your pathway
I Work in an Adjacent Profession
Planning, property, higher education, skills, government, community development — your decisions shape local economies, and local economies shape your work. This handbook gives you the economic grounding to engage with real confidence: to read the forces behind your own field, ask the questions that matter, and hold your own whenever the economy is on the table. → Find your pathway
FOUNDATIONS, THEORY, STRATEGY AND MOST OF ALL PRACTICE AND CASE STUDIES
What This Handbook Covers
Eighteen chapters across three parts, covering the full breadth of local and regional economic development:
Part One — Foundations How local economies work. The economic theory underpinning place-based intervention. The history and evolution of UK economic development policy. The institutional landscape — from Combined Authorities and LEPs to Whitehall departments and development agencies.
Part Two — Core Practice Areas Enterprise support and business development. Inward investment and sector strategy. Innovation and knowledge economy. Skills and workforce development. Inclusive growth and economic justice. Place-making, town centres, and the built environment. Climate transition and the green economy. Evaluation and evidence.
Part Three — Conclusions and recommendations. Key lessons and principles for successful local and regional economic development.
About the Author, Dr. Glenn Athey
I'm an active speaker, facilitator, advisor, and consultancy working with a range of clients in the UK and internationally. I also offer these services:
Speaking and facilitation. Want to know more? Click here.
Retained advisor. Want to know more? Click here.
Professional CPD. I run a professional CPD site and service at economicdevelopment.world
Custom training. Want to know more? Click here.
Consultancy: Looking for full consultancy support? Visit mylocaleconomy.org.
FOR ECONOMY AND PLACE PROFESSIONALS
Who This Book Is For
Economic Development Practitioners The career reference for the whole profession — and for the whole of your career. From new starter to director, specialist to generalist, local delivery to national programme: find your level and a resource you’ll keep coming back to. → Find your level
Town & City Planners See how your spatial decisions translate into economic outcomes — and gain the evidence literacy to interrogate the economic case behind any scheme that lands on your desk. → For planners
Real Estate & Property Read the economic forces — agglomeration, cluster dynamics, place trajectory — that drive long-run location value, so you can see where occupier demand will genuinely concentrate before the market does. → For property professionals
Universities & Higher Education Step into the civic university agenda and local growth partnerships with a confident grasp of the economic landscape — and a clearer view of where your institution can make the biggest difference. → For the professionals
Skills & Employment Connect provision design and employer engagement to the labour market intelligence and economic strategy that make them land — so your offer meets real demand and demonstrably delivers. → For skills professionals
Government & Civil Servants Design, fund, and evaluate economic development interventions with a practitioner’s grasp of what makes delivery actually succeed on the ground. → For civil servants
Community Leaders & Anchor Institutions Understand the economic development system well enough to engage on your own terms — and become a voice that genuinely shapes outcomes for your community. → For community leaders
Teams & Organisations Give your team a shared framework, a common language, and collective capability — across an economic development team, Combined Authority, LEP, or consultancy. → For organisations
What Makes This Book Different
- Some American textbooks and handbooks are very good, but describe different institutions and contexts and mostly focus on investment attraction
- Academic journals rarely synthesise insights into practical guidance
- Government documents describe WHAT should happen, not HOW
- Until The Local and Regional Economic Development Handbook was published, no single resource covered the full breadth of the field
Until now.
This handbook is written by a practitioner, for practitioners. It acknowledges complexity, embraces difficulty, and focuses relentlessly on implementation and delivery. It includes all functional aspects of local and regional economic development, brought to life in practice, with case studies; and also provides insight on the policy, strategy, action planning and economic foundations of economic development with practical case studies and illustrations.
★ Practitioner authored
Not written from an armchair or a library. Written by someone who has spent thirty-two years responsible for the outcomes — sitting across the table from clients, defending recommendations to elected members, watching well-designed programmes fail to deliver what they promised, and figuring out why.
★ Honest about failure
Most professional references in this field describe best practice. This one is equally interested in why things go wrong — and why they go wrong so consistently. The UK has a four-decade record of regional economic development policies that underdeliver. Understanding that record is essential to doing better.
★ Grounded in real experience
Built around real institutions, real policy history, real funding architectures, and the specific challenges of real places. Existing handbooks are good but only cover part of the system. This handbook describes the whole system.
★ Implementation First
Theory and strategy matter. But the gap between strategy and delivery is where most economic development value is lost. This handbook takes implementation seriously — as a discipline, as a challenge, and as the thing that ultimately determines whether any of the rest of it makes any difference.
News and Views
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