I mean the question literally, and I think everyone in this field should answer it. Not “do you want your place to prosper” – everyone wants that, the way everyone wants good weather. I mean: does your institution intend to become genuinely excellent at the discipline of changing a local economy, judged by results people can feel?

Because there is no point being mediocre at this work. Mediocre economic development consumes public money, burns a decade nobody can get back, and leaves the estate, the high street and the school-leaver exactly where they were.

Nobody sets out to be mediocre, of course. But greatness is a choice before it is a capability – and most institutions have never explicitly made it. The programmes tick over. The strategy gets refreshed. The partnership meets. And adequacy quietly becomes the ambition.

Here is what I have learned in thirty years in this field: the places that transform themselves are the ones that decided to be great at the work itself – the evidence, the relationships, the delivery, the proof – long before the powers or the money arrived.

𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩. This might help www.lredhandbook.com

This post is part of the prosperity in every postcode series. To deliver this – we need to be truly great at local and regional economic development. Follow me to get these posts prioritised in your LinkedIn newsfeed.

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