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EDW Founder Membership Open Until 20 April 2026
After 32 years working in economic development, I’ve noticed something. There’s no real home for people doing this work in the UK. No professional community where practitioners can share what’s actually working, get honest answers to difficult questions, or access decent CPD without sitting through another generic leadership course. That’s why I built Economic Development […]
The post EDW Founder Membership Open Until 20 April 2026 first appeared on Economic Development World.
What The Experts Are Saying About The Local And Regional Economic Development Handbook
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘙𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘌𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤 𝘋𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨! 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘧-𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥! And the first review has landed from a world-renowned professor of innovation: “𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆. 𝗔 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁-𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀, […]
𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 – 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝟱 𝘁𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗯𝘆 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀
The evidence is clear: successful industrial clusters generate genuine competitive advantages. Firms in Oxfordshire’s Motorsport Valley are 6x more productive than isolated competitors. Research Triangle Park transformed North Carolina from textile dependence into a £17 billion innovation economy. Denmark’s professionalised clusters consistently outperform regions without them. Yet cluster initiatives can sometimes fail to deliver. Why? […]
𝗗𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲
Local leaders often say they can’t afford to invest in economic development. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭 – 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗶 𝗥𝗼𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗸’𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹: 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝘆 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴. Consider what […]
Will the UK’s 𝟴𝟱𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 “𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀” be coming back to work?
Since COVID, 850,000 people in the UK withdrew from the active labour market. This massive rise in economic inactivity has happened at the same time that policy has tightened controls on hiring overseas workers, and the UK’s further and adult education system has been squeezed by budget cuts and inflexibilities (prior to 2026). I did […]
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 (𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗼 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗜𝘁)
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 (𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗼 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗜𝘁) Does your local economy have plenty of labour demand and desperate employers who can’t get the workforce and skills they need? As well as unemployed residents who “can’t find work?” The problem isn’t lack of jobs. It’s that we fundamentally misunderstand how […]