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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · 2d

In September the government published the last of eight sector plans in the industrial strategy, covering defence.

Our new blog gives suggestions for how places can think through support to local businesses in responding to these plans👇
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Local opportunities in the Defence Industrial Strategy - What Works Growth

In September the government published the Defence Industrial Strategy 2025. This is the last of eight sector plans in the national Industrial Strategy, alongside Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy…

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · 22d

Capital is an important driver of productivity 📈

If businesses want to improve productivity, they might invest in new machinery to speed up production, or new software to tackle more complex and higher value tasks 💰

Read in full 👇
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Understanding the drivers of productivity: Capital - What Works Growth

The drivers of productivity include skills, capital, innovation, enterprise and competition, and land. This blog focuses on capital.

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · Sep 2

In the first blog in our new series we provide an overview of skills and local growth—looking at policy levers available, things to consider, and useful resources.

This is a great primer to understanding how skills affect local growth and productivity👇
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Understanding the drivers of productivity: Skills - What Works Growth

This blog is the first in our new series on the drivers of productivity, including include skills, investment, innovatio and enterprise.

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · Aug 28

With more flights than ever taking off from the UK, airport expansion is a hot topic ✈️

But what might expansion mean for local growth in the areas around airports? Our new blog discusses some of the issues to consider👇
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Can expanding airports help local growth take off? - What Works Growth

August means airports, and now that air travel has rebounded from the lows during the Covid-19 pandemic to reach levels where globally there are more flights than ever, airports face bigger and…

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · Jul 14

Local Growth Plans are a key part of the government’s growth strategy.

Devolution will need to generate jobs, investment and economic activity more than the sum of their parts – multipliers can help assess these wider benefits.

Read how in our new blog👇
whatworksgrowth.org/insights/mul...

Multiplying the benefits of Local Growth Plans - What Works Growth

Last month the government published new guidance for Mayoral Strategic Authorities on Local Growth Plans. These are a key foundation of the new Industrial Strategy and the government’s ambitions for d...

whatworksgrowth.org

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · Jul 7

Enterprise zones 🎙️🎧

Deputy Director of Evidence Victoria Sutherland features on @centreforcities.bsky.social podcast to discuss our recent rapid evidence review on Enterprise Zones.

Listen to the podcast👇

City Minutes: Enterprise Zones - Centre for Cities

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Victoria Sutherland, Deputy Director of Evidence at the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth to discuss their recent rapid evidence review on…

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · Jul 7

As the evidence on this topic is limited, we recommend using our local employment multiplier toolkit instead when appraising potential local multiplier effects 👇 buff.ly/x8WXHYT

What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · Jul 7

One challenge is that most of the evidence comes from studies looking at stimulus spending or cuts in spending so it’s not clear whether the findings carry over to day-to-day spend.

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · Jul 7

Usually, multipliers are based on theoretical models and assumptions. We take a different approach – looking at evidence from policy evaluations.

We find that changes in public spending can have multiplier effects at the local level but there is not always an effect.
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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · Jul 7

Multipliers capture the impact that a change in activity in one part of the economy has on other parts of the economy.

For example, changes in public spending will have multiplier effects if public sector workers spend some of their income in the local economy.

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · Jul 7

🆕 Rapid evidence review: Local multiplier effects of changes in public spending

We’ve published a new briefing on the local multiplier effects of changes in public spending.

Read in full 👇
whatworksgrowth.org/wp-content/u...

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · Jun 27

📍The IS-8 might not be right for your place

Local economies are not all the same, and economic strategy should never be a cookie cutter approach.

Read the blog 👇

The IS-8 might not be right for your place - What Works Growth

Local economies are not all the same, and economic strategy should never be a cookie cutter approach.

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · Jun 17

✍️ Linking Appraisal and Evaluation: Lessons for Smarter Public Spending

In this guest blog Jeffrey Matsu, Chief Economist at CIPFA, highlights the link between appraisal and evaluation.

Read now👇

Linking Appraisal and Evaluation: Lessons for Smarter Public Spending - What Works Growth

UK local and combined authorities are being asked not just to justify investments but to demonstrate their impact.

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · Jun 4

Designing and carrying out impact evaluation can be intimidating for policymakers.

Don’t be afraid of asking for help and support at any step of the process.

Read our new blog on the ninth step to better evaluation - Ask for help 👇

How to evaluate – Ask for help - What Works Growth

Evidence-based policy is at the heart of good practices in policymaking. Impact evaluation provides a key source of evidence to help understand what really works and we need more impact evaluation of…

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · May 28

📌Are we too harsh on enterprise zones?

"We’ve been sceptical about the value of these programmes but if central government chooses to use these approaches, it makes sense for local areas to bid."

Read our latest blog for more👇
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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · May 16

Our recent guest blog from Dr Max Nathan also summarises recent research on public sector relocation 👇
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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · May 16

❓What might this do for local economies?

Our evidence briefing outlines how local policymakers can think about this 👇https://buff.ly/aLrrS1O

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · May 16

📢 Government will move thousands of civil service roles out of London, including opening new offices in Manchester focused on digital innovation, and in Aberdeen focused on energy.

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · May 8

We’re working on an evaluation of the UK EZs (more on this later in the year). We also need more evaluation of which (combinations of) policy levers are most effective, whether impacts vary across different types of area, and on cost-effectiveness.
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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · May 8

We previously looked at this policy in 2016. Whilst the evidence available has grown substantially over the last 9 years, there are still lots of gaps.

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · May 8

It’s also important to consider the distributional impacts. As with many local growth policies, the benefits of EZs are often capitalised into property values, benefiting property owners over renters.

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · May 8

Policymakers should be clear about their goals. Evidence is mixed on whether local residents benefit so, if this is the goal, an alternative approach may be more effective.

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · May 8

This may be because tax credits and other incentives generally result in small percentage changes in business costs and therefore do not change behaviour. EZs may also lead to displacement – shifting activity around, rather than generating new activity.

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · May 8

Policymakers should be realistic about the likely impacts of EZs. Only half of studies looking at business outcomes and a third of studies looking at labour market outcomes find a positive effect, (similarly) for other outcomes.

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What Works Growth @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social · May 8

These policies have not yet been evaluated, but EZ programmes in other countries have. We’ve recently published a review of 53 evaluations, with around three-quarters from the US 👇
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