Untangling the effect of insecure work on local economic performance: towards a new research agenda
Insecure work can have a cost for individuals, but how does insecurity affect local economies? This blog proposes a new direction for future research, that quantifies the effect insecurity is having locally in order to inform new approaches to improving the quality – and not just quantity – of work.
Posted on: 6 February 2024
The Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review: can ‘transformational’ growth be delivered?
Heseltine Institute Research Associate Dr Tom Arnold reflects on the new Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review and discusses whether the right policy levers are available to deliver the ‘transformational’ economic growth it proposes.
Posted on: 7 December 2023
The 2023 Party Conferences: long-term decisions for next year’s election
With both the Conservative and Labour party conferences visiting the North West over recent weeks, Heseltine Institute Research Associate Dr James Hickson considers what the key announcements from both parties suggest about the state of play ahead of the next general election.
Posted on: 17 October 2023
The case for social broadband
By providing social broadband through cheaper tariffs, so the argument goes, we can overcome the vagaries of digital exclusion and poverty.
Posted on: 26 September 2023
The Power of Plans - in Shenzhen, Dublin and New York
In three unmissable podcasts with international guests, Profs. Lucy Natarajan at UCL and Ian Wray at the Heseltine Institute explore what makes for a powerful plan.
Posted on: 15 August 2023
Do We Need a Plan for England?
Back in the 2000s an enthusiastic Regional Development Agency chair went to visit his responsible Minister and asked if we could have a national spatial plan. The response was telling: ‘Oh, we don’t want one of those. Everybody would be able to see what we were doing’. Recently an eminent transport planner made a similarly downbeat point: ‘We are so far adrift on coherent strategic thinking (our strategy is to make it up as you go along) that a spatial plan looks like a fantasy. Maybe it’s something we could get to, after development of a set of coordinated measures’.
Posted on: 21 June 2023
Revealing the political foundations of the UK’s COVID-19 crisis
To celebrate the launch of COVID-19 and the Case Against Neoliberalism: The United Kingdom’s Political Pandemic, co-author James Hickson provides an overview of the book’s central arguments and its implications for post-pandemic policymaking.
Posted on: 4 May 2023
Unleashing imaginative power in the Liverpool City Region
In the second of a two-part blog, Heseltine Institute Visiting Fellow Mark Swift discusses how policymakers can work with communities to harness imagination. Highlighting a range of positive examples from Liverpool City Region, the blog also identifies a variety of strategies designed to promote imaginative policymaking.
Posted on: 20 January 2023
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Unleashing our imagination for political and social change in the Liverpool City Region
In the first of a two-part blog, Heseltine Institute Visiting Fellow Mark Swift discusses the use of imagination in policymaking. Citing a range of examples of creative thinking in the public and third sectors, Mark highlights a range of methodologies designed to harness our collective imagination.
Posted on: 18 January 2023
Blog
Untangling the effect of insecure work on local economic performance: towards a new research agenda
Insecure work can have a cost for individuals, but how does insecurity affect local economies? This blog proposes a new direction for future research, that quantifies the effect insecurity is having locally in order to inform new approaches to improving the quality – and not just quantity – of work.
Posted on: 6 February 2024