CLES Open Hour
CLES Open Hour
On the 14th of April, the ESES Communities Team joined the monthly, free CLES Open Hour—a relaxed, open space for people across the UK working in local economic development to:
- Connect with like-minded peers
- Hear the latest from Sarah, Tom and the CLES team
- Make sense of policy changes and emerging ideas
- Create space to think, reflect and recharge
Every month, they review an emerging topic; this month, they looked back at the March Spending Review, and ahead to the Comprehensive Spending Review. March’s review confirmed that we are living in a no-growth economy. The question they posed was, "So, what now? If traditional growth isn’t the goal, how do we define success for local economies? "
Below, we have summarised our key reflections:
- What do we mean by growth? Can we get better at defining this?
- What assumptions do we make about growth?
- Do we really understand how people benefit from growth? For example, Manchester’s economic growth doubled, but this has not positively impacted the city's social problems.
- Therefore, growth can occur, but it does not mean people's lives will improve.
- It was suggested that there were more effective ways to measure growth than GDP.
- Growth is not the same as wealth. Who owns it? Are the benefits being extracted from your place?
The final points prompted the following questions: What is the ultimate goal of politics and policy? Is it that citizens have a good life? Have we lost sight of what we are aiming at? Does GDP improve people’s lives?
It was asked: “If National Policy drives inequality, what can people do locally?” Three areas were offered as examples of places where there has been no economic growth for many years, but life is improving for local people:
Isle of Wight
Further reading and events:
You can read a blog here where CLES Senior Researcher Sean Benstead reflects on their work in Oldham, where they helped the Council understand how local interventions can deliver on its plan for the place.
You can read about ‘The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act’ here. It is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales.
You can find out details about the CLES SUMMIT 2025 here.