New report explores how diverse strategies contribute towards our region’s economic targets

As part of a commission from the Midlands Engine Observatory, partners from our region’s Research Partnership, including City-REDI/ WMREDI and Nottingham Trent University, have collaborated to produce a new report: Mapping the Architecture of Economic Development Policy and Strategy Across the Midlands Engine.

The objectives of the research were:

1. To undertake an audit of, and provide an organisational map for, the structure of existing economic strategies and plans, including those addressing Covid-19 recovery, in the Midlands
2. To identify areas of overlap, synergy, gaps and conflicts in these strategies and plans

The research found that our region has a complex institutional architecture that features local, subregional and regional bodies.

At local and subregional levels, intelligence varies as to whether strategies include targets and the nature of those targets, presenting considerable challenges for aggregating targets across areas.

The geographically uneven and complex layers of local and subregional governance, with a mix of statutory and non-statutory organisations and responsibilities, pose difficulties for gaining a clear line of sight between subnational and national policies.

Ad hoc challenge funding pots can compound problems of longer-term planning and coordination across geographical scales.

While not all local/subregional strategies need to be the same, the report identifies a case for greater consistency so that they share some common characteristics, including a target framework and a set of indicators to monitor progress.

Download the report.

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