I don't want to be harsh to a sitting minister of the crown, but....

.... anyone who doesn't know the different between nominal and real numbers (or deliberately omits to mention they are using the wrong data)...

... doesn't deserve to be the UK's business secretary

A very interesting 2 days for the @centreforcities office in Middlesbrough and Darlington. Thanks to Nick Gray for the tour!

📅 As the dust settles from the mayoral and local elections, join
Paul Swinney to discuss the results.

What do they mean for urban Britain and the future of devolution, and what – if anything – they tell us ahead of the #GeneralElection ?

Register now👇
loom.ly/E1m-CDI

A good diagnosis of the problems of current levelling up funding. Moving goalposts, opacity, unrealistic deadlines.

But the key point (below) is buried somewhat. All this inhibits incentives for good policy making in local government. So local economic growth suffers.

The lack of interest in the reporting to separate:

🏠 house building in a specific area

from

👩‍⚕️ the nationwide underfunding of public services

Was surprising. I hope future coverage is more insightful.

Nothing like a bit of towns and cities policy chat! Well, we find it fascinating anyway...🤓It's our #fridaylisten Adam Hawksbee Paul Swinney Andrew Carter

📅 As the dust settles from the mayoral and local elections, join
Paul Swinney to discuss the results.

What do they mean for urban Britain and the future of devolution, and what – if anything – they tell us ahead of the #GeneralElection ?

Register now👇
loom.ly/E1m-CDI

Everyone's dunked on this already but I'm just amazed at the line of argument 'we shouldn't build any more homes, we just need older people to downsize, which may require appropriate accommodation for them to move to'
AND WHERE IS THIS APPROPRIATE ACCOMMODATION YOU SPEAK OF

And a fine set of replies from Tom Forth, someone I admire as much as Paul Swinney

More good honest truth from Paul Swinney, one of the most sensible and intellectually honest people in UK policy circles. Start from the truth, however unpalatable.

My pushback on this is, of course, that business actually does choose (parts of) the North and the Midlands over London (especially) and South England generally. But then it's the UK state the chooses to invest in South East England. Over time this becomes self-fulfilling.

💡Come for the title

📚 Stay for the diagnosis of why evidence-based policy making doesn't happen in local economic development, and how to fix it 👇

Things we need to do to improve the use of evidence in local economic policy making from our friends at Centre for Cities.