LED Confidential

LED Confidential
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Podcast about local economic development and placemaking. Co-hosted by Mike Spicer of PolicyDepartment and David Marlow of Third Life Economics. Mike, David and guests address the divisive, often unspoken issues facing economic development professionals in 2020s Britain. Website: www.ledconfidential.co.uk

  1. 3 dgn geleden

    Heat mortality and local economic development: who owns the agenda?

    In this Espresso Shot episode, David and Mike unpack why, in the shadow of an estimated 2,700 heat-related deaths in England and Wales this summer, longer-term adaptation to heatwaves still lacks clear strategic leadership in local economic development. They explore how heat mortality and productivity loss concentrate in older housing stock, deprived neighbourhoods and outdoor trades, and contrast the near total absence of statutory duties for heat with the governance architecture built around flood risk.  For LED and placemaking professionals, it's a call to treat heat adaptation as economic infrastructure, not just a cost.

    Heat mortality and local economic development: who owns the agenda?

  2. 6 aug

    Manchesterism beyond Manchester: blueprint or category error?

    In this Espresso Shot episode, David and Mike ask what Andy Burnham's "Manchesterism" actually means for the rest of the UK now that he's setting policy from Downing Street. They unpack the concept and explore if it can or should be  transplanted to geographies without  Greater Manchester's nine years of mayoralty and 25 years of AGMA before it. They discuss how the same policy goal can demand different delivery models in different places, and ask if national government is about to reward places that already have institutional capacity while leaving others further behind. For LED and placemaking professionals, it's a sharp prompt to map their own convening architecture before reaching for the Manchester playbook.

    Manchesterism beyond Manchester: blueprint or category error?

  3. 23 jul

    What do MPs really want to know about devolution? LED talks to the House of Commons Library

    In this guest episode, David and Mike are joined by Mark Sandford, senior research analyst at the House of Commons Library, to explore what MPs actually want to know about devolution, local government finance and place. Mark explains how the Library's strictly impartial briefings have shaped debate on the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act, the Fair Funding Review 2.0,  Local Government Reorganisation, and how mayoral devolution has shifted in under a decade from political suspicion to cross party orthodoxy. The conversation covers what a move from discretionary grants to assigned tax revenues could mean for the mayor–Whitehall relationship, the risk of a democratic deficit in reorganised local authorities, and how a more fragmented five-party political landscape may change what MPs need to know. LED and placemaking practitioners will take away a clearer sense of how to frame evidence for Westminster audiences.

    What do MPs really want to know about devolution? LED talks to the House of Commons Library

  4. 16 jul

    Planned for or planned around? Mayoral Strategic Authorities and the rural development gap

    In this Espresso Shot episode, David and Mike explore whether Mayoral Strategic Authorities can genuinely deliver whole-geography growth or whether the devolution model is structurally biased toward cities and large urban projects. They examine the gap created by Defra's non-participation in Integrated Settlements, which leaves MSAs with formal rural responsibilities under the D&CE but without equivalent rural funding levers. David sets out why appraisal  and business case development systematically disadvantages dispersed, rural geographies where fewer beneficiaries, smaller project pipelines, and thinner institutional capacity mean that they routinely lose out in any funding model designed around scale.   Mike explores what LED professionals can do now, before any reform, including investment in the development of a rural project pipeline and pushing the right-to-request agenda into Defra territory. The May 2026 local election results, which showed a growing divergence between core cities and their rural hinterlands, add political urgency to a structural economic challenge.

    Planned for or planned around? Mayoral Strategic Authorities and the rural development gap

  5. 9 jul

    Has Belfast cracked inclusive innovation?

    In this guest episode, David and Mike are joined by Dr Adrian Johnston MBE, Innovation Commissioner for Innovation City Belfast, to explore whether inclusive innovation can be measured in practice. Adrian explains how Innovation City Belfast, a partnership of seven anchor institutions built around the £1bn Belfast Region City Deal, moved beyond GVA and patents toward a broader "inclusion capital" framework covering economic, human, cultural and social capital, using proxies like "social graphs" and self-efficacy to track whether prosperity is genuinely shared. The conversation covers the Belfast Inclusive Futures visioning process, the city's ambition to be the UK's healthiest and most productive city by 2035, the spatial equity challenge of city-centre-led innovation, and how devolved regions outside London and Greater Manchester might frame policy differently.

    Has Belfast cracked inclusive innovation?

  6. 2 jul

    Council borrowing controls: protecting taxpayers or constraining growth?

    In this Espresso Shot, David and Mike  unpack the UK Government's new capital risk framework for local authorities — a consultation launched on 28 May 2026 proposing powers to monitor debt, investment, and revenue sustainability across every council, with intervention triggers where thresholds are breached.  At the time of recording six councils remained under Section 114 intervention; 37 others were in receipt of around £1.9bn in Exceptional Financial Support. Mike asks whether this represents proportionate governance or Whitehall micromanaging the financial distress it helped create. David argues the real problem is the local government finance system itself: designing a compliance framework around Woking and Thurrock while the majority of councils face structural distress from rising adult social care and SEN costs is a category error. For LED and placemaking professionals, the central question is whether tighter borrowing rules will constrain the regeneration finance that makes growth possible in the places that most need it — and whether the consultation is an opportunity to shape the outcome.

    Council borrowing controls: protecting taxpayers or constraining growth?

  7. 26 jun

    1 million young people outside the UK labour market: system failure or generational fault line?

    In this Espresso Shot episode, David and Mike unpack Alan Milburn's interim review findings into young people and work  — a diagnosis that names nearly 1 million 16–24 year-olds as not in employment, education or training ("NEET"), at an estimated economic cost of £125bn annually, and describes a "generational fault line" in the UK labour market. They explore the structural drivers behind the crisis: why ill health is a major cause of NEET status; how remote working and national living wage policy have reshaped entry-level opportunities; and why this problem clusters in particular places. David asks whether the Milburn Review risks reproducing a youth-employment-focused intervention without addressing underlying place-based system failures in coordination, while Mike explores the demographic pressures on recruitment in foundational economy sectors, and what this could mean for demand for young workers.

    1 million young people outside the UK labour market: system failure or generational fault line?

  8. 18 jun

    When growth assumptions collide with population health: healthy life expectancy and local economic strategies

    The UK’s latest healthy life expectancy figures published in Spring 2026 have been described as a watershed moment, and for local economic development they raise uncomfortable questions. In this Espresso Shot episode, David and Mike explore what falling healthy life expectancy, widening spatial gaps and changing population dynamics mean for the growth assumptions embedded in many local strategies. They ask whether places should still be planning primarily for growth or whether resilience and the prevention economy now need to sit at the heart of LED and placemaking.

    When growth assumptions collide with population health: healthy life expectancy and local economic strategies
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Podcast about local economic development and placemaking. Co-hosted by Mike Spicer of PolicyDepartment and David Marlow of Third Life Economics. Mike, David and guests address the divisive, often unspoken issues facing economic development professionals in 2020s Britain. Website: www.ledconfidential.co.uk

Informatie

  • Maker
    LED Confidential
  • Jaren actief
    2022 - 2026
  • Afleveringen
    135
  • Beoordeling
    Veilig
  • Copyright
    © LED Confidential
  • Website van aflevering
    LED Confidential

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