Good Local Economics

I have spent the last three weeks in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Providence exploring how those cities have responded to economic decline and indeed economic opportunity.

Greater Manchester has done a fine job in the last 25 years of delivering real change. In the last months, on the back of the devolution agreement and the devolution of health and social care budgets, it is starting to do even more. Nevertheless, economic challenges remain and poverty and inequality are hard to shift. The current level of devolved power and resource cannot be the fixed deal and must be pushed further if Greater Manchester and other combined authorities are to scale up the advantages of devolution.