Marrying social and economic growth

Adrian Nolan, Associate Director

Centre for Local Economic Strategies

Focus - influencing economic development & regeneration policy

Membership - local authorities, private, social enterprise

Publications - informing policy & effective practice

Training & events - to support the sector

Independent research - to understand challenges & influence policy

Consultancy trading arm

•About CLESAbout CLES

•About CLES

Our work/interests includes:

Economic & social tools & methodologies

Economic policy work

Financing economies/regeneration

Futures work

Poverty/economic inclusion

Place resilience

About CLES

‘Economic growth is important’ – major assumption in current economic thinking at a national regional & local level

Higher incomes, increase well-being & lead to prosperity for all

Indeed much of CLES’ everyday work is based around the five ‘drivers’ of productivity that underpin growth:

Skills Enterprise Innovation Investment Competition

•Economic Growth is clearly of importance

Economic Growth is clearly of importance

Growth is not going to cure all of our problems: it may end up reinforcing longstanding issues

• Issue 1:

Improvements in health, feelings of satisfaction & happiness are not necessarily synonymous with income or wealth

GDP is not necessarily an effective measure of progress & prosperity in society

• Issue 2:

Benefits of growth have been delivered ‘unequally’

‘Good times’ didn’t deliver improvements for everyone, e.g. poorest areas in Northern England 20 years ago – still poorest

•But there are limits to relentlessly

going after growthBut there are limits to relentlessly going after

growth

Towards the notion of a ‘Civil Economy’:

an economy that works for people and

place

What is meant by a civil economy?

Collaborative, sharing, civil economy: growing importance in academic literature

Some cities have moved towards this principle in recent decades: e.g. Portland, Barcelona

Place’s economic, business and social growth as three equally, mutually reinforcing aspects of success:

Strong communities and social inclusion as inputs to and outcomes of economic and business success

An economy which works for all the people in it

Refocusing on how economic success is perceived around the experiences of people and communities

Civil focus has a ‘hard’ economic reality behind it: polarisation of communities undermines overall economic prosperity

Economic policy will be guided by a much more joined up approach

Policies will be built upon the dual ambitions of economic prosperity and social wellbeing

Local inequalities will be less pronounced

Communities will be stronger, with access to support from a wide range of cross sector actors

Businesses anchored in the city will reap the benefits of a competitive local labour pool

Places do some or all of the above now – the challenge is to take it to the next level

•The outcomes of a Civil EconomyThe outcomes of a Civil Economy

Case studies: approaches from elsewhere – key trends

Similar challenges across cities:

Decreasing public spending

Need to simplify commissioning processes

Reduce bureaucracy towards the social sector

The need to find alternative forms of finance

Social sector not always strategically ‘plugged’ in

Difficulties in proving value for money and quality of delivery

Case studies: approaches from elsewhere – key trends

But a number of differences in approaches:

Variation in move towards ‘people first’ models

Variations in extent to which economic and social development is entwined

Engaging the social sector in different ways

Realisation of the social sector importance in supporting job creation

Understand the need for local social entrepreneurs

Understanding of the wider importance of volunteering

Collaboration has different meanings

Barcelona: the ‘city that puts people first’

Ethos of Strategic Framework 2012-15 - city that ‘puts the people first’

Economic and social progress highlighted as two sides of the same coin

Economic and Social Council of Barcelona set up in 1992

Understanding of importance of social sector ingrained

Collaboration between public, social, private: based on shared responsibility

Good links between social and commercial

Specific reference towards a ‘civil economy’

Lille: the ‘eco social’ city

Commitment to ensure that all redevelopment benefits ‘Lillois’

Resulted in efforts to create an ‘eco-social’ city

Quality of life viewed more important than gathering of wealth

Have a long term view of economic, social, and environmental all as one

Demonstrated by approach to young people to become leaders in sustainable development and communities

Developed an urban contract for social cohesion based around cross sector local approaches

Actively seeking social entrepreneurs and supportive of social enterprise

Copenhagen: quality of life combined with growth

A strong ‘bottom up’ up with a robust strategic framework

Inclusion and quality of life links directly with job creation

Range of local programmes with strong collaboration

Social Zones in disadvantaged areas: local platforms for cooperation and co-production and supporting growth

Emphasis on generation of local solutions to area’s needs

Strong local delivery based on collaboration that actions policy (not just rhetoric)

Specific social enterprise strategy in place highlighting levels of social entrepreneurship

Arrasate–Mondragon, Spain: cooperative model defies recession

Home to the world renowned successful cooperative corporation – Mondragon. One of Spain’s top ten corporations

Comprises factories,  a multibillion dollar bank, housing, insurance agencies, a grocery store chain and a network of retail stores

20% of the profit goes to the workers, 70% is reinvested within the corporation, 10% goes to community projects which include the Mondragon university

Cooperative’s pay equity rules contribute to the city’s far greater income and wealth equality – unemployment in the Basque country is 15% compared to 25% in Spain as a whole

Community survival and job creation are Mondragon’s explicit public purpose

EU Commissioner for Employment advocates expanding and exporting the cooperative model

Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy: cooperative culture brings

economic success

One of richest regions in Europe, known for end manufacturing

Also one of the most cooperative regions in the world

Two thirds of citizens members of a cooperative

Large scale cooperative economy: 30% of GDP by cooperatives

Cooperative economy strongly bolstered by dense networks

This results in low unemployment and high productivity

High levels of social capital has developed alongside economic gains

Councils run in a cooperative way, providing policy framework for deep public, private and social collaboration which is central to area’s success

Portland, Oregon: marrying social and economic growth

A strong ‘bottom up’ up within a robust strategic framework

City understands social and environmental vitality is critical

Neighbourhoods at the core of the vision for citywide growth

Use community cross sector partnerships to drive job creation

Sectors are mutually influential and a strong model of collaborative governance has been developed

Integrated drivers for neighbourhood development (all viewed as mutually dependent on one another)

Business growth

Commercial growth

Community capacity

Bristol: focus on community

Strategic thinking understands strong overlap of social and economic

Focus upon social and community focused goals

Led to a culture of volunteering across the city

Understand value of VCS in employability and skills

But levels of collaboration are not as advanced as other examples

Implementing development of ward based Community Partnerships

Like other UK cities, major focus on commissioning and service delivery

Scope for us to to do more?

Foreign case studies show the potential of a Civil Economy: value of people and communities: but how much is transferable?

Case studies show advanced thinking around a ‘whole place’ approach

Key is recognition of social sector’s input and support into both social and economic growth: particularly job creation

On a wider scale, shows that the UK approach to economic development is narrow

Case studies show that it is not about ploughing money into social sector

Rather integrating it in top down and bottom up approaches

Growth does matter – it is central to the prosperity of people and places

However it needs to be managed right – growth at the expense of everything else is following a dated model and will further entrench other social and economic problems

Policy needs to be highly sensitive to local circumstances

What about those places that have not grown, even during the good times?

Perceiving economic and social growth as two sides of the same coin is critical for future prosperity for people, places and business: notion of a Civil Economy

•In summaryIn summary

Where is the sector involved in your area in economic activity currently?

Going forward: Making the case for change?

 Who to influence? What evidence?What proposals/pilots for moving forward?

•In summaryWorkshop discussion