Transcript Listening, valuing and investing in the big sector

Listening, Valuing and Investing in the big sector:
Wednesday 29th of September 2010
Neil McInroy, Chief Executive, Centre for Local Economic
Strategies
What is CLES?
Established 1986
Independent charity. No
commercial sponsor or
government grants
20 staff: planners,
geographers, local
government,
environmental
scientists, economists
Growing-but will
stay small
Economic
development but
with social fairness
and within limits of
environment
UK, but also work in
Europe and beyond!
Hybrid; research,
consultancy,
members
Challenging times!
Climate change, peak oil, peak water, peak soil, energy insecurity
Economic recession
Unemployment,
lack of capital for investment, lack of economic diversity
Regeneration incomplete – Even the boom times were not
that good! Still work to do….
Cuts – ‘the sector's share of the cake will grow, even if the cake
shrinks’ Nick Hurd
Inequality (socially and spatially)..and getting worse?
“Grossly unequal societies do not solve their problems they chase
them around the policy map” (Robson and Turok, 2007)
Ageing and migration
What does CLES think?
Frustrated and often angry:
Dreamy Local economic futures detached from what the
people needed
Too many clunky and generic mantras and silver bullets as
regard the ‘knowledge economy’ or ‘low carbon’, ‘inward
investment’
Failure to think ahead as regards the environment and
changing demography
Existing economic development models..failed to factor in
aspects such social capital, volunteering etc
Economic
development
environmental change
has
failed
to
factor
Places seemed to go through bouts of boom and decline
in
Present policy and crude
assumptions
Big society. BUT we have a sector anyway?
Public sector ‘crowds’ out the Private sector. BUT what about
public sector spend which nurtures and supports private sector
capacity and social sector.
Local economies Its all about GROWTH. BUT...some places
have NONE..and that has been the case for decades before the
recession
Localism and Local Enterprise Partnerships. BUT.. lets not get
too excited they will need power and resources
What about equity, fairness?
Can you do cuts and reshape society at the same time?
Local Economies as a Network
of activity
Need to think of place, economy, society as one
Successful places are networks
Network of social, public and commercial activity
Our places are dependent upon complex connections
Vulnerable to small disturbances
Resilience allows us to think about connections and ways in which we
can strengthen these links
What is Resilience?
Resilience is an emergent property of a system – it’s not a result of any one
of the system’s parts but of the synergy between all its parts.
Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Upside of Down, 2006.
‘the capacity of a place to be ready to deal with change and opportunity.
This will require an adaptability so a place can respond, take advantage and
learn, so that the place and its citizens are better equipped to deal with
opportunities and negative change in the future.’ CLES
Resilience V Sustainability
V
Key Principles around ‘resilience’
resilience is not about the passive maintenance of a situation
Its more active, its about:
being ready to take on opportunities.
responding to shocks
dealing with change
being adaptable
taking a punch and bouncing back
Ensuring our local economies do not to go ‘belly up’
making our places to go...............
Creation of place resilience
Framework for measuring resilience
The place resilience model
Public economy
Public expenditure on goods and services
Make up of public sector activity
Public employment
The place resilience model
Public economy
Public expenditure on goods and services
Make up of sector
Public employment
Social economy
Contribution of community activities and networks to the
local economy including ‘core’ economy
Direct economic activity such as social enterprises,
Core economic activity –social capital (e.g voluntary organisations,
community groups, neighbourliness, social consciousness)
Core economy
Invisible economy that we take part in every day
The economy of the home, family, neighbourhood and
community
It is an economic system as it involves the goods and services
produced, exchanged and distributed
Like a computer
Operating system: The core economy
Specialised programs: Hospitals, schools, civil society
The programs may be ok, but the operating system is
struggling!
Core economy
An emphasis on the core economy
UK 40% of all economic activity takes place in the core
economy - not currently reflected in GDP
£87bn of unpaid care could be allocated to the core
economy
If the core economy fails, burden on public and private
sector grows
The place resilience model
Public economy
Public expenditure on goods and services
Make up of sector
Public employment
Social economy
Contribution of community activities and networks to the local
economy including ‘core’ economy
Commercial economy
Commercial turnover in locality
Make up of sector
Provides the bulk of employment
RELATIONSHIP AND THE SPACES BETWEEN THESE AREAS IN A LOCAL
PLACE ARE KEY
So the social economy is the Big sector!
Grants are important and key to social economic success
Will the cuts agenda result in the commercial outsourcing
agenda ‘squeeze’ out’ the sector ?
‘Big Society’ is not just about VCS or public its also about the
commercial sector
The role of VCS is not just to deliver on the governments
agenda.
The VCS needs to retain an oppositional/activist role if
required
You are the Big Sector. Intrinsic to place success
Centre for Local Economic Strategies
EMAIL. [email protected]
WEB. www.cles.org.uk
TWITTER. @neilmcinroy
PHONE. (0044) 161 236 7036