CLES News
Deprived areas need hands on support to become productive again
2nd December 2010
Government plans to dismantle tailored business support will lead inevitably to the decline of deprived areas, a report by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) has found.
The cancellation of elements of Assisted Area funding – specifically Grants for Business Investment (GBI) – in favour of a ‘hands-off’ approach to business support will further widen the geographical imbalances in our economy, it says.
The Regional Growth Fund, one of the only funding pots now available to help deprived communities boost their private sector, will not be sufficient on its own to solve the issues of weak local economies.
Instead, a big, new, productive society for our deprived places needs a range of approaches, policies and ways of working.
Big Productive Society: Making deprived areas strong again assesses the impact of a highly focused and localised approach to business support in deprived areas.
Both the full report and a summary are available below.
Big Productive Society Report.pdf
Big Productive Society Summary.pdf
Both the documents are available to view via page turner by clicking below:
Big Productive Society- summary
Big Productive Society- full report
Neil McInroy and Harry Knowles have also written an article on the subject for localgov.co.uk which is available here.
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