EVENT | Making childcare work: learning from Liverpool City Region

Join us on Weds 8 May at 1.00pm to learn more about how innovative childcare can fuel inclusive growth.

🎙️Annabel Smith, Ben Franklin, Lucie Stephens & Liverpool City Region

🎟️ eventbrite.co.uk/e/making-child…

Sharing the thoughts of CPP researcher Tanya Singh

EVENT | Making childcare work: learning from Liverpool City Region

Join us on Weds 8 May at 1.00pm to learn more about how innovative childcare can fuel inclusive growth.

🎙️Annabel Smith, Ben Franklin, Lucie Stephens & Liverpool City Region

🎟️ eventbrite.co.uk/e/making-child…

There is a reason our paper called for family hub funding to match Sure Start at its peak and to open 3500 family hubs by 2030.

For not a lot of money (IFS estimates around £2.5bn a year in today’s terms), you get a *lot* of return on investment

progressive-policy.net/publications/n…

IFS research suggests poorer children who grew up near Sure Start centres achieved up to 3 grades higher at GCSE. That is huge.

When Centre for Progressive Policy looked at how an area’s characteristics affected poorer children’s attainment, most things were worth far less than 3 grades

Listen in. A conversation about a fairer economy - its what we are all about.

There is more than one way to tax wealth. It has a roll to play in sound fiscal management. The more i learn on this the less objection i have to the principle.

But the big question - on taxation, funding, and investment - is still open. There are a *lot* of asks and expectations of councils and public service providers, that will make fulfilling a lot of the promise here difficult w/o addressing that. Tick, tock..

Overall, it's an interesting set of proposals and vision when pieced together. Some of it will prove difficult in office (expect some resistance from some local and business leaders) and there will be few quick wins....

5/ First I've seen a mention of densifying cities in Labour's thinking on industrial strategy. Still yet to see much detail on planning, pulling this off will be challenging, but vital for renewing our cities and making them more productive, healthier, happier h/t createstreets

We shouldn't underestimate how big a deal these reforms could be. It matters a) to growth, and b) the living standards of those in insecure work, because c) *so many* people work in the 'everyday economy' where labour market reform is the #1 thing to improve living standards

4/ Labour's 'New Deal for Workers', i.e. their plans for workers rights, feature heavily. This is a massive step beyond levelling up as we've known it. Tackling insecure work is one of the big levers that central and local/regional govt have. Also reflects Rayner's brief.

3/ Their plans for local authorities have mostly been announced. This doesn't mean they won't shift the dial - Centre for Progressive Policy have been banging these drums for years. What's new here is the intention to 'build up capacity' - that implies more £ eventually (probs post-election)

2/ This is consistent with Labour's view that fragmented governance is bad for growth/productivity. Again, probably true. Mandating combined/county authorities won't completely eradicate this issue, but it will improve things (esp if powers over spatial planning are moved up)

This is a good call. Some local leaders won't like it, but areas who have opted-out so far have lost out on stronger economic levers. Also bad for areas who do club together but can't reflect their natural geography within one boundary (e.g. East Mids CA doesn't have Leicester)

1/ Labour want to set up combined/county authorities everywhere in England. This is a step beyond the government's current plan which is to give one to 'every area that wants one'. Instead, Labour will ask every local authority to start planning to join an existing or a new one

CPP's Ryan Mudie thoughts on labour's approach to devolution, industrial strategy, local government - sharing for those who missed this first time round.

Not getting to obsessed with fiscal rules -@thePowerTest new episode is out and looks at all things fiscal for labour.

Labour have just published their plan to 'power up Britain' (yes, they've actually gone for it), which sets out some more detailed thinking on their approach to devolution, industrial strategy, local government, among many other things. Five things I found interesting...🧵

'In the face of an incredibly challenging fiscal and geopolitical environment, Reeves’ Mais lecture marks a substantial departure from the status quo in UK economic policy.'

✍️ CPP's Ben Franklin looks at Rachel Reeves's vision of inclusive growth. ⬇️
progressive-policy.net/publications/a…