Growth and Reform Network

Image of an area of England showing different regions. Overlaid is the text: England's hidden quarter trillion. Local authorities across England are sitting on at least £276 billion of untapped economic opportunity that could be released by tackling place-specific barriers to growth.

Councils across England could unlock £276 billion of untapped economic potential with support from the government to break down place-specific barriers to growth.

That’s more than a 10th of national output.

Read more about new analysis revealed today: www.local.gov.uk/about/news/h...

What was great about today's CSR?

🏠investment in social infrastructure - £39bn for affordable homes
🕰️longer term settlements - 10 yr capital investment fund for some city regions
🧒prevention focus - early intervention in childrens social care
📗reflective government - green book review

(1/2)

📢 We're #hiring!
Join the Growth and Reform Network as our new Communications & Engagement Officer. Help shape inclusive economic growth and public service reform across the UK.

📍 Flexible location (London base)
💼 £29–34k, FT, Perm
📅 Apply by 3rd June
🔗 www.progressive-policy.net/about-us/car...

Message for UK mayors building new institutions and relationships with councils and citizens (from Prof Jorrit de Jong speaking at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk ):

1. See the opportunity in new institutions- structure to follow strategy
2. Build trust by telling stories of self us and now

Capital gains • Resolution Foundation This report assesses the UK’s public investment challenges ahead of the 2025 Spending Review, highlighting legacy weaknesses in social infrastructure spending and setting out how targeted investment c...

ICYMI: @resfoundation.bsky.social promoting investment in social infra at SR25 esp. housing and health

Exciting to see @centrepropolicy.bsky.social arguments cutting through - growth must be based on realising the potential of more people and places
www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

Public service reform: Changing the rules of the game Written by Charlotte Augst, a voluntary and community sector leader.

How should the government get to where it needs to on health?

A new blog by @charlotteaugst.bsky.social/ considers how health policy can be better delivered as a meeting of national & local health leaders in Leeds today, discusses the health neighbourhood agenda ⬇️
open.substack.com/pub/futurego...

📣Six weeks’ paternity leave at 90% of average earnings could deliver a net economic gain of £2.68bn per year

@tanyasingh99.bsky.socials fabulous economic analysis with @jrf-uk.bsky.social featured in @financialtimes.com yesterday and in a new blog on the CPP site today 👏

www.ft.com/content/5c4a...

Paternity leave, rewritten CPP teams up with The Joseph Rowntree Foundation to explore what a better paternity leave offer could deliver for Britain.

Britain’s paternity leave offer is meagre: two weeks, poorly paid, and inaccessible to many.

We teamed up with @jrf-uk.bsky.social to ask what a better paternity leave system could deliver for Britain.

The result? A boost to growth while supporting families.

Read more at: bit.ly/44LEiaW

It’s smart policy: low fiscal cost, high social return. A rare win-win.

🔗 Find the full report here: www.jrf.org.uk/work/improvi...

🔗 Find today's coverage in the FT here: www.ft.com/content/5c4a...

The biggest gains? Among low and middle-income households where current leave is least accessible.

Our modelling draws on 28 studies across 16 countries and finds that the key driver is a rise in women’s working hours.

🧑‍🍼 More dads at home → 💼 more mums in paid work → 💷 real GDP gains.

2/3

🚨 Britain’s paternity leave system is failing families - and the economy.

New analysis from The Centre for Progressive Policy and @jrf-uk.bsky.social shows that offering 6 weeks of paternity leave at 90% pay could deliver a £2.68bn net economic boost each year👇
🧵1/3

MPs urge Rachel Reeves to extend paternity leave Calls come as research suggests UK economy would benefit from more generous offering to new fathers

NEW analysis from @jrf-uk.bsky.social & @centrepropolicy.bsky.social shows how improving paternity leave can boost UK growth

Data from countries with more generous leave shows it tackles gender norms & helps women into work, with an economy-wide benefit of £2.8bn

www.ft.com/content/5c4a...

This or That-ism? Growth myths that are holding back the economy Tanya Singh busts 3 dichotomous growth myths that are holding back growth.

With the economic background becoming increasingly challenging, it is time to rethink outdated assumptions.

@tanyasingh99.bsky.social identifies three growth myths that have previously constrained economic policy making - and will continue to do so if they are not left behind👇
bit.ly/3FP4cAt

There is clearly an imperative to grip the ballooning welfare bill and rising economic inactivity due to ill health. The challenge is that the interventions that will tackle the root causes - preventative public health, employment support, joined up training and pathways - are stretched further.

Bringing Britain out of its productivity crisis UK productivity has stagnated and nowhere is this more evident than in the sectors that keep our towns and cities running – retail, social care, hospitality and...

With the government's Industrial Strategy being published in June and Local Growth Plans being finalised, Annabel Smith and Tanya Singh look to the productivity crisis occurring on your high streets in a new article for the MJ 👇
www.themj.co.uk/bringing-bri...

3/3

💷Underperformance in the foundational economy costs the UK £105 billion, yet it often remains an afterthought in economic strategy.

2/3

Nowhere are the UK's productivity challenges more evident than in the sectors that keep our towns and cities running and employ millions locally – retail, social care, hospitality and transport🚆🛒

🧵1/3

📢CPP's Director of Research and Analysis, @rosiefogden.bsky.social, responds to today's Spring Statement👇

This week is my last at the Centre for Progressive Policy after 6 and a… | Ben Franklin This week is my last at the Centre for Progressive Policy after 6 and a half brilliant years. It’s been a delight to hold a variety of leadership positions…

Personal news update:

This week is my last at the @centrepropolicy.bsky.social after 6 and a half brilliant years. There have been too many highlights for my highly limited Bluesky abilities so have put out an extended post on my time and next steps here:
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

📣OUT NOW – Impactful Devolution 02: Local govt for the digital era

Last week the PM set out plans for digital change across Whitehall.

Our new report with @publicdigital.bsky.social sets out how digital can drive reform in local govt. Read it here ⬇️
www.futuregovernanceforum.co.uk/resource/imp...

❗In case you missed it:

@tanyasingh99.bsky.social looks to the foundational economy to revive UK productivity.

We need to re-frame the debate and realise the potential of our local players to address place-based challenges.

🖇️ Read the blog at: bit.ly/41AYoS9

Prompted by the government's recent Plan for Neighbourhoods and @iconeighbours.bsky.social interim report, I wrote a short piece reflecting on the challenges people face in my neighbourhood and how policy can respond.

Transforming neighbourhoods Transforming Neighbourhoods

🏘️How can one of London’s wealthiest boroughs contain neighborhoods that are among the most deprived in England?

In our latest blog @bjafranklin.bsky.social sets out his experience of living in a high deprivation area in Bromley👇

inclusivegrowthnetwork.org/ign-insights...

A timely reminder from @tanyasingh99.bsky.social that with local growth plans and national industrial strategy being finalised, the everyday economy shouldn't be discounted as separate to efforts to revive UK productivity.

Rayner rolls out £1.5billion pot to boost 75 neighbourhoods - see list of areas A total of 75 areas will each receive up to £20million in funding over the next decade to help revive high streets, youth clubs, parks and libraries, the government said

Quick thread on today's commitment to £1.5bn for neighbourhood renewal channeling John Prescott's New Deal for Communities of the 2000s. www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Nice piece from my colleague @tanyasingh99.bsky.social . New shiny sectors are important, but can't forget about lower paid sectors too in understanding our productivity malaise and spatial inequalities.

The Productivity Blind Spot: Why UK policymakers can’t afford to… Tanya Singh sets out how the UK can crack the productivity code in it's foundational sectors.

🚨The underperformance of the UK's foundational sectors costs the economy at least £105 billion.

Our latest blog from @tanyasingh99.bsky.social asks how policymakers can solve the productivity puzzle in the foundational economy👇
inclusivegrowthnetwork.org/ign-insights...

26 February 2025 - Equality at work: paternity and shared parental leave - Oral evidence - Committees - UK Parliament 14:00 - Room 8, Palace of Westminster

🔗 Full recording available at: committees.parliament.uk/event/23209/...

🚨 Extending statutory paternity leave by six weeks, with 90% pay, could generate £2.6 billion in economic gains.

CPP is proud to have supported this important work with @jrf-uk.bsky.social . Watch @abbyabhaya.bsky.social discuss the economic case for paternity leave at the WEC.