For local government officers navigating complex economic challenges, logic models offer a practical tool to help design, communicate and evaluate interventions. To date, we’ve run training to…

This blog is co-authored by Megan Streb, What Works Growth Deputy Director Outreach, and Rich Pickford, Co-Chair of the Areas of Research Interest (ARI) Sub-Committee at Universities Policy…

In this guest blog, Aadya Bahl talks about the analysis done for the CEP report Hive of talent: what would it take to raise skills and productivity in Greater Manchester? published last week. For…

While the economic impacts of new rail lines and large road schemes have been greatly studied, far less is known about the economic effects of improvements to existing local public transport networks....

What effect do large events like Taylor Swift concerts and Welsh Rugby have on local economies?

What do the air you breathe, the Thames Barrier, and the Armed Forces have in common? It is impossible to exclude anyone in society from benefitting from them. We breathe the same air, flood…

Skills are an important driver of local productivity.

This blog focuses on enterprise and competition, and complements the blogs on GVA and productivity published in summer 2024.

In September the government published the Defence Industrial Strategy 2025. This is the last of eight sector plans in the national Industrial Strategy, alongside Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy…

The drivers of productivity include skills, capital, innovation, enterprise and competition, and land. This blog focuses on capital.

This blog is the first in our new series on the drivers of productivity, including include skills, investment, innovatio and enterprise.

August means airports, and now that air travel has rebounded from the lows during the Covid-19 pandemic to reach levels where globally there are more flights than ever, airports face bigger and…

Last month the government published new guidance for Mayoral Strategic Authorities on Local Growth Plans. These are a key foundation of the new Industrial Strategy and the government’s ambitions for d...

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Victoria Sutherland, Deputy Director of Evidence at the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth to discuss their recent rapid evidence review on…

Local economies are not all the same, and economic strategy should never be a cookie cutter approach.

UK local and combined authorities are being asked not just to justify investments but to demonstrate their impact.

Evidence-based policy is at the heart of good practices in policymaking. Impact evaluation provides a key source of evidence to help understand what really works and we need more impact evaluation of…

Original evidence reviews published in January 2016. Updated evidence review on enterprise zones published May 2025. Area based initiatives can have positive impacts on local growth outcomes, but…

When faced with major job losses in a single area, how can local policy makers best support those left out of work? What kind of support is provided to workers affected by major job losses? Major job…

What are they and what do they aim to do? University spin-offs are business ventures founded by academic staff to commercially exploit academic research. Spin-offs can strengthen the linkage between u...

We outline lessons and recommendations for the evaluation of local growth policies drawing on a number of evaluations over the years.

Our new publication, Lessons and recommendations from What Works Growth’s evaluations of local growth policies, draws on a number of evaluations that What Works Growth has carried out over the years.

In this guest blog, Dr. Max Nathan, Henry Overman, Capucine Riom, and Maria Sanchez-Vidal set out evidence on the impact of BBC (partial) relocation to Salford on wider employment in the area. This bl...

In this guest blog, Paul Swinney sets out why the Industrial Strategy should be focused on the productivity of our biggest cities.

In this guest blog, Dr. Max Nathan, Henry Overman, Capucine Riom, and Maria Sanchez-Vidal set out evidence on the impact of BBC (partial) relocation to Salford on wider employment in the area. This bl...