Blog

The foundational economy refers to the goods, services and infrastructures that underpin everyday life. From care and education to food, housing and transport, it encompasses the sectors in which most people work, where most public money is spent, and upon which we all depend for our daily needs. These are often taken for granted, yet they shape our life chances far more directly than high-tech innovation or global trade.

Enterprise is often framed as a numbers game: more start-ups, faster growth, higher productivity. But what if this narrow focus is missing much of what enterprise actually does for places like the North East of England?

The governance of England is at a pivotal moment as the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill makes its way through the UK parliament. This moment represents another shift in the long-running historical pendulum swing between regional, local and now sub-regional scale institutional arrangements.

This briefing delves into five such progressive local and regional economic development approaches: Inclusive Growth, the Wellbeing Economy, Community Wealth Building, Doughnut Economics, and the Foundational Economy.

A practical guide to embed inclusive growth in Investment Zones.

For decades, one of the great fears of economic growth was that it might come at much too high an environmental cost.