Books For Economic Development Professionals
The Local And Regional Economic Development Handbook: Build Prosperous, Sustainable and Inclusive Local Economies
Everything the field expects you to know — in one reference you can trust, for the whole of your career.
Read it once and you’ll have the grounding the job assumes you already have. Keep it on your desk and you’ll reach for it for years — when you’re making the economic case to elected members, testing a business plan that has to stack up, designing a programme that needs to deliver, or briefing a partner who’s relying on you to know. Thirty-two years of UK practice, distilled into a single working reference that spans every discipline in the field and shows you how the work actually gets done. Whatever your role in shaping places and economies, this is the book that makes you more confident, more credible, and more effective — in the room and on the ground.
Prosperity In Every Postcode: Build Organisations That Turn Devolution Into Economic Development and Growth
Learn how to set up the organisations and teams that can discover and implement best practice themselves, and continually improve.
Power, money and responsibility are moving to mayors, combined authorities and councils – the opportunity places have been asking for. The places that thrive will be the ones that build the capability to use it well: sound evidence, strong relationships, well-designed programmes, disciplined delivery and continuous learning. All of it is buildable, and this book shows how.This book is not a strategy document and it is not a toolkit. There are no holy grails of local and regional economic development: no formula, no transplantable model, no single lever that works everywhere. What there is, instead, is a set of disciplines and capabilities that make institutions great at delivery. Prosperity in Every Postcode is an operating philosophy for the people responsible for the results.
Testimonials and Team
Glenn (BA, MA, PhD) has 31 years of experience in local, city and regional economic development and regeneration.
This includes executive leadership, project development and leadership, area visioning programmes, leading partnerships, and economic analysis and insight.
Glenn has held senior roles at Futureskills Scotland, London Development Agency, Centre for Cities, The East of England Development Agency, and Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP.
Glenn also heads up a consultancy practice at Mylocaleconomy; and contributes to the Local Skills Improvement Partnership.
"A Fabulous Resource For Our Industry"
“A big shout out to Glenn Athey who has taken his many years in economic development consultancy and created Economic Development World (www.economicdevelopment.world), the UK’s first online community for local and regional economic development that provides CPD, on-demand lean learning, a community of peers and workbooks. Built on three pillars of accelerated learning, shared knowledge and community support, it is a fabulous resource for our industry. Have a look at Glenn’s video tour at: https://economicdevelopment.world/take-a-video-tour-of-economic-development-world/
“From what I have seen already, this has the potential to create a stepchange in how the UK delivers economic development, putting the skills and development of practitioners, whether newbies or old hands, front and centre.
“Get yourselves signed up, get involved and support this great initiative.”
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲: 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 ‘𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮’ 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗣𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁
You have a brilliant economic development plan. You present it to the City Council, the Board, or the Regiona/State Committee, and it dies a slow, bureaucratic death. Why? Because getting the green light to proceed in economic development is a game of two halves: 1)...
𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸: 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙥𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙟𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙨
At Economic Development World, we like to think "what if" and how we'd respond professionally to a challenge. Here's our thoughts on this one - what would you do? 𝘠𝘰𝘶’𝘷𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 £𝟤𝟢𝟢 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵—𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘰𝘳’𝘴 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦...
Beyond the Brochure: Elevating your Investment Attraction Game
I'm writing and recording the video lessons for the new Economic Development Community of Practice I'm launching later this year over at economicdevelopment.world One of the issues that causes me endless frustration is that many localities in the UK fail to get beyond...
Get your offer out in a language that business understands
𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 "𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻" 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀? 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮? 🚀 The word "innovation" can sometimes feel vague or lead to a narrow focus on R&D without a clear path to commercial success. What if we reframed the...
International Lessons From City Deals
𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 I was lucky to participate in a 𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 last week. Here are the key lessons from the UK and Australia on City Deals. It was a chance to reflect on the great report I wrote with Professor...
Best Practice Economic Development Organisations Don’t Just Implement Programs
𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 Organisations 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙨. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦. Here’s the behaviours I've seen from 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 economic development organisations: 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻:...