PROSPERITY IN EVERY POSTCODE
Build Economic Development Organisations That Turn Devolution into Growth
Every place has potential. Not every place knows how to unlock it. Devolution is the biggest opportunity local and regional economic development in Britain has had in a generation. It is also on a clock. This book is about what the people doing the work can get right – and how to build the capability, culture and leadership that deliver.
What experts and professionals are saying about The Local and Regional Economic Development Handbook
“What a brilliant book! It shines an important light on how to actually make economic development work at what is a pivotal time in the industry. Glenn is genuinely curious in examining best practice and barriers to economic development and is generous in sharing his considerable experiences to bring together practical ways to build a best in class economic development team. I wish I had this years ago!””
“As we move to a new phase of devolution in England, this book challenges place leaders to start with an honest and critical view of their local economy’s past, present and potential future. This powerful book jumps straight to the hard truths about local economic development – and gives practitioners the tools to face those hard truths.”
“Glenn Athey pulls no punches when he says that, if we want to achieve growth in the places we work to support, then that economic development work and the teams that deliver it needs to be great. Not good or adequate, but GREAT. Because, as he explains, 40 years of good and well-intended economic development work hasn’t achieved that aim.
He sets out clearly the underlying causes of that and, encouragingly, clear and achievable steps to address those. He also leaves no doubt that this work is urgent. Obviously so for the people and communities that will benefit, but because government have been proven to be fickle, opting to change or defund anything that can’t be shown to be successful rather than wait for improvement. Without measurable results in five years, those doubts will start to arise, and red pens will be poised over the work and the teams that strive to deliver growth.
The book provides the motivation and clear steps to build and lead great economic development work. If you need to be convinced, or to convince others, that great work is both essential and achievable, read Prosperity in Every Postcode now. “
Do you want to be great at economic development?
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.
There is no other book like it.
Chapters 1-2: The Reckoning
The lessons of forty years of policy, honestly told – so the next decade can be different.
Chapters 3-4: The Truth
Understand how your economy actually got here and what is really causing its condition. Everything downstream of a wrong diagnosis is waste.
Chapters 5-6: Discovery
The part most books in this field do not have: generating solutions with ideas and foresight, backing the right businesses, and fusing ambition with credibility.
Chapters 7-9: The Work
PlaDelivery: building the impactful and stopping the rest, asking why when delivery stalls, and the learning organisation that can prove its case to government.
Chapters 10-13: Leadership
Partnership that matches the complexity of the economy, the organisation and people that decide whether any of it takes, leadership that takes everyone with you – and the standard the whole endeavour is judged by.
What Prosperity In Every Postcode Covers
Learning from the past to be great in the future.
Part I. The Truth
Diagnosis before prescription – always.
Chapter 1: We Can’t Go on Like This – 40 Years of Failure – four decades of policy experience, distilled into lessons you can use.
Chapter 2: The Habits That Keep Places Poor – honest reflection on the field’s habits, turned into better ones.
Part II. The Reckoning
Chapter 3: Understand How Your Economy Got Here – beyond the dashboard: analysis that explains, not decorates.
Chapter 4: What’s the Cause? – causal knowledge, account management, and relationships that reveal what the data cannot.
Part III. Discovery
Generating solutions worth delivering.
Chapter 5: Foresighting Means Solutions Discovery – thinking several steps ahead, backing the businesses that are the future of growth.
Chapter 6: Ambition With Realism – credible ambition: grounded in real assets, costed against real delivery solutions, staged so progress is provable.
Part IV. The Work
Delivery and learning
Chapter 7: Build the Impactful, Stop the Rest – the pipeline, the filter, and the discipline of saying not yet.
Chapter 8: When Delivery Stalls, Ask Why? – diagnosis over defensiveness when reality pushes back.
Chapter 9: The Learning Organisation – evaluation that changes decisions, memory that survives reorganisation.
Part V. Leadership
Organisation and place leadership
Chapter 10: Partner Like the Economy Depends On It – real partnership changes budgets and behaviour, not calendars.
Chapter 11: The Organisation and Its People – from the author’s doctoral research: why management, staff and culture decide what structures cannot.
Chapter 12: Leadership: Taking Everyone With You – culture, scrutiny, and the lessons of Singapore’s EDB.
Chapter 13: Prosperity in Every Postcode – created, shared and sustained: the standard the book is named for.
Part V. The Ten-Year Test
About the Author, Dr. Glenn Athey
I’m an active speaker, facilitator, advisor, and consultancy working with a range of clients in the UK and internationally. I also offer these services:
Speaking and facilitation. Want to know more? Click here.
Retained advisor. Want to know more? Click here.
Professional CPD. I run a professional CPD site and service at economicdevelopment.world
Custom training. Want to know more? Click here.
Consultancy: Looking for full consultancy support? Visit mylocaleconomy.org.
FOR ECONOMY AND PLACE PROFESSIONALS
Who This Book Is For
Economic Development Practitioners The comprehensive career reference for everyone in the profession — from new starters to directors, from specialists to generalists, from local authorities to national programmes. → Find your level
Town & City Planners Bridge the gap between spatial decisions and economic outcomes. Build the evidence literacy to interrogate the economic cases put in front of you. → For planners
Real Estate & Property Understand the economic forces — agglomeration, cluster dynamics, place trajectory — that determine long-run location value and where occupier demand will genuinely concentrate. → For property professionals
Universities & Higher Education Navigate the civic university agenda and local growth partnerships with a proper understanding of the economic development landscape you’re expected to help shape. → For HE professionals
Skills & Employment Connect provision design and employer engagement to the labour market intelligence and economic strategy that should be driving them — but often isn’t. → For skills professionals
Government & Civil Servants Design, fund, and evaluate economic development interventions with a clear understanding of the implementation failure patterns that have defined the UK’s regional policy record. → For civil servants
Community Leaders & Anchor Institutions Understand the economic development system well enough to engage with it on your own terms — not just as a consultee, but as a voice that shapes outcomes. → For community leaders
Teams & Organisations Build shared frameworks, common language, and collective capability across an economic development team, Combined Authority, LEP, or consultancy. → For organisations
Be The First To Know
News and Views
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...
𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝟰 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 – 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 “𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲” 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲
One thing I’m enjoying about my LPIP Fellow research project is the chance to get stuck into some research disciplines and specialisms that I’ve not really spent much time in before. Over the past two weeks I’ve been deep into the “Policy Failure” field of research....
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:...
The Hidden Cost of Vague Objectives
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗮 𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗩𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗲 𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀. (and it will make or break your economic development initiatives) 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵, 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴. → Simply having a "mission statement" doesn't...
14 Years of Economic Development Consultancy – What’s Next?
Today marks a significant milestone for me – 14 years since I launched my consultancy business! It’s been an incredible journey, and I’m proud of the impact I’ve been able to make in economic development for cities, regions, and local areas. My career in numbers speaks volumes: Clients seek me out for my: I’ve had […]
Day #6: The Ph.D. I started 30 years ago has given me superpowers for using AI
𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗮 𝗣𝗵.𝗗. 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗜 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘄𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜 So I’m getting into this AI thing, you know. Its like your own pet research assistant sending it away to look into things, validate ideas, and seek new insights. I’m lucky in away I’ve got such...
𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 / 𝗜 M𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲 C𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗿𝘃𝗼𝘆𝗮𝗻𝘁
Today I’m working as part of a pro-bono relationship I have with Cambridge Cleantech to help shape the ClimateTech SuperCluster. The https://www.climatetechsupercluster.com/ is already up and running across 5 countries (UK, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium)...
Day 3: UK regional inequality / procurement woes continue
Today I’m back working my LPIP fellow research project. LPIP stands for the “Local Policy Innovation Partnership” (see more at https://lpiphub.bham.ac.uk/meet-the-lpips/ ) and it’s about innovation and best practice in local sustainable economic, social and...