EVERY DECISION THAT SHAPES A PLACE IS AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DECISION
The Local and Regional Economic Development Handbook
The Practitioner’s Guide for Everyone Whose Work Shapes Places and Economies
Whether you work in planning, property, higher education, skills, government, or community development — the economic forces reshaping UK places are directly reshaping your work. And if you work in economic development itself, you’ve never had a handbook like this one.
The Local & Regional Economic Development Handbook is the comprehensive, honest, practitioner-authored guide to how local economies work, why economic development so often fails to deliver what it promises, and what those working in and around the field can do differently.
What experts and professionals are saying about The Local and Regional Economic Development Handbook
“The breadth and depth of the evidence is impressive, written by someone who has worked extensively in local economic development for many years and is presented in a clear and accessible way. It should be essential reading for all practitioners, policy makers and leaders who want to bring about real change in the places they serve.”
“Glenn Athey has for decades been a leader in practitioner-based learning of how to understand and address local economic change. This impressive volume is intellectually rigorous and full of insight. Place professionals that need to take the economic consequences of their ‘silo’ actions more seriously should start reading now.”
“As a practitioner in economic development for forty years this handbook is the best resource on economic development that I have ever read.”
Gordon Kennedy, Former Deputy Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise Glasgow
“If you work in economic development, this will become your go-to resource. I love the practical focus, the case studies and the relentless focus on making lives and communities better.”
“This handbook is an exceptionally comprehensive and authoritative guide to local and regional economic development, in which Glenn has combined deep expertise with practical, real‑world insight. Its clear structure, strong evidence base, and actionable frameworks make it an invaluable resource for practitioners, policymakers, and leaders seeking to deliver meaningful economic change. Highly recommended!”
“Based on more than three decades of experience in the field, this handbook provides an in-depth introduction to economic development. It is peppered throughout with real-life examples, both from across the UK and internationally. The breadth of coverage is impressive. The focus on practice and impact shines throughout.”
“This handbook bridges the gap between theory and practice beautifully. A must-read for local government leaders, planners, and economic development professionals alike.”
“This economic development handbook is a ‘must have’ for anyone in the place-based economic field and provides valuable insights from Glenn’s extensive practical experience which is grounded in strong evidence and research.”
“This is a must read book and an added value accessary to anyone involved in economic development. You will learn a lot from his book and it is articulated in a way where you can translate good practice into your own locality.”
“A highly engaging, carefully crafted and thoughtful work grounded in reality and the practice of placemaking.”
Mark Beresford, International Trade, Tech Business and FDI expert, Director, Kinetic Cubed
The Practitioner's Guide for Everyone Whose Work Shapes Places and Economies
Written by Dr. Glenn Athey — practitioner, consultant, and advisor with thirty-two years of frontline UK economic development experience — this is a 500-page working reference that covers the full breadth of the field. From the economic theory underpinning place-based intervention to the political realities of making strategies actually work, from enterprise and inward investment to skills, inclusion, climate transition, and regeneration. It doesn't tell you what should happen. It tells you how things actually work, where the evidence is strong, where it is contested, and what implementation in the real world requires of the people responsible for it.
There is no other book like it.
I Work in Economic Development
This is the career reference you’ve been waiting for. Whether you’re new to the field, deepening your expertise, leading strategy, or building team capability — 500 pages covering every discipline, grounded in thirty-two years of UK practice. → Find your pathway
I Work in an Adjacent Profession
Planning, property, higher education, skills, government, community development — economic development shapes the context for all of these roles. This handbook gives you the grounding your profession increasingly demands. → Find your pathway
FOUNDATIONS, THEORY, STRATEGY AND MOST OF ALL PRACTICE AND CASE STUDIES
What This Handbook Covers
Eighteen chapters across three parts, covering the full breadth of local and regional economic development:
Part One — Foundations How local economies work. The economic theory underpinning place-based intervention. The history and evolution of UK economic development policy. The institutional landscape — from Combined Authorities and LEPs to Whitehall departments and development agencies.
Part Two — Core Practice Areas Enterprise support and business development. Inward investment and sector strategy. Innovation and knowledge economy. Skills and workforce development. Inclusive growth and economic justice. Place-making, town centres, and the built environment. Climate transition and the green economy. Evaluation and evidence.
Part Three — Conclusions and recommendations. Key lessons and principles for successful local and regional economic development.
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
What Makes This Book Different
- Some American textbooks and handbooks are very good, but describe different institutions and contexts and mostly focus on investment attraction
- Academic journals rarely synthesise insights into practical guidance
- Government documents describe WHAT should happen, not HOW
- Until The Local and Regional Economic Development Handbook was published, no single resource covered the full breadth of the field
Until now.
This handbook is written by a practitioner, for practitioners. It acknowledges complexity, embraces difficulty, and focuses relentlessly on implementation and delivery. It includes all functional aspects of local and regional economic development, brought to life in practice, with case studies; and also provides insight on the policy, strategy, action planning and economic foundations of economic development with practical case studies and illustrations.
★ Practitioner authored
Not written from an armchair or a library. Written by someone who has spent thirty-two years responsible for the outcomes — sitting across the table from clients, defending recommendations to elected members, watching well-designed programmes fail to deliver what they promised, and figuring out why.
★ Honest about failure
Most professional references in this field describe best practice. This one is equally interested in why things go wrong — and why they go wrong so consistently. The UK has a four-decade record of regional economic development policies that underdeliver. Understanding that record is essential to doing better.
★ Grounded in real experience
Built around real institutions, real policy history, real funding architectures, and the specific challenges of real places. Existing handbooks are good but only cover part of the system. This handbook describes the whole system.
★ Implementation First
Theory and strategy matter. But the gap between strategy and delivery is where most economic development value is lost. This handbook takes implementation seriously — as a discipline, as a challenge, and as the thing that ultimately determines whether any of the rest of it makes any difference.
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