Interim report on the feasibility of constructing a regional Measure of Domestic Progress (MDP) for East Midlands Development Agency

Investigates the feasibility of constructing an adjusted monetarised indicator of regional economic well-being, based on the structure of the nef’s Measure of Domestic Progress (MDP). Provided an overview of challenges in issues addressed in the development of the Regional Index of Sustainable Economic Wellbeing (RISEW) for the 2006 Regional Economic Strategy

Repositioning the High Street: evidence and reflection from the UK

Purpose Drawing on evidence from ten towns (across England, Wales and Northern Ireland) participating in the High Street UK 2020 (HSUK2020) project, the aim of this paper is to reveal how local stakeholders involved in place management respond to High Street decline through a strategy of repositioning. Design/Methodology/Approach This paper identifies the challenges faced by towns considering repositioning, and highlights examples of good practice of relevance to practitioners. First, it outlines perspectives on repositioning from academic research and theory, before drawing on evidence from across ten UK towns who participated in the HSUK2020 project, to reveal how repositioning involves more than just taking a snapshot profile of a place. Findings The research revealed major challenges faced by local stakeholders in clearly identifying and communicating their market position, in particular, the maintenance of up-to-date information on catchments was lacking in all of the locations. Despite having local knowledge and some data, stakeholders still did not possess a clear (or shared) understanding of the identity or function of their towns. This evidence reflects the complexity of analysing and understanding repositioning and developing coherent strategies. Practical Implications Knowledge exchange between stakeholders involved in place management can help inform the identification of new strategic objectives, appropriate interventions, and project planning and delivery. Where resources are limited, particularly in smaller towns and settlements, the research demonstrates the significance of collecting and sharing data and analysis with other stakeholders, because this can generate positive outcomes for all. Originality/Value By offering empirical evidence based on the experience of local practitioners, this paper provides a valuable insight into how town centre stakeholders collect, interpret and analyse data, revealing the challenges, opportunities and practicalities involved in developing and implementing repositioning strategies

Towards a balanced scorecard: A critical analysis of the Culture and Sport Evidence (CASE) programme

This article provides a critical analysis of the methods employed in the Culture and Sport Evidence (CASE) programme. Based on a comprehensive review of the arts management and cultural policy literature, it contests recent claims that the cultural sector should state its value in the economic language of policy appraisal and evaluation (O’Brien, 2010) and proposes alternative methods for evaluating the drivers, impact and value of engagement in the arts, including the balanced scorecard approach. The literature identifies a number of fundamental problems in quantifying the social and personal impact of the arts, and an underlying policy issue is that the arts have become increasingly subject to the benchmarks of incompatible disciplines and practices. This paper seeks to redress the balance by questioning the argument that economic cost benefit analysis is the best way to understand cultural value and influence public policy. As the CASE programme aimed to make the business case for optimum Government investment in sport and culture, it adopted the framework set out in HM Treasury’s Green Book and took a quantitative, evidence-based approach to measuring the drivers, impact and instrumental value of engagement, disregarding established qualitative studies and approaches, which have been shown to articulate cultural value through a more personal, intrinsic and holistic lens. This article makes the case for a more balanced approach to cultural evaluation and a more holistic articulation of cultural value, which would combine intrinsic and instrumental benefits and comprise both qualitative and quantitative methods. The key implication of this re-conception of value is that cultural policy should be evaluated not on return on investment but rather against a balanced range of objectives and articulated in a language that reflects artistic practice and speaks directly to existing and potential audiences

The geographies of access to enterprise finance: the case of the West Midlands, UK

The geographies of access to enterprise finance: the case of the West Midlands, UK, Regional Studies. Whilst there is a long history of credit rationing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, the financial crisis has seen banks retreat further from lending to viable SMEs due to a reassessment of risk and lack of available capital. In so doing, the credit crunch is thought to be creating new geographies of financial exclusion. This paper explores the financial inclusion of enterprise through community development finance institutions (CDFIs) which provide loan finance to firms at the commercial margins in the West Midlands, UK. The paper concludes that CDFIs could partially address the financial exclusion of enterprise as an additional, alternative source of finance to that of mainstream banks

Measuring enterprise impacts upon deprived areas.

There has been a growing interest amongst policy makers concerning the role of enterprise development in deprived areas. At present there is a lack of robust empirical evidence to demonstrate the actual contribution of enterprises to the alleviation of deprivation. While many existing studies rely on measuring the number of jobs created, this report presents a new methodology for measuring the contribution of different types of enterprises to disadvantaged areas using a wide range of economic and social indicators. The report begins by offering a conceptual overview of the types of impacts. The framework recognises the range of impacts received by a wide range of stakeholders, as shown in the figure below. The issue of enterprise success in deprived areas offers the promise of uniting the Government’s interests of economic competitiveness, social inclusion and neighbourhood renewal. In addition to a wide range of local and regional government policy, the types of national policy include: the Small Business Service’s Phoenix Fund and Business Link support services, the Department for Education and Skills’ New Entrepreneur Scholarship scheme, the Department for Work and Pensions’ New Deal for the Self-employed, H.M. Treasury’s Stamp Duty Relief, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Business Improvement Districts, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ support for rural businesses as well as many other non governmental initiatives aimed at enterprise development in deprived areas

Barriers and opportunities for evidence-based health service planning: the example of developing a Decision Analytic Model to plan services for sexually transmitted infections in the UK

Decision Analytic Models (DAMs) are established means of evidence-synthesis to differentiate between health interventions. They have mainly been used to inform clinical decisions and health technology assessment at the national level, yet could also inform local health service planning. For this, a DAM must take into account the needs of the local population, but also the needs of those planning its services. Drawing on our experiences from stakeholder consultations, where we presented the potential utility of a DAM for planning local health services for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the UK, and the evidence it could use to inform decisions regarding different combinations of service provision, in terms of their costs, cost-effectiveness, and public health outcomes, we discuss the barriers perceived by stakeholders to the use of DAMs to inform service planning for local populations, including (1) a tension between individual and population perspectives; (2) reductionism; and (3) a lack of transparency regarding models, their assumptions, and the motivations of those generating models