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
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News and Views
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