Information, intelligence and insights from the genecon team

A recent policy focus from Central Government has been to reverse the persistent decline of the town and city centres. To achieve this, funding streams such as the Future High Streets Fund (FHSF), Towns Fund and Levelling-up Fund (LUF) allowed Local Authorities to bid for funding to deliver capital projects that increase footfall and dwell […]

How local government finance works – what is the outlook and implications for future capital schemes? Since the austerity agenda that began with the Conservative – Lib Dem coalition government in 2010, local councils have become used to annual reductions in central government funding. Steadily reducing grants have placed increasing financial pressure on councils, along […]

Western donors spent US$179bn on international aid in 2021 and have transferred between 0.25% and 0.5% of their Gross National Income (GNI) into aid for decades[1]. The UK Government cut its aid budget to £11.4bn in 2021 – over double the £4.8bn allocated to the second round of the Levelling Up Fund (LUF2). We highlight […]

Are economic clusters the answer to good green growth? The benefits and drawbacks of economic clusters by Dr Jason Frost Internationally, clustering is a tried and tested method, with examples of success in countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Israel, as well as regions such as Hamburg, or Silicon Valley and even Hollywood. A recent report […]

Whilst it is generally accepted that having significantly fewer and non-polluting electric cars on our heavily congested roads is desirable, the practicality of achieving this is also generally accepted as being an unlikely reality in the near future. Despite there being a substantial increase in the number of electric cars being sold in the UK […]