Economic and Social Research and Analysis

Many local areas and wider city regions have been seeking to understand better the dynamics of their local economy. We have conducted comprehensive local economic assessments and wider reviews for a diverse range of locations from the market town of Barnard Castle in rural County Durham to the manufacturing centre of Walsall in the West Midlands. We have recently analysed economic geography and linkages between the key population and employment centres for Tyne and Wear City Region and have prepared economic masterplans and strategies across a number of the core cities and major towns such as Sheffield, Manchester, Plymouth, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The recession brought with it a need for policy makers to understand the resilience of their local economies and some of our most ground breaking work led to the development of an Index of Economic Resilience for the Yorkshire Cities group of local authorities. The Index, which brings together a host of economic indicators to provide an overall assessment of an area’s ability to recover from an economic shock, has been used by local authorities to review and strengthen their strategies in the changed economic climate.

At times of economic shock decision makers often reflect on the course of action that was taken to learn any lessons. Our work on the 2007 Yorkshire floods was cited at the national level as an example of good practice and we have been commissioned to review Yorkshire Forward’s response to the recession.

Our social research covers many topics and geographies, ranging from support to develop and implement a strategy to tackle worklessness in Wigan to the use of paramedics to provide anticipatory care in rural Scotland. We work with a number of trusted collaborators to ensure we can meet our clients’ needs for high quality qualitative and quantitative research, online, over the telephone and face to face, across the UK.

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