New Directions for Local Economic

Renewal
Introduction
Research conducted by the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) at Manchester
Business School in collaboration with Professor Sukhdev Johal, from Queen Mary School of Business
and Management, on worsening regional inequalities and the mundane foundational economy has
been applied within Enfield Borough Council to develop a new approach to economic regeneration.
The old orthodox paradigm was about training and infrastructure to improve external
competitiveness and attract inward investment. Our new paradigm is about Council led relocalisation so that Enfield-based firms and the labour workforce obtain more benefit from new
projects; with the council persuading existing big employers, like utility companies, to provide
additional benefits for the local economy. In addition council resources, including leadership and
borrowing, to be used actively to drive renewal projects like housing for the homeless.
Key Benefits and impacts
From mid-2011 CRESC researchers made a series of presentations which argued that worsening
local problems required radical solutions. Enfield Council officers and councillors came together in
2012 to launch the New Directions programme based on CRESC recommendations. Several of the
new policies presented by CRESC in September 2011 have been acted upon for local benefit as
part of a new strategy:
1. CRESC persuaded Enfield to inquire about what resources utility companies and
supermarkets were reinvesting in the local community whose household demand they were
capturing. After conversations with an Enfield Councillor, British Gas in March 2013 signed a
10 million contract for retro fitting insulation to social housing with provisions for local
benefit.
2. CRESC reminded Enfield of its history of market garden food production for London, with
Waltham Forest the largest glass house district in Europe until the late 1950s. In line with
CRESCs arguments, the Council now plans to build a 50 acre commercial glasshouse using
waste heat from an incinerator and to train up a local labour force.
3. CRESC asked why, if the Enfield local government was earning 5% or less in the City of
London, the money could not be invested for similar returns in social housing, which is in
chronically short supply in all the North London Boroughs. Since spring 2012, Council
officers are working on releasing a portion of the Enfield Council pension fund for
investment in social housing.
The main impact revolves around the British Gass plans to hire 100 Enfield school leavers directly
to work with local further education colleges to train Enfield job seekers. Additionally, British Gas is
including in its supply chain a number of specialised Enfield-based construction sector SMEs. These
are local firms staffed by local residents who are undergoing the requisite energy-efficiency
accreditation process giving them the skills to participate in this growth industry. This means that
Enfield has attracted a major first-tier supplier that is looking to hire upwards of 50 people in
insulation manufacturing operations, and 250 in installation professions. Additional impacts
include:

Agreement of a five-year schedule of works with Thames Water to help the Council support
the involvement of local contractors and training for the workforce

Plans for investing some of the Councils pension funds into social housing stock in an
adjacent borough with reciprocal investment in Enfield

Enfield councillors and officers are now designing their own innovative policies, such as their
plan to buy houses for the homeless and avoid the expense of bed and breakfast; and to do
this through a special purpose company so that the tenant has no right to buy

References:
Froud, J., Johal, S., Moran, M. and Williams, K. Must the ex-industrial regions fail Soundings,
Winter 2012, Issue 52, pp 133-46
Bowman, A., Erturk, I., Froud, J., Johal, S., Law, J., Leaver, A., Moran, M. and Williams, K. The End of
the Experiment? From Competition to the Foundational Economy (Manchester University Press,
2014)