The New Weather Institute works with the network, Economists for Rational Economic Policies (EREP), which explores the progressive case for the UK remaining in the European Union in its new publication, “Remain for Change: Building European solidarity for a democratic...
Initiatives
Why policy-makers don’t see the next local economic revolution coming
New Weather has published a book including eight important narratives to explain the next local economic revolution. Instead of waiting for economic salvation by outside investors or Whitehall grants, local people are beginning to innovate themselves. The trouble is,...
Towards a people-powered prosperity
“Manchester is to get its own directly elected mayor with powers over transport, housing, planning and policing in a devolution deal worth more than £1bn.” Guardian, 3 Nov 2014 The trouble with economic recovery is that someone else always has to do it - the...
Briefing the election candidates
The underlying causes of an unbalanced economy
We don't live in a very literate age when it comes to economics. There are still people in Whitehall, even the Treasury, who believe that somehow – if cities decline or fall, if one place succumbs to grinding poverty – that is it the ‘market’ that did it. However...
Pattern for the people
Does pattern have to be superficial and imitative or can it capture a fleeting moment, the fingerprint of a place or even the spirit of a person? This is the idea behind my latest collection of prints by Dora, made with friends on my local allotments on Spa Hill in...
Redefining ultra-micro economics
New Weather is excited to be launching this new project in partnership with Friends Provident Foundation which we hope will help heal the rift between the emerging ultra-local economic sector and mainstream economic policy makers. The underlying problem is...
Towards the next devolution of power
What if Andrew Adonis and George Osborne are right? What if the key question for re-balancing the economy (not a phrase Adonis used) was to force through a major new devolution of economic power to the city regions? What if Michael Heseltine’s was right in his 2012...
The next devolution is economic
We have been working with the New Banking group, and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd, to develop practical policy detail about how to develop a more effective banking system in the UK - one that works for SMEs and local economies. The present banking system is...
Imagining an ethical Wonga
The central conundrum about payday loan companies is that they are designed to help people through what are intended to be unusual and temporary periods of financial difficulty. Long-term and repeated use of payday loans is seriously expensive. Yet the business...