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Madison E. Kerr opened the proceedings at the Festival of North West Thinking Conference 2021. An economist with Pro Bono Economics (PBE) she drew comparisons between her upbringing in Massachusetts and the UK, where she has lived for six years.
The audience forgave her choice of domicile – some one has to live in Yorkshire!
Her opening talk drew on PBE research that indicated a strong desire of people to see local control over spending decisions, with national bodies tapping into local knowledge. She then compared this to the current state of play which is a complete reversal of this position. She also referenced work that PBE has undertaken for You Gov where the top five people priorities for “Levelling Up” were:
Good jobs with decent pay
Health
Crime
Housing
Local infrastructure
where as the majority of awards under various “Levelling Up” schemes were on national infrastructure (HS2 etc)
Her engaging presentation concluded with a call for National Government to listen to local people.
Madison’s presentation slides can be viewed here.
