The United Kingdom is facing a decisive decade of huge economic change, from tackling the energy bills crisis, to restructuring after Brexit and the pandemic, and urgently transitioning towards a net zero future. But it is doing that against a backdrop of low growth and high inequality, a toxic combination that leaves low- and middle-income households dangerously exposed to today’s cost of living crisis.

What role can economic strategies - national and local - play in responding to the challenges of the 2020s, to secure higher growth and lower inequality? How will the changes to come affect the jobs we do, the places we live and the businesses we work for? And what are the prospects of the country rising to these challenges?

The 2020s will see big new opportunities for people and places throughout the UK and North of England, if emerging and more well-established strengths in world-class scientific, creative, industrial and manufacturing assets are built upon. But these changes come with major disruption, and therefore also carry risks, with lessons to learn from how different areas of the UK have responded to past periods of economic change.

Greater Manchester’s many strengths must be harnessed to manage the economic changes of the 2020s well. But to really thrive, the city-region will need to find ways to ensure that everyone benefits from growth and investment aimed at reducing its productivity gap with places like London and Edinburgh.

The Resolution Foundation, in partnership with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) are co-hosting an event to debate these questions and find some answers. This event is part of The Economy 2030 Inquiry - a collaboration between the Resolution Foundation and the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE, funded by the Nuffield Foundation - and the Greater Manchester Independent Prosperity Review.

More information is available at resolutionfoundation.org.

Speakers

Diane Coyle Bennett Professor of Public Policy
Henry Overman Professor of Economic Geography, London School of Economics and CEP
Bev Craig Leader of Manchester City Council
Lou Cordwell Chair of Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership
Lindsay Judge Research Director at the Resolution Foundation
Torsten Bell (chair) Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation