The role of local economic development should be to lessen the worst excesses of wealth extraction, serving to ensure that economic gains deliver social benefits within environmentally sustainable limits. However, as things currently stand, this interventionist strategy for improving the lives of citizens is falling far short of expectations: a new, substantive approach is urgently required.
At the latest count, 14 million people are living in poverty in the UK – more than one in five of the population, including four million children and two million pensioners. Zero hours contracts have recently hit a record high – with almost a million people now having no guaranteed work from one week to the next. The updated Marmot Review has revealed a stalling life expectancy for the first time in a century.