John Mills joined a Policy Exchange panel discussion at this year's Labour Party Conference to discuss how to tackle geographic disparities and regenerate struggling towns and regions.
The panel explored whether regional investment can address five interlinked challenges:
- A lack of local job opportunities beyond low-skilled, low-pay sectors such as retail, local services, agriculture and logistics;
- Low-quality and under-resourced public services, and an inability to retain and attract talent;
- Weak local civic institutions; including those at the local government level;
- Low-quality infrastructure and limited connectivity;
- An overall sense of decline and loss of pride in place.
Watch the discussion below:
Other speakers included:
David Goodhart, Head of Demography, Immigration & Integration.
Andrew Jones, Cities Programme Leader at AECOM.
Jim McMahon MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport.
