June 2020 highlights

YU highlights

‘Yorkshire’s universities are crucial to the region’s recovery’

YU submission to the Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG)

Innovation Deals

Covid -19 Economic Recovery Plan: Greener, Fairer, Stronger – Our Vision For York & North Yorkshire

"Working together, making the most of our great place and growing from our strengths, we can shift to a greener, fairer and stronger economy, accelerating opportunities for innovation and change in York and North Yorkshire."

Read more about the vision and recovery narrative here.

See communication pack and recovery plan below:

Reports

Nesta: Innovation after Lockdown

Innovation will be vital to Britain’s economic recovery. But unless we change the way innovation is funded and supported, recovery will leave too many behind. Read the full report and executive summary below:

Blogs & webinar

YU: ‘Starting and scaling up business…in a period of recovery' by Monika Antal, YU Executive Manager

"Last week, a request landed on our ‘virtual desk’, originating from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and linked to a series of economic recovery roundtables that are expected to inform the emergency budget announcement scheduled for the second week in July."

HEPI: 'An earthquake is coming for universities' by Andrew George

"Deep underground, tectonic plates bump and grind against each other, building immense pressure. The tensions remain latent and unrecognised for years until a sudden shift, an earthquake, changes the landscape forever. "

WonkHE: 'What does it mean to offer a full student experience this September?' by Jim Dickinson and David Kernohan

"It’s great to see Universities UK offering a “full and exciting” student experience involving things like “outdoor sport” and “working with bars”. This sort of commitment to understanding students’ lives and the wider student experience is very welcome."

WEBINAR: Beyond Covid - Rebuilding local economies after Covid-19 - Mayor Andy Burnham, Neil McInroy & Sarah Longlands

This Beyond Covid webinar saw Greater Manchester Metro Mayor Andy Burnham, Sarah Longland from IPPR North, and Neil McInroy from the Centre for Local Economic Strategies discussing the critical role of local and regional governments in implementing strategies to build back better after the crisis.

Andy highlighted the way in which the government’s centralising tendencies helped undermine its covid-19 response- a problem made worse by years of austerity - and laid out some of the ways in which local authorities and Metro Mayors could respond more boldly to the crisis.

Sarah and Neil spoke of the need for meaningful devolution, with a broader remit for devolved authorities beyond seeing narrowly-defined local economic growth as the target.

Association of Colleges - REBUILD: A Skills Led Recovery Plan

"In a recession, young people and disadvantaged adults are less likely to find work, and more likely to lose their jobs, scarring them economically for the rest of their lives. We can avoid that happening this time, if we focus on getting people trained and ready for when the labour market begins to grow again.

In ‘Rebuild: a skills led recovery plan’, AoC is calling on government for another bold and necessary course of action to reduce the post post-furlough shock, minimise the risk of economic scarring, and prepare the country for the rebuild."

You can find the full and shorter versions of the AOC recovery plan below:

ONS Labour market overview, UK: June 2020 - Estimates of employment, unemployment, economic inactivity and other employment-related statistics for the UK. Early indicators for May 2020 suggest that the number of employees in the UK on payrolls is down over 600,000 compared with March 2020.

Leeds City Region C-19 dashboard

• You can find the full fortnightly report here, and the briefer, weekly dashboard is here.

Blogs

YU: 'Innovation Deals' by Dr Peter O'Brien, Executive Director

"Tom Forth and Richard Jones’ recent report, ‘The Missing £4 Billion’, published by the innovation specialists, Nesta, presents in-depth analysis and a series of thought-provoking, yet practical, proposals on how to rebalance the current uneven geography of research and development (R&D) spending within the UK. The report is timely and has gained much attention, not least for the case the authors make for government to devolve 25 per cent of the planned uplift in R&D funding to nations, cities and regions. A stark statistic contained in the report is that large parts of the UK, including Yorkshire, are missing out on £4 billion a year in public R&D funding."

YU: 'COVID-19 and beyond: understanding student expectations' by Roger Lewis, Associate

"At this time of year prospective students gear up for university. Amidst the uncertainty, 2020 might be no exception despite some of the current thinking. What, in the current climate are students expecting in September? Anecdotal evidence suggests that ‘the student experience’ (i.e. ‘being at uni’) is the first thought of many. It’s always been a moot point as to how far their provider’s responsibility extends into that wider area so let’s focus on specifically educational provision. Last week’s 2020 HEPI/Advance HE Student Academic Experience Survey offers some initial insights at a time of the lockdown period."

WonkHE: 'Mobilising the higher education sector on climate change' by Sonya Peres

"Although the UK further and higher education sector is complex and holds diverse interests, there is widespread acknowledgment that we need to play an instrumental role in tackling this crisis. Indeed, many universities and colleges are already taking action, but we need to do more. We need to act together to strengthen our response to the climate emergency. The Climate Commission for UK Higher and Further Education Students and Leaders, a collaboration between Association of Colleges, EAUC, GuildHE and Universities UK, is coordinating action in the sector."

WonkHE: 'Does the student number cap incentivise over-recruitment?' by David Kernohan

"A curious multi-year effect of 2020s new student numbers cap means that it might make more sense to break it - for certain kinds of university."

EY: 'Exploring the economic geography of COVID-19 across England - The COVID-19 economic shock will be very large' by Mark Gregory

"There is no doubt that COVID-19 will deliver a huge shock to the UK economy and the consequences of this impact could last for some time. Although lockdown has now been with us since 23rd March, we are just beginning to build our understanding of the nature and scale of the economic effect. The data on what has happened so far is only just emerging and we are at a very early stage of the recovery."

Wakefield Council's Regeneration & Economic Growth: 'Local Leadership in recession and recovery' by Tom Stannard

Today's ONS statistics showing a record and alarming GDP fall in the UK economy during April are sobering for us all. Some of these short term economic effects of the pandemic, whilst predictable, have alarmed economists because of the sharpness and severity of their impact. It is also worrying to see some recent commentary claiming the economy "is over the worst of it", when we know that recessions cast a long shadow, and the deeper the recession, the longer that shadow can fall.

WEBINAR: The Learning & Work Institute - Getting Britain back to work - tackling unemployment after coronavirus: recording of the webinar.

WEBINAR: HEPI's Nick Hillman in conversation with Michelle Donelan

Reports & articles

Campaign for Social Science: Universities and the recovery of local communities from the COVID-19 crisis: A role for the social sciences

By Professor John Goddard OBE FAcSS (Emeritus Professor of Regional Development Studies, University of Newcastle) and Des McNulty (Assistant Vice Principal for Economic Development and Civic Engagement, University of Glasgow, and Vice Chair of the Glasgow Commission for Economic Growth)

This article was originally commissioned and published by the Campaign for Social Science as part of its COVID-19 programme.

" While universities face major challenges to their funding and business models as a result of Covid-19, many are nevertheless deepening connections and collaborations with the NHS, local authorities, businesses and the community and voluntary sectors in the areas they serve. In these instances, universities are making significant contributions to local and regional responses not only as anchor institutions with significant economic and employment roles and responsibilities, but also as sources of expert advice and support."

OECD Economic Outlook, June 2020: The world economy on a tightrope

The global outlook is highly uncertain: The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis without precedent in living memory. It has triggered the most severe economic recession in nearly a century and is causing enormous damage to people’s health, jobs and well-being. The Outlook focuses on two equally probable scenarios – one in which a second wave of infections, with renewed lock-downs, hits before the end of 2020, and one in which another major outbreak is avoided.

Data visualisation & analysis

Job Retention Scheme and Self Employment Income Support UK cities and large towns by Centre for Cities.

Blogs & podcasts & webinars

Blog: 'Give the UK’s nations and regions the tools they need to prosper' by Richard Jones

"This piece is based on talks I’ve given to present some of the arguments of the paper Tom Forth and I have just published with NESTA. The full paper is available here: The Missing £4 Billion: Making R&D work for the whole UK. "

"The UK is two countries, economically. In terms of productivity, “Greater South East England” – London, the South East and some of the East of England – is a country with a level of productivity comparable to richest parts of the rest of Northern Europe. But much of the rest of the UK – including the Midlands, the North, much of the Southwest of England, together with Wales and Northern Ireland – is more comparable to East Germany and Southern Italy in its productivity"

Read more here.

Blog: 'It takes a virus? Leveraging COVID-19 to accelerate Levelling-Up' by Prof Greg Clark CBE, Chair, Connected Places Catapult

"Recent reports on the issue of regional disparities within the UK have revealed how complex, extensive, enduring, and deep the challenge is. Multiple inter-dependent and self-perpetuating processes, coupled with different place endowments, contribute to the reasons that some regional economies appear to surge ahead, and others become scarred and fall behind. These divides are further crystalised and entrenched through reinforcing behaviours about locational decisions made by mobile people, firms, and investors. They have been further reinforced by government policies, that unintentionally exacerbate such divides, and give them an almost ‘pre-determined’ aura."

Read more here.

Blog: 'Health, Wealth and Wellbeing' by Dame Jackie Daniel

"This week I’ve been thinking about our city and the legacy we want to create following the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s clear that the North East has been hard hit by coronavirus and given the levels of deprivation experienced by our population that’s not a surprise. It’s another stark example of the challenges we see every day. As the ‘anchor’ health organisation for the North East we are rightly proud of our ‘outstanding’ services and high standards, but we also know that our local population continues to have some of the worst public health outcomes in the UK."

Blog: WonkHE - 'For universities, persuading government post-Covid-19 will mean persuading voters' by Rachel Wolf

Rachel Wolf argues that government priorities post-Covid-19 are increasingly clear, and universities have a chance to influence if they respond now to the changing political landscape

Podcast: IFS - Coronavirus and the economy

Listen here.

Webinar: NESTA The missing £4 billion: making R&D work for the whole UK

• The webinar took place on Tuesday 02nd June 2020 - recording of the webinar is now available to view online here.

The UPP Foundation - How young people can be supported during and after the global Covid-19 pandemic

"Disadvantaged young people under the age of 25 should be given the opportunity to work for 6 months in a paid placement around the country, under proposals published by the UPP Foundation and a coalition of school trusts and charities. In a call for action to “safeguard young people” after Covid-19 and build upon a “mood of civic engagement”, a Community Leadership Academy would deliver a six months full time or part time paid work placement for young people doing work to support local communities - addressing the risk of mass youth unemployment."

Briefings

Centre for Cities - Road to recovery: A framework for policy - How should the Government roll back its support in a way that allows growth to occur across the country?

"The Government was swift to bring in a number of policies to support businesses as a result of the Covid crisis. But how should it roll back this support in a way that allows growth to occur across the country?

There is no easy answer to this, but the timing of the roll back of these policies, as well as what replaces them, will have major implications for the nature of the recovery. This briefing sets out principles on how this should be done to help support the recovery across the country. It makes three main recommendations."

Data & analysis

Leeds City Region weekly monitoring report on Covid-19 economic impacts

• 28 May 2020 issue

• 5 June 2020 issue

Blogs & webinar

SHU - 'Moving forwards' by Professor Sir Chris Husbands

"Lockdown is now ten weeks old. Spring has slipped into summer; evenings have lengthened and the days have warmed: last week was glorious May weather. At Sheffield Hallam, as elsewhere, our minds are increasingly turning to the next season, to Autumn and to the new academic year."

Read more here.

CLES - 'Economic recovery and reform: the role of community power' by Neil McInroy and Tom Lloyd Goodwin

"Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, our economy was failing many people and the planet. The imperative then was to create an economy that serves our needs, and shares wealth amongst as many people as possible. This imperative has only been amplified by the situation in which we now find ourselves. We believe the surge in community power in response to COVID-19 harbours the key to building back a better economy."

Read more here.

Forbes - 'An MIT For The North Of England?—Sheffield University’s Blueprint For Innovation' by Trevor Clawson

"It may be something that has been temporarily forgotten due to more pressing matters, but when the U.K. eventually returns to something approaching normality, the success of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is likely to be measured against an electoral promise to “level up” the economy across the regions."

Read more here

WEBINAR: Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit - A new path to COP26: your role in shaping a successful climate summit