The next CEO of the British Library will need to have an important blend of human, comms, and strategic skills. Quite the role!
Link: join-britishlibrary.co.uk?li_fat_id=e8...
🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Longer days ✅️
More sunshine ✅️
Exploration by bike ✅️
#neverstopexploring
*Major swoon*
And if you haven't seen his account, where have you been?!
Link: www.instagram.com/_stephenspen...
“I need a bold harmonic shift here, when we learn the man drived the rainbow car.”
Very pleased to see this little profile of Stephen Spencer. His IG brings joy 🙏🏻
Keeping this long thread going!
"We want to hear from you: the creators, the doers, the dreamers, the community champions, the everyday Buxton believers."
It's Charlie's manor 🤣
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Peaceful forest walks are good for the soul ❤️
Separate to the prison sentence, I'm always shocked when someone can categorically demonstrate they cannot be trusted to control 1,500kg of metal and *not* be banned for an extremely long time.
Only hitting one of these today.
Yesterday evening I spoke to an Indian investment delegation as part of their three-day UK visit exploring real estate opportunities.
There was a brilliant positive buzz in the room as we talked all things economic performance, structural reforms, and investment opportunities.
Great view too!
"Build to rent is no longer a secondary option and in many places it is becoming a core delivery route, providing stability when sales markets are constrained. More broadly, tenure flexibility and realistic assumptions about risk are essential if regeneration is to remain investable."
So good you have to get out twice! Sunny hills and a blustery wind to blow away cobwebs. 10/10 would recommend.
Glorious sunny Sunday 😍
Will I be jinxing it if I say it feels like spring in the hills today?
I replied before seeing you'd already got there! Damn.
'Super forecasters', you say...?
"It has been an exercise in what economists call "comparative advantage" & "agglomeration"...Manchester has young people, workers, space & lots of globally important cultural assets, from music to football & cycling. Above all, it has long had Europe's biggest university campus"
Completely agree. Requires a strategic authority with budget to make this type of thing happen across a functional area.
This. 100% this. It can be achieved.
From a case-making perspective, I'm excited about Green Book changes to emphasise being 'place based': making the case for multiple connected investments that alone might not deliver enough outcomes but as a collection could be transformational.
Whole system x spatial economics.
Spot on! I worked with both @hayleylever.bsky.social and @warrenheppolette.bsky.social at @gmmoving.co.uk - learned so much about what this takes and what can be achieved from them.
It's a big moment for places!
Essentially, to be transformational will require places to avoid simply recreating the current silo-ed decision-making process seen across Whitehall. Who is translating across topics, priorities, and budgets? Who is providing leadership agency to 'do things differently here'?
For any but particularly new strategic authorities building the team will determine how quickly you can realise transformation.
Skills x behaviours & culture are central to this. You need a blend of skills/disciplines but everyone needs to work in a open & curious way. All following a North Star.
From a case-making perspective, I'm excited about Green Book changes to emphasise being 'place based': making the case for multiple connected investments that alone might not deliver enough outcomes but as a collection could be transformational.
Whole system x spatial economics.
This is why I'm fascinated by the economics x whole system overlap. (Some might simply call that 'political economy'.) But I do think it's a bit different: it's practice, it's learning-by-doing. How quickly can new combined authorities bring this to bear?
None of this is easy. It requires relentless and transparent conversations across places. It demands a focus on inequalities to avoid areas falling behind. It needs an open approach and a division of political and administrative power. It lives through everyone pointing in broadly the same direction
