Economic development work, from the board paper that commissions it.
Economic development is where devolution is actually landing. Local growth plans, devolved skills funding, investment zones, business support recommissioning – most of it gets agreed at a mayoral strategic authority board or a council cabinet before anyone writes a brief. GovLeads reads those papers across more than 200 English local and strategic authorities every weeknight and tells you which of it fits what you do.
What we watch for
This is cyclical work. It moves when a strategy is refreshed or a funding pot lands, and both of those show up in a committee paper first. The signals we go after:
- Local growth plans and economic strategy refreshes – new strategies, evidence bases, and the analytical support behind both.
- Devolution and strategic authority establishment. Deal implementation reports, governance reviews, and the list of functions moving across.
- Funding allocation decisions – growth and regeneration programmes, allocation reports, and the delivery capacity they immediately need.
- Business support and inward investment – growth hub arrangements, business support recommissioning, investment promotion contracts.
- Employment and skills – Adult Skills Fund plans, Local Skills Improvement Plan responses and the design of employment support programmes.
- Investment zones, freeports and strategic sites – delivery plans, site assembly decisions, infrastructure business cases.
- Commercial assets and town centres. Asset strategies, high street programmes, market redevelopments, meanwhile use.
If you sell strategy, evaluation, programme delivery or business support, the commissioning intention is nearly always visible before the brief goes out. The board paper agreeing a strategy refresh is, in practice, the first public notice that work is coming. Nobody calls it that, but that's what it is.
What lands in your inbox
Two items off an economic development brief, in the shape you'd get them.
Local growth plan refresh to go out to market
Board paper sets out a refreshed growth plan, with an evidence base and consultation support to be commissioned.
Why it matters: a chance to shape the brief before anyone writes it.
Employment support programme heading for recommission
Cabinet report reviews the current programme and signals a new delivery model from next April.
Why it matters: months before any notice, and the model is still open.
Illustrative sample
How it works
- Set your brief. Tell us what you get commissioned to do and which authorities you want watched. In plain English.
- We scan, every weeknight. Board packs, cabinet reports, committee agendas: thousands of papers from more than 200 English local and strategic authorities.
- Your signals, every morning. One digest, ranked. Each item tells you why it matters and links to the paper behind it.
Frequently asked questions
Do you cover combined and mayoral strategic authorities?
Yes, and they matter more each year. Strategic authorities sit inside the more than 200 English local and strategic authorities we scan, and a lot of economic development commissioning now sits with them. Board papers, committee papers and investment panel papers all get read.
Is this useful for consultancies rather than contractors?
Arguably more so. Strategy refreshes, evidence bases, evaluations, feasibility studies, business cases – every one of them is commissioned off the back of a decision recorded in a public paper, and that decision is normally the earliest sign a brief is coming.
How do you handle funding-driven work?
The delivery capacity question follows an allocation almost immediately. We surface the allocation report itself, then the delivery and governance papers behind it, so you see the shape of a programme well before anyone procures it.
Does devolution change what you cover?
It changes where the decisions get made, not whether they're public. The papers move to the strategic authorities, and we follow the papers.