The East Midlands Inclusive Growth Commission was a 12-month exercise to set out a framework for achieving inclusive economic growth in the East Midlands.
The Mayor of the East Midlands and the new East Midlands Combined County Authority commissioned this work in late 2024.
In this final report, the commission grounds its recommendations in the practical and tangible, shaping them around the East Midlands’ unique strengths, challenges, and opportunities today and in the future.
The commission met with over 500 people, and conducted more than 100 separate engagements, including public events, surveys, focus groups, roundtables and bilateral meetings with people and organisations from across the whole region, alongside a wide-ranging programme of quantitative and qualitative research.
The East Midlands connects extensively and stands primed for growth. With a population of 2.2 million people and regional Gross Value Added of £60bn per annum, it is simply too big to fail.
The region boasts two dynamic cities, three universities, three freeport sites, three investment zone sites, and industrial strengths in engineering, defence, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, creative industries, and professional services.
However, the region faces deep challenges. A history of underinvestment, a low skills-low pay equilibrium, elevated rates of health-related worker inactivity, and areas of profound and multiple deprivation. Like much of the rest of the UK, the social fabric has weakened, and levels of trust and civic participation are patchy.
The newly formed Combined Authority and Mayor have a historic opportunity to put the East Midlands on a path towards achieving its considerable potential. But doing so will require a different model of economic growth.
The “city-centric” economic geography of Greater Manchester or the West Midlands contrasts with the “poly-centric” nature of the East Midlands region – two relatively small cities, a dispersed set of towns with mixed industrial heritage and recent fortunes, and large rural areas rich in natural assets.
With our research to guide them, local authorities can now take a strategic view across the region that was previously impossible under the fragmented system of local government in England.
Download and read the report to understand how this offers renewed opportunity to deliver growth that works for places across the region, and the people who live there.
Download the East Midlands Inclusive Growth Commission report in its constituent components:
