Policy & practice seminar: Devolution and economic growth in the UK

A cornerstone of Andy Burnham’s policy agenda is the devolution of powers from Westminster to local areas. As part of the country’s most radical devolution attempt in a generation, ministers plan to roll out ‘strategic authorities’ across England, and allow local authorities to retain a portion of income tax revenues. The devolution agenda aims to spur economic growth by encouraging local growth and reinvestment in infrastructure, housing, and public services within local communities. 

While devolution can create incentives for local leaders and encourage local experimentation, critics note that it may not necessarily be a silver bullet for long-term economic growth. Our expert panel will examine the question of devolution and its implications for economic growth in the UK. 

Meet the speakers
Akash Paun is a programme director at the Institute for Government. He leads the Institute’s devolution programme, overseeing work on the state of the Union, and on devolution both to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to English cities and regions.  He has previously conducted research on subjects including civil service accountability, parliamentary reform, coalition and minority government. 

Judith Barker joined the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority as Executive Director of Place and Connectivity in January 2024. She has considerable senior experience in partnership working, strategic and operational economic development and place shaping and has worked widely in the east of England. 

David Phillips is an Associate Director at the Institute of Fiscal Studies. He leads the IFS’s work on devolved and local government finance, with a particular focus on the distribution of funding, and the incentives and risks that different funding regimes entail for sub-national government, as well as responses to these incentives. This includes work on the fiscal frameworks of Scotland and Wales and on the ongoing major changes to English local government finance. He also leads the IFS’s programmes on tax and social protection policy in developing countries, including the joint IFS–ODI Centre for Tax Analysis in Developing Countries (TaxDev). 

Chair: Alan Renwick, Professor of Democratic Politics in the UCL Department of Political Science, and Director of the UCL Constitution Unit. 

This event will be recorded and the video will be uploaded to our YouTube channel. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel to be alerted when the recording is uploaded.

Seats are allocated on a first come, first served basis. We cannot guarantee you a seat, but it is very unusual that we have to turn someone away.

• The corridor outside the lecture theatre(s) is sufficiently wide enough (150cm+) to allow wheelchair users to pass.
• There is step free access into the lecture theatre(s).
• The door opening width(s) is/are 75cm+ for the lecture theatre.
• There are designated spaces for wheelchair users within the lecture theatre.
• The designated spaces for wheelchairs users are located at the back.
• There is space for an assistance dog.
• There is a hearing assistance system for the lecture theatre.
  

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2026 is the year in which we celebrate UCL’s Bicentenary, marking 200 years since UCL’s establishment as the first University in London.

UCL Political Science and School of Public Policy are celebrating with a programme of seminars that relate to one of UCL’s core research themes: Fairer Futures

This event is co-orgainsed by UCL Political Science, and .

Event venue & nearby stays

Archaeology Lecture Theatre G6, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, United Kingdom

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