It's my last blog of 2024, and after a year at @clesthinkdo.bsky.social it felt like an opportune moment to reflect. My key takeaway is that "We cannot hope to see flourishing local economies if our people and places do not have a seat at the decision-making table" #communities #localeconomy

"Often, bringing power from Holyrood down to our local places seems to be a step too far here in Scotland." @naomimason.bsky.social's latest Scotland update covers power, the good the, bad and the ugly from last week's Budget and her reflections from 12 months at CLES ➡️ cles.org.uk/blog/scottis...

Our condolences to the family of John Prescott on his passing today. An advocate for local and regional economies, John spoke at launch of CLES, and was President until 1997. Later, he wrote the foreword to this paper on the future of English regions: cles.org.uk/wp-content/u...

The event report from our second #CWBConvo is up now on the MJ, with Naomi Mason reflecting on the opportunity that community wealth building provides for rural places 🔗 themj.co.uk/powering-rur...