What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth 2023-2025

The What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth was set up in 2013. The overall aim of What Works Growth is to increase the cost-effectiveness of policies for local economic growth by improving the use of evidence and evaluation in their design and delivery. What Works Growth is led by a partnership between the London School of Economics and the Centre for Cities.

In the next phase of funding What Works Growth will undertake activities to support high quality impact evaluation, improve the use of evidence in policy design and delivery, and build capability and capacity in local government.

Supporting high quality impact evaluation

We will provide advice to central and local government on evaluation of policies and programmes, through one-to-one meetings, workshops, written advice, and comments on documents.

We will identify evaluation evidence gaps and work with central government to help design and conduct 'demonstrator' evaluation projects to address them. We will also support local areas to take part in high-quality evaluations coordinated or funded by central government.

We will promote excellent evaluation methods and advise on best practice, through bespoke projects and as members of a range of advisory boards and steering groups. We will provide support on cross-cutting evaluation issues that apply to multiple policies or programmes.

We will support those within local government who have more capability and opportunity to undertake impact evaluations. For those who cannot currently conduct impact evaluations, we will focus on helping them understand the basics of evaluation and how it can help inform better policy design.

We will expand our 'how to evaluate' resources which provide case studies and guidance on evaluation, and we will provide training to promote evaluation methods and best practice, and to build capability and capacity.

Improving the use of evidence in policy design and delivery

We will extend our range of free evidence resources to provide decision makers with accessible and reliable evidence on what works to drive local growth. This will include policy briefings which use economic theory and evidence to help policymakers think through the impacts of a policy; evidence reviews which summarise key findings from our rigorous literature reviews; and toolkits which aim to inform specific aspects of policy design within a broad policy area.

We will deliver training on how to use evidence, including webinars and 'live learning' sessions.

We will undertake user-focused policy projects addressing key challenges, such as responding to the challenges and opportunities arising from the transition to net-zero.

We will undertake a programme of engagement and impact activities to reach decision-makers at all levels. Our local programme will include bespoke support for a selection of local areas, and free resources and training and a new online forum for all users. Our central government programme will build on the work of the current funding period, during which the appointment of a Head of Policy allowed us to be more responsive on a wider range of issues, in particular in supporting our co-funders.

We will expand our engagement work to work with the Devolved Authorities and with stakeholders outside government who contribute to policymaking, such as Parliament and think tanks.

Building capability and capacity

We will deliver advice, training and resources as discussed above to improve evaluation and use of evidence in policymaking.

We will develop innovative approaches to building local capability across the UK, informed by an understanding of local needs. We will continue to contribute to the evidence base on knowledge mobilisation through, for example, What Works Network partnerships, publications, and research participation.

We will work with the academic community, building capacity to engage with policymakers and supporting other ESRC investments.