Glenn Athey

Economic development (management, policy, strategy, enterprise, inward investment, innovation, employment, jobs, inclusion); Project development, management and appraisal; Public sector grants; Programme development; Leadership and staff development.

Inward Investment Priority Opportunities Review and Action Plan for London Borough of Tower Hamlets (Glenn Athey and Mark Beresford, 2021, £23,000 consultancy project). This project involved detailed analysis of existing perceived inward investment strengths and opportunities linked to existing firms, sectors and real estate developments (including the focus of Canary Wharf on life sciences in the former European Medicines Agency site); as well as open research into other opportunities and strengths which were not commonly expressed in policies and strategies. Analysis included economic statistics; sector statistics; business demography; performance; and equity investment (from Beauhurst); London and international FDI statistics and trends (from London & Partners and other international sources), and qualitative interviews with sector leaders and local stakeholders. This was then synthesized into an investment prospectus, which comprised a list of priority opportunities with rationale and evidence to justify this, an analysis of the scale of opportunity, and recommendations for actions to pursue the opportunities further; From August 2015 to July 2016 I managed the Growth Commission for the London Stansted Cambridge Consortium – public-private partnerships of local authorities and private sector leaders (comprising the local authority areas of: Haringey, this involved: • Briefing and helping to recruit 7 Growth Commissioners – high profile individuals that were influential in the business and policy world • Researching and writing a state of the region report • Working with global competitiveness and clusters expert Professor Michael Enright, and editing his report • Writing 6 global technology region case study reports • Setting up, managing and reporting on 4 inquiry events • Working with local authority partners, Growth Commissioners, the programme sponsors and their comms team on the final recommendations and report.

• Led and provided policy support to develop joint sustainable transport priorities for Local London;
• Led ‘growing together’ project for London First (now BusinessLDN) to forge a collaborative agreement with devolution with the Northern Powerhouse, Midlands Engine, and North West Business Leadership Team;
• Updated FDI proposition in the post-Covid, post-Brexit economy for London Borough of Tower Hamlets;
• Evaluated the Greater London Authority’s retrofit initiatives for public estates (RE:FIT) and social housing (Retrofit Accelerator: Homes), resulting in renewed funding for the next phase programmes;
• Built the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership from a start-up to having an operational budget of £750k and an investment budget of £18m within 12 months;
• Supported Leicester City Council in securing £27.9m Levelling Up Fund, and Harlow Council £23.7m Towns Fund;
• Consulted with local authorities and wrote a pioneering plan to simplify and improve local growth funding for the Local Government Association;
• Wrote a visionary Green Economy and Jobs Economic Strategy and Action Plan, influencing the policies of the North of Tyne Combined Authority and its constituent local authorities;
• Built and co-produced the London Stansted Cambridge Corridor’s Growth Commission including recruitment of commissioners, and final launch at the Houses of Parliament;
• Led research and intelligence team at the East of England Development Agency – which was singled out by the NAO as “the best example of regional level intelligence” it had seen;
• Successfully lobbied to secure UK London-based think tank Centre for Cities permanent core annual funding (£1m) from the Gatsby Foundation in a complex environment;
• Pioneered the first ever comprehensive review of support for enterprises in London, directly influencing and shaping the regional London Business Link service and contract specification;
• I have written the most comprehensive handbook to local and regional economic development available

32 years working in local and regional economic development; PhD in regional economic development; knowledge of policies, strategies, delivery, practice, funding and public policy and finance framework for local and regional economic development and regeneration.

I have a 15 hour online economic development professionals course which I can give paid access to with 1-to-1 support; I have written the most comprehensive handbook to local and regional economic development available and can design bespoke training programmes around this.

90% of clients and consultancy revenues over the past 15 years have been local government organisations

Consultancy basis or part-time (1-2 days per week) only

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennathey/