Neil is CEO of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) www.cles.org.uk – UK’s leading independent think and do tank, realising progressive economics for people and place. CLES’s aim is to achieve social justice, good local economies and effective public services for everyone, everywhere.
At present he is focused on applying a progressive economic model for places which includes ideas around local wealth building. Local wealth building is a new people-centred approach to local economic development. It is a range of practical actions that reorganises local economies so that wealth is retained and flows into our towns, cities and communities, rather than flowing out.
Neil has been commissioned and collaborated, with a broad range of local, regional and national governments and agencies across UK and in Europe, Asia, US and Australasia. He is an Honorary Fellow at the Manchester Urban Institute, University of Manchester, and a Visiting Fellow at Edge Hill University.