Addressing local economic disparities: Learning from policy failure
Think tank: City-REDI
Author(s): Glenn Athey
July 8, 2026
This report from UK think tank City-REDI examines why the UK remains one of the most interregionally unequal countries in the industrialised world.
This report examines why, after more than four decades of national policy, the UK remains one of the most interregionally unequal countries in the industrialised world. Drawing on the academic discipline of policy failure, it applies a common framework to eight major UK instruments – from the Regional Development Agencies to the Levelling Up Fund and UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
It finds that failure is not a series of isolated mistakes by individual governments, but a systemic pattern built into how policy is designed and delivered. Ten failure characteristics recur across every instrument, driving an “implementation doom loop” of short-termism, under-investment and institutional churn.
The report assesses the new devolution era introduced by the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, sets out what the world’s most effective governments do differently, and offers a constructive, forward-looking agenda for national and local leaders.
