LED Confidential
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Today’s combined position on our country charts.
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Latest episodes
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Universities under pressure: can their place-anchor role survive the sector's cash squeeze?
October 8, 2026 · 47 minIn this guest episode, David and Mike are joined by Professor Andrew Jones, economic geographer and Vice Chancellor and President of Brunel University London, to ask whether universities can keep playing their anchor and civic roles as…
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Civil Service secondments to Mayoral Strategic Authorities: the capacity building we need?
October 1, 2026 · 12 minIn this Espresso Shot episode, David and Mike ask whether the Civil Service secondments to Mayoral Strategic Authorities announced in August 2026 represent real capacity building or an under-powered initiative at a time of intense…
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The return of onshore wind to England: can host communities reap the benefits?
September 24, 2026 · 10 minIn this Espresso Shot episode, David and Mike ask who stands to gain as onshore wind returns to England after a decade under a de facto ban. With around 45 applications in the year to March , the highest in ten years, and capacity entering…
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New NPPF: homes, compute and the energy and water question
September 17, 2026 · 10 minIn this Espresso Shot episode, David and Mike ask if the new National Planning Policy Framework, published on 17 August 2026, offers an approach that is optimised for local economic development and placemaking or remains primarily a…
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Scotland's tripartite governance test: can devolution go beyond Holyrood?
September 3, 2026 · 40 minIn this guest episode David and Mike are joined by David Waite, Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow, to ask what Andy Burnham's "Manchesterism" means for a nation whose devolution architecture is tripartite…
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What can World Cup 2026 tell us about economic geography?
August 27, 2026 · 12 minIn this Espresso Shot episode, David and Mike use World Cup 2026's chaotic build-up and predictable result as a provocation about devolution and place-based funding. If a 48-nation, multi-billion-pound tournament still produced exactly the…
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LSIPs: the local skills plans more of us should be talking about
August 20, 2026 · 10 minIn this Espresso Shot episode, David and Mike make the case that England's new wave of Local Skills Improvement Plans might be among the country's most sophisticated skills planning exercises yet. They trace the leap in quality from the…
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Heat mortality and local economic development: who owns the agenda?
August 13, 2026 · 9 minIn this Espresso Shot episode, David and Mike unpack why, in the shadow of an estimated 2,700 heat-related deaths in England and Wales this summer, longer-term adaptation to heatwaves still lacks clear strategic leadership in local…