Measuring and influencing economic prosperity in Bolton

Steer Economic Development (Steer-ED) was appointed by Bolton Council to develop the Council’s understanding of prosperity in the Borough, develop a set of indicators for how prosperity can be better monitored, and prepare an Action Plan for improving prosperity in Bolton.

The work built on Bolton’s Strategy for Growth 2016-2030, and the more recent Greater Manchester Independent Prosperity Review. These extant resources were used to develop a baseline of Bolton’s current and projected economic situation, and benchmarking Bolton with a set of comparator towns to support the assessment of Bolton’s key strengths and challenges.

The Baseline Report provided the foundation for identifying key barriers to shared prosperity, and included a review of the alignment of Bolton’s current strategy with Greater Manchester’s economic strategy. A workshop coordinated by the client, and subsequent stakeholder interviews, generated views and insights for actions and their measurements.  The final output included a detailed Action Plan providing a set of clear, measurable, and achievable actions which could be undertaken by the Council and partners to ensure Bolton’s people, places, and  businesses benefit fairly from economic growth.

Following approval of the Action Plan by the client’s Task and Finish Group for Economic Development, the project moved into its implementation phase, with owners being assigned to develop delivery activities for each shortlisted action.

The work was directed by Fred Beltrandi and managed by Dr Rob Macnee, with technical expertise provided by Simon Pringle.