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  • Southwark Economic Evidence Base

    We assessed how fair, green, and resilient Southwark’s economy is to inform the council’s new economic strategy

    Project overview

    LB Southwark commissioned PRD to develop an economic evidence base for the borough as the first step towards establishing a new economic strategy. The evidence base centres on three core themes and the issues that cut across them:

    • How fair is Southwark’s economy? (e.g. access to jobs, amenities, and services; income inequality; opportunities for young people)
    • How green is Southwark’s economy? (e.g. economy-related emissions; green jobs; implications and equity of green growth)
    • How resilient is Southwark’s economy? (e.g. resilience of sectors, residents, workers; climate resilience)

     

    With a strong focus on issues of equity and addressing inequality, the evidence base uses a mix of ‘traditional’ ONS social and economic indicators (e.g. sector breakdowns, jobs and business growth, income) and non-governmental data that provides more nuance on inequality and communities, such as information from the Urban Health Index, Trust for London, Consumer Data Research Centre, Civic Strength Index, and emerging research on low carbon goods and services activities. To understand the spatial aspects of inequality across the borough, the evidence base uses numerous maps, which tend to highlight central Southwark as an area where inequality is particularly embedded and deep.

    Alongside highly visual data analysis, we provided a series of decision points and considerations for each theme, intended to prompt LB Southwark on which approaches or focus areas may be most suitable for the new economic strategy.

    Project details

    • Client
      LB Southwark
    • Project Lead
      Amanda Robinson
    • Type
      Inclusive Economy, Data & Evidence