Regional growth is a key component for improving productivity growth in the UK. The gaps in productivity between English regions are unusually large compared to other countries. Why is that? What can be done about it?

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:

• Andy Westwood, Professor in Public Policy, Government and Business at The University of Manchester & Policy Director at The Productivity Institute.
• Jennifer Williams, Northern England Correspondent at The Financial Times.
• Jack Shaw, Senior Advisor at Labour Together and Policy Fellow at The Productivity Institute's Policy Unit.

For more information on the topic:

• Bart van Ark, Jim Pendrill, Kate Penney, James Wilson and Raquel Ortega-Argilés (2025), Regional Productivity Agenda, The Productivity Institute.
• Bart van Ark and Andy Westwood (2025), The Productivity Agenda Needs to be Joined Up and Scaled Up Across Regions, The Productivity Institute, 27 January
• Jennifer Williams (2025), Need more joined up thinking on the north, The Financial Times, 3 April.
• Andy Westwood (2025) Regional growth, Labour and the biggest decisions still to come, Policy Brief, The Productivity Institute, 5 March.
• Jack Shaw (2024), Devolution: the importance of scale and coterminosity, Policy Brief, The Productivity Institute, 28 November.
• JP Spencer (2025), Nation Rebalanced: How do we create a country that works for all places?, Labour Together.
• Michiel Daams, Colin Mayer and Philip McCann (2024) Regions, cities and finance: The role of capital shocks and banking reforms in shaping the UK geography of prosperity, Productivity Insights Paper No. 041, The Productivity Institute.
• Michiel Daams, Philip McCann, Paolo Veneri and Richard Barkham (2023) Capital Shocks and UK Regional Divergence, Working Paper No. 035, The Productivity Institute.

About Productivity Puzzles:

Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, eight Regional Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.