01Implications for policy

National policy

• Use the £23 billion Productivity Fund to increase density in city centres, with the aim of encouraging innovation and information sharing to occur. Specifically it should be used to fund projects set out as part of a detailed local authority-led plan for improving city centres through upgrading office space, public realm and transport connections.
• Do not subsidise out of town office space, as has been done in the past for example through enterprise zones. Some innovative businesses will of course prefer out of town locations to a city centre base and policy should not actively stop this. But they won’t need a subsidy to be encouraged to locate there either.
• Encourage investment in innovation through R&D grants and tax credits and evaluate their outcomes to improve the impact of such policies in the future.

Local policy

• Put a spatial plan in place that understands and reflects the roles that different parts of a local economy play and how they link together, particularly focusing on increasing density in city centres.