This week voters across England will go to the polls for local elections. In Newcastle upon Tyne, however, the city’s own elections are still a year away – with an all-out council election scheduled for 2026. Yet the national focus on local government provides a timely moment to reflect: How can Newcastle protect and strengthen its commitment to inclusive economic growth – and what must come next?
Inclusive Economic Strategy
Launched in 2024, Newcastle’s first ever Inclusive Economic Strategy marked a historic shift in the way the city approaches economic success. The strategy backed by all the city’s major anchor institutions, redefined what growth should mean: not just more jobs or higher GDP, but fairer outcomes, better health, and opportunities for every resident.
In a national context where local authorities are often battling financial pressures and rising inequalities, Newcastle’s approach stands out as visionary, practical, and urgently needed. A Strategy built on fairness, health, and opportunity
Our Inclusive Economic Strategy was clear-eyed about the challenges:
- A 12+ year gap in healthy life expectancy between the city’s richest and poorest communities
- Child poverty rates approaching 39%
- High levels of benefits dependency linked to poor health, disability, and insecure work
The strategy didn’t treat these as side issues, but as core economic questions.
Good health, financial security, skills, and belonging were positioned as foundations for sustainable growth – not outcomes to be addressed after the fact.
Key actions included:
- Embedding community wealth building principles into council and anchor institution spending
- Driving up the number of real living wage employers
- Expanding local skills initiatives linked to the green and digital economies
- Integrating health, employment, and skills support to reduce long-term welfare dependency
The goal was simple but powerful: a city where wealth flows for all.
National policies have created both opportunities and challenges. Recent National Insurance cuts have offered some workers modest gains, but broader welfare reforms risk pushing vulnerable groups further into poverty.
The previous government’s Levelling Up funding supported isolated projects, long-term local government finance remains stretched – forcing cities like Newcastle to innovate or face deeper inequalities. Against this backdrop, Newcastle’s inclusive model has been a beacon – demonstrating that growth without fairness is not real progress.
Since the launch of the Inclusive Economic Strategy, Newcastle has seen a change in political leadership. The strategy remains formally in place, but as we look toward 2026, an important question emerges: will the city’s new leadership fully embrace and deepen this commitment to inclusion, health, and shared prosperity?
An opportunity for focus
The building blocks are there. The partnerships with anchor institutions are strong.
But leadership matters. And over the coming year, residents, businesses, and communities will rightly watch closely to see whether inclusive growth remains central to Newcastle’s future – or slips down the agenda.
As local elections dominate headlines elsewhere, Newcastle’s pause before its own citywide election offers an opportunity – not for complacency, but for focus. Newcastle’s first Inclusive Economic Strategy showed what is possible:An economy that works for everyone, not just for some.
The next twelve months will be critical in deciding whether this ambition becomes a permanent feature of the city’s identity – or just a promising chapter that went unfinished.
The choice is not yet on a ballot paper. But it is already being made – every day, in every decision, in every priority.
Newcastle’s future is still being written. Let it be one where wealth truly flows for all.
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