Lancashire Evening Post reports Corbyn’s major speech on public ownership and the economy

October: in a major speech on public ownership and the economy – which may be read in full here – Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn singled out Preston Council.

Preston’s skyline, by Carl Ji, a Chinese student, at the University of Central Lancashire

Relevant extracts from the speech:

The Tories have devolved austerity to local councils and, perversely, areas with higher levels of poverty have been hit hardest. Councils have on average faced 40 per cent cuts in their budgets. But in the face of this adversity councils such as Preston have responded with inspiring innovation.

They brought together major local employers in their community, what academics call the anchor institutions, and Preston Council worked with them to drive through a local programme of economic transformation.

By changing their procurement policies, these anchor institutions were able to drive up spending locally protecting businesses and jobs.

And they’re looking at the council’s own pension fund to see where investment can support local businesses keeping the money circulating in their town.

Alice Thomson of the Times writes, “Jeremy Corbyn in a recent speech hailed Preston for showing the way to a new post-Brexit Jerusalem” but ends “A move by Preston council to employ more of the talent in its area deserves to be copied, but not by Jeremy Corbyn . . . “

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More from her article will be quoted next week on the LWM blog.

 

 

 

 

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