About us
PolicyDepartment was founded by Mike Spicer in early 2020 as a unique type of consultancy within the economic development sector. Our work concentrates on the business-centered interventions that drive economic growth in places and industries. Our work is guided by a clear set of values that shape how we approach evidence, engagement and delivery.
OUR VALUES
PolicyDepartment: how we work, and why it matters
We believe economic strategy should be useful, truthful, and grounded in lived economic reality
PolicyDepartment exists to help places, industries, and civic institutions make better decisions - not to produce documents that are more admired than acted upon.
Evidence before opinion
We start with rigorous analysis and are explicit about trade‑offs, constraints and uncertainty. We don’t shape evidence to fit pre‑determined solutions, we let evidence lead even when it challenges institutional comfort or prevailing narratives.
Practical impact over theoretical elegance
Our strategies are designed to be implemented. Unlike consultancies that prioritise generic conceptual frameworks and abstract “vision”, we focus on actionable recommendations that reflect funding realities, delivery capacity and governance constraints.
Employer reality matters
We treat the experience and revealed preferences of employers – properly sampled - as high-value forms of evidence. We integrate business insight directly into priorities, metrics and solutions.
Inclusive growth as a core test, not an add‑on
Economic success must be shared and defensible. We embed questions of inclusion, progression and social value into our analysis, rather than retrofitting them at the end as tick-box exercise.
Respect for public accountability
Our approaches when working with public-sector clients or funding are proportionate, transparent and aligned with statutory guidance and audit expectations. Our way stands in contrast to “one‑size‑fits‑all” consultancy models that prioritise scale over suitability.
Partnership, not consultancy theatre
We work with client teams, not around them. We aim to strengthen their internal capacity and confidence, rather than to create dependency or perform expertise at a distance.
Bottom line...
PolicyDepartment does not aim to be the biggest economic development consultancy but the most trusted by places, industries, and civic institutions that want honest analysis, practical strategies, and results that endure. We bring together leading expertise in economic development, enterprise policy, qualitative and quantitative research, development funding and public affairs. Read more about our multi-disciplinary network of advisers. We publish what we learn in briefings and our leading podcast LED Confidential.
WHY US?
What makes us special is that we work seamlessly across the functional divides of economic development. We provide end-to-end insight and support for our clients: we can analyse problems but campaign for the solutions too.
