PLENARY SESSION “BUILDING A FAIR ECONOMY FROM THE GROUND UP”
Tuesday, September 25
Councillor Matthew Brown is a leading voice of economic localism and community wealth building in the UK.Since April 2018, Councillor Matthew Brown leads Preston’s City Council and represents the Tulketh ward. Prior to his election in 2002, he has had portfolios that include community engagement and inclusion, social justice and policy initiatives.Matthew has been widely credited as the driving force behind the ‘Preston model’, an economic model that re-directs procurement from external suppliers to local producers as a response to central government funding cuts that have ravaged the city’s budgets since 2011. Recently, Matthew and the Preston model have gained traction with economists searching for alternative economic theory and practice. He has been featured in The Guardian, the Mirror and Ed Milliband’s live Reasons to be Cheerful event.Matthew was recently named a Fellow of the Democracy Collaborative, a US-based research institute dedicated to developing new strategies for a more democratic economy.
