Economics is an important subject because it impacts all of our lives. The root of any problem in the world is often an economic issue, be it lack of income, jobs, education, or too much spending in one area and not enough in others. It’s both a technical and a societal subject, which suits me well. As an economist, I have an opportunity to make a tangible difference to the world we live in. 

I joined WSP in 2020 to integrate economics into all of the disciplines and services we offer. This means that clients not only receive advice about how to design office buildings, rail infrastructure or offshore wind projects, for instance, but also how we can optimise a project or investment to support much better economic outcomes locally, regionally or nationally.

The most important part of my role is understanding how things work in the real world and knowing where we should invest to enable people and places to thrive. We are currently involved with the UK Government’s Freeports policy which is aimed partly at supporting the levelling up agenda in UK.  

It’s hoped that Freeports could play a big role in attracting new investment, creating new jobs and opportunities to regenerate economically deprived areas. When we bring a strong economic dimension into these projects, it makes it easier to understand what the full impact of policy is going to be. We think about what it will do for the economy – and for communities – in terms of job creation, income, supply chains and locations.

The climate emergency and Government’s target of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is an economic imperative. This is a necessary pathway, but I think we should focus on the short term. For example, we don’t currently have the labour force or skills base for the new opportunities that will come with our transition to a net zero economy.  

How can we gear up our young people – and in fact people of all ages and backgrounds – for these new opportunities? Are there parts of our existing workforce we can retrain quickly? How can we ensure workforces in impacted sectors are well placed to take advantage of opportunities in zero carbon growth sectors? These are questions we are asking ourselves right now.  

By taking these incremental steps, we will be better equipped to respond to the new jobs, business opportunities, technologies, innovations and types of services that will come through decarbonisation of transport, energy and the built environment. My work as Professor of Professional Practice at Westminster University is helping to bridge the gap between education and the real world. This means teaching and research reflecting what industry needs, and also making sure that industry understands how the university works and how it can best contribute.

My ultimate goal is to enable people to improve their lives. We still have serious inequality across the UK, with too many people still excluded from the mainstream, socially and economically. Working closely with both public and private sector clients, we are doing our best to find solutions to address this. As economists, we are the entity in the middle of the public and private dimension, bringing them together and making the case for how everyone will benefit. It's about getting money into the right projects, for the right reasons. Through all my work at WSP, it makes me immensely proud for our name to be up there and well known for economics as well as engineering. 

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Integration and collaboration are key to freeport economic success.