I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Ed Balls , in my role as Deputy Chair of the Social Mobility Commission. Ed co-hosts a weekly podcast, Political Currency, with former Chancellor George Osborne and is a former Shadow Chancellor.
Ed recently published the third and final report he has co-authored with a group of academics working on the regional disparities research project - and we were able to talk in depth about regional inequalities, social mobility, economic growth and what future governments should do to turbocharge the UK.
Given my role as Global Head of Policy at the ODI, I was also able to ask Ed about the importance of data in designing policy.