The Leeds Anchor Network (LAN) is one of the UK’s most established place-based anchor partnerships, bringing together 14 of Leeds’s largest organisations (across local government, health, education, culture and utilities) to use their institutional “levers” to deliver inclusive growth, as major employers, spenders, estate holders, and service providers. Since 2018, the network provides a practical mechanism for turning inclusive growth ambitions into organisational change and collective action, using a shared self-assessment and benchmarking approach (the Leeds Anchor Progression Framework) alongside citywide collaboration through thematic working groups.
Mobilising major institutions to drive inclusive growth via Leeds's Anchor Network
Abstract
The Leeds Anchor Network’s objective is to build a long-term partnership of large, locally rooted organisations that embed “anchor practice” into their strategies and day-to-day operations and then collaborate to amplify citywide impact on poverty reduction, inequality, and place outcomes. In Leeds, anchor practice is structured around five key dimensions, set out in the Anchor Progression Framework, which translate inclusive growth goals into practical organisational action. The first is employment, where anchor organisations use recruitment, pay, progression and wellbeing policies to strengthen access to good work and widen opportunity. The second is procurement, where anchors use their purchasing power to retain spend locally, improve access for SMEs, and generate social value through supply chains. The third is environment and assets, where anchors set and deliver net zero ambitions, reduce carbon emissions, and use estates and assets to create wider community benefit. The fourth is service delivery, where anchors improve how essential services are designed and delivered so they reach communities that need them most and reduce inequalities in outcomes. The fifth is corporate and civic behaviours, where anchors embed local commitment through leadership, culture, partnership working and civic contribution, reinforcing “Team Leeds” ways of working. Leeds’s ambitions are now to allow organisations of all types and sizes to adopt anchor approaches. The city will support them to take actions to recruit and purchase locally, care for the environment and support local communities, sharing learning from the established Anchor institutions.
The Leeds Anchor Network Summary
Country: United Kingdom
City: Leeds
EU member state: No
Geographic scale: City
City size: Large (city size: 845 000, FUA size: 1 850 000 residents)
Date launched: 2018
Current status: Ongoing
Policy pillar(s): Education, Labour Markets, Public services and infrastructure, Fair climate action
Target group(s): People at risk of poverty or social exclusion; Low-income households
Funding and budget:
Total budget: GBP 180 000 (annually)
Funding sources: Local funding
EU funds/programmes: Not applicable
Leeds’s anchor approach starts from the diagnosis that large, locally rooted organisations have outsized influence over inclusive growth outcomes because they employ many people, spend substantial sums, manage land and assets, and deliver essential services. The network operationalises this insight by focusing on how institutional decisions (recruitment, purchasing, estate management and service delivery) can shift outcomes for local people and neighbourhoods, including good work, local economic resilience and net zero goals.
Leeds prioritises a small set of high-leverage institutional “action areas” through the Anchor Progression Framework, which structures anchor action across five dimensions and sets out a four-level pathway from basic practice to best practice. This creates a practical prioritisation mechanism: anchors identify their current position, set realistic ambitions, and focus effort where the greatest local gains can be achieved, both within each organisation and collectively across the network.
Delivery is organised as a multi-actor partnership. Leeds City Council helps convene major anchors, while the partnership itself is designed to operate through peer learning, shared frameworks and collaboration rather than a single programme owner “delivering” a service. The network mobilises action by using the Progression Framework as a shared design tool for organisational change, by convening collaborative workstreams (commonly framed around employment, procurement and climate/ sustainability levers), and by strengthening links between large anchors and communities so that interventions are shaped around what matters locally.
Implementation happens in two mutually reinforcing ways. First, within each organisation, members use the Progression Framework to self-assess and then improve policies and practice, such as workforce standards, inclusive recruitment, procurement approaches and sustainability targets, so “anchor practice” becomes embedded over time. Second, across the network, members collaborate to extend impact through shared initiatives, including supplier-facing activity (such as procurement pipeline information and support to help suppliers engage with anchor procurement), shared learning on climate plans and net zero, and coordinated work to strengthen local employment pathways. The network also reports collective indicators that evidence the scale of the network (covering workforce size and local residency share, local spend and progress on carbon reduction). This means that anchor commitments can be tracked in practice, not only described in principle.
Leeds uses two complementary measurement mechanisms. The first is Progression Framework self-assessment, which provides qualitative scoring and benchmarking across the network over time and supports structured reflection on organisational change. The second is the collection of core metrics on workforce profile, local spend and carbon emissions to evidence collective impact and enable increasingly public-facing reporting. For example, the partnership encompasses a workforce of over 62,000 individuals, with 64% residing in Leeds. Collectively, it has contributed to a reduction of 110,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions over a four-year period. Additionally, during 2023–2024, £511 million of influenceable expenditure was directed within Leeds. The partnership has also evolved structurally over time in response to feedback and learning, and Leeds has captured learning for others through resources like its Anchor Playbook.
Engage partnerships and stakeholders. Leeds shows how anchor partnerships move from coordination to collective impact when members actively collaborate on shared priorities, such as improving supplier engagement and tender readiness, and benchmarking climate plans so the networks can deliver outcomes that single organisations would struggle to achieve alone. The Leeds experience also underlines that collaboration needs partnership infrastructure – clear governance, dedicated coordination and sustained resourcing are what enable anchor networks to mature, maintain momentum and keep partners aligned over the long term.
Define measurable priorities and accountability. Leeds translates inclusive growth ambition into a small set of high-leverage institutional “anchor levers” focusing on employment, procurement, environment and assets, service delivery and corporate and civic behaviours, so that partners can focus effort where they can materially shift outcomes. Accountability is strengthened through a shared measurement approach (the Progression Framework) which provides a common pathway that supports consistent self-assessment and benchmarking across organisation, while complementary core metrics help support collective change over time with evidence, making progress more visible beyond individual initiatives.
Leeds Anchors, Inclusive Growth Leeds: https://www.inclusivegrowthleeds.com/leeds-anchors
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