Richard works across a group of public policy areas including local and regional economic development, employment and self-employment, demography and ageing, and equality and diversity.

He is part of the IPPR Secretariat to the Northern Economic Futures Commission, drawing together and interpreting evidence to support the development of a long term strategy for economic development in the North of England. He is also an Expert Advisor to the OECD Directorate of Public Governance and Territorial Development, working on research programmes aiming to identify key drivers to economic performance in ‘lagging’ regions, and to create methodologies to define and measure performance of functional economies. He worked with the N8 Research Partnership on research published in September 2011 to understand demographic changes in the functional economies of the North of England.

Richard was Policy & Research Manager for the Northern Way until April 2011, responsible for its £6 million programme of policy oriented research focused on the long term development and performance of the Northern economy. Key research findings addressed economic strategy, innovation, investment, housing and transport, and explored the performance of key urban economies.  He was also responsible for the Northern Ways City Regions Development Programme, working with partners across the 8 City Regions in the North to support local economic development

Prior to this, he was National Development Manager for Age Concern England (ACE). He led the Regions for All Ages programme, working with key partners at both England and European levels to promote a stronger understanding of the implications of demographic ageing for regional development policy. The programme was awarded a Silver Economy prize by the Government of North Rhine Westphalia. He also co-ordinated ACE’s work on employment, equality and age discrimination and was a member of the UK Government Age Advisory Group which worked to shape the UK’s age equality laws. At EU level, he was Chair of the Equality and non-discrimination Expert Advisory Group of AGE, the European Older People’s platform, drawing together contributors from all 27 member states to advise the Board of AGE on its approach to these issues and representing the organisation across the EU, and to the European Commission and Parliament .

Richard is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Newcastle and a Fellow of the Regional Studies Association. He is a Trustee of the Princes Initiative for Mature Enterprise (PRIME), which promotes self-employment and enterprise amongst the over 50’s, and a member of the Advisory Group for the JRF Future Labour Markets programme. He is a member of the Newcastle Fairness Commission, established by the City Council to promote fairness, equality and cohesion in the City.