Luke Delahunty

Luke Delahunty is an SQW Director and member of the firm's Management Board. He has 20 years of economic development consultancy experience at SQW including sub-national strategy development, action planning, impact assessment and business case development (using HM Treasury's five case model).

Much of his work over the last 10 years has centred on understanding the important role played by technology rich firms, innovation districts, anchor firms and universities, research and technology organisations, and key scientific assets within urban innovation systems and cluster development agendas. Spatially, much of his experience has focused on the North and Midlands, Scotland's Central Belt, and South Wales, where he has led in-depth studies exploring the competitiveness, resilience and vulnerability to economic shocks in places as diverse as Liverpool, Birmingham, Cheshire, Flintshire, Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and South West Wales. Luke was a member of the National Evaluation Panel that assessed the impact of devolved investment funds (each varying from £450m to £1.1bn) across 11 local areas of the UK. In 2020 he directed SQW's work on the development of the first ever Independent Economic Review of the Midlands Engine.