| LM3 enables you – whether you are a community organisation, business leader, or government official – to measure how much your organisation or initiative impacts on the local economy. And more importantly, by mapping out how your spend circulates within a defined local area, lm3 helps you work out where you need to make changes to improve that impact.
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lm3 takes its name from the Keynesian multiplier, which has been used since the early 20th century to measure how income entering an economy then circulates within it. The theory is that a change in income has a multiplied impact on that economy. It has been adapted by nef (the new economics foundation) for use at the local level, and we only measure three ‘rounds’ of spending: hence 'local multiplier 3'.
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LM3 has been used by local authorities, RDAs, social enterprises and other third sector organisations to:
Understand Supply Chains for goods and services
Understand money flows within defined local areas
Understand Value for Money
Calculate Gershon efficiency savings
Improve economic literacy amongst procurement officers, businesses and citizens
Develop sustainable procurement strategies & economic development strategies
Across the UK and further afield, people have taken up lm3 to figure out how to make the most of the money that they do have so that their communities remain vibrant places to live. Eden Community Outdoors, a social enterprise in Cumbria, commented: lm3 "has raised awareness of how communities can benefit when projects invest their income back into the local economy and how this way of thinking can be used to prepare the ground for small scale community enterprise". |