Competition and Markets Authority to open offices in Darlington

The Competition and Markets Authority’s board has approved a proposal to set up a new CMA Microeconomics Unit (MU) to be co-located with the government’s new Economic Campus in Darlington.

The MU will take on the CMA’s existing economic research and evaluation function, produce the annual State of Competition report and carry out research into supply-side reforms to improve productivity.

The CMA’s State of Competition project is also being expanded to consider the impact of competition on consumers at different income levels.

The authority already has nearly 60 staff working in offices in Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff, with an ambition to expand in those locations.

CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli said: “Last year I pledged that the CMA would get closer to the needs of people right across the UK. Since then, we have taken action on issues from refunds on package holidays to tackling excessive pricing on key drugs.

“Manchester and Darlington will be ideal locations for our teams whether we’re ensuring fairness in the tech sector or doing vital research to inform future work.

“There are bright and talented people everywhere and we want to do our part to give them the opportunities they deserve.”

While discussions on the Darlington project are at a very early stage the CMA envisages the MU to be around 25 economists.

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