Huq’s real-time data now used by 3DI to track the UK’s economic recovery

Mobility research business Huq Industries has today announced it is partnering with 3DI, the University of Nottingham’s economic and societal Data-driven Discovery Initiative, to provide real-time data for local authorities through the Track the Economy (TE) project.

The TE project aggregates economic data from a variety of public and private sources to provide a unique real-time picture of economic activity from the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis to the present day. 

Its main offering is the TE Dashboard: a tool designed to support managerial decision-making and policy formulation, as well as making economic data more accessible to public audiences. The data is used by HM Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to inform strategy and how to spend the £4.8 billion Levelling Up infrastructure investment fund.

TE combines granular-level data to rank local authorities by the severity of the economic impacts of Covid-19 in real-time. Researchers at TE combine this index with pre-pandemic data measuring affluence at the local level to identify areas that have been doubly-hit by existing deprivation and negative Covid-19 impact.

Huq will now be contributing its extensive dataset of real-time population mobility data, comprised of 1bn+ mobile geo-location data-points daily, which is used by retailers, investors and the public sector to measure footfall across a range of consumer, business and industrial settings. Its Community Vision product is already in use by local councils to support decision-making around the future of our cities, towns and high streets.  

Conrad Poulson, chief executive officer at Huq Industries, comments: “Local authorities will be able to use the Track the Economy data to get an in-depth picture of how Covid-19 has affected their economic output. We’ve partnered with 3DI to help local councils better understand how people are moving, shopping and behaving - and what they can do to improve the socio-economic picture in their area.”

Benjamin Lucas (PhD, FHEA), Managing Director at 3DI, adds: “Huq’s data is real-time and that makes the data in the TE dashboard even stronger and more valuable. Both local and central government bodies will be able to use it to get a clearer picture of the real economic impacts of Covid-19 across the country.”

TE is operated by 3DI (University of Nottingham) alongside Warwick Business School and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. 3DI has also partnered with Experian and Fable Data via 3DI to source data from consumer and company credit files as well as transaction-level data on consumer spending.