Those with good memories, or with a particular interest in the topic, will recall that, back in 2017, the UK Government issued its Industrial Strategy White Paper, Building a Britain fit for the future. It sets out a vision of how to drive up productivity, reduce regional disparities and encourage innovation.
For all its focus on grand challenges and global competition, there is an important local dimension that shouldn’t be overlooked. Part of the Government’s ambition concerns drawing up more specific Local Industrial Strategies (LISs).
These LISs will drill down into the detail of an area’s economy to find out what makes it tick and then identify its strengths, challenges and opportunities. It is intended to be long term and evidence based, to guide local decision making.
Despite having the word ‘industrial‘ in the title, it should cover all the main employment sectors. After all, the blurring of the boundaries between traditional areas of business activity is one of the characteristics of our modern economy.
In those parts of England with a Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) the intention is to have a single, unitary LIS, with support from the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).That will be the case in places such as Cambridge and Peterborough, Liverpool and the West of England.
However, in areas without a directly elected mayor, the local LEP will lead the charge, even where there is a Combined Authority (CA), as in West Yorkshire, and the North East.
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the devolved Governments or administrations will be consulted and encouraged to harmonise their approaches to supporting local growth too.
Another important point to note is that due to the focus of the LIS on applying devolved delivery powers – such as on the use of local funding streams to kick-start growth – and as a conduit for local spending arising from national schemes, the LEPs are already being reviewed and reformed accordingly.
As a footnote, does that suggest that, in consequence, other local authorities, that used to have a prominent role in economic development issues, are being increasingly bypassed in favour of the MCAs and LEPs? Another case of ‘follow the money’?
The new proposals to supercharge the LEPs have already been published. These include:
- Up to £20 million of additional funding between 2018 and 2020 to support the implementation of these changes and embed evidence in the LISs.
- Supporting LEPs to consult widely and transparently on appointing new Chairs and improving board diversity.
- An aim for women to make up at least one third of LEP boards by 2020 with the expectation of equal representation by 2023.
- A mandate for LEPs to submit proposals for revised geographies including removing situations in which two LEP geographies overlap.
There are already three trailblazer areas preparing new LISs: in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and the Oxford/Cambridge Corridor. The Government wants to agree these by the end of March 2019. Others ought then to follow.
It is not yet clear whether all of England will end up having a LIS or whether they will have a common format, so many are watching the preparation of these trailblazers with great interest. So should we all.
As the Secretary of State put it in his foreword to the Industrial Strategy White Paper, 'More decisions about our economic future will be in our own hands and it is vital that we take them.' That’s increasingly not just the case at a national level, but at a local one too.
Further information
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