In LEDC’s first post General Election Espresso Shot episode, David and Mike discuss the significance and potential of Local Growth Plans (LGPs). Combined Authority (CA) areas, and counties with devolution deals in England, have been asked by the new Labour Government to work with the private sector, education providers and trade bodies in their area to set a plan for growth that can contribute to an expected national industrial strategy.
What currently is the Local Growth Plan process?
Informally, places have been asked to present high-level outlines or heads of terms in the next few weeks, with the assumption that detailed content will be worked up in the 3-6 months thereafter. In the absence of formal national guidance or indeed a published National Industrial Strategy (even a consultation draft), this gives regional and local leadership teams considerable latitude in what they wish to discuss with local partners and stakeholders, and with what they then present to government.
What might a Local Growth Plan comprise and what strategic choices might it consider?
There is a lot of existing work and evidence on which LGPs can draw – Local Industrial Strategies (LISs), adopted local economic strategies and strategic plans, among others, and the evidence that underpinned these. Pragmatically, it makes sense to reference and consider what Labour has already said in terms of its Governmental missions and its pre-election industrial ambitions (including growth, energy, technology) and pre-adjournment announcements such as planning reforms.
Like any economic strategy, LGPs will eventually need to make choices about the balance of priorities – for example where there are trade-offs between productivity improvement and inclusion, between high-growth technologies and foundation large employment sectors, potentially between physical investment and other types of capital (human, natural etc). It will need to determine scales of geography and their alignment – city-region, local authority and place-based. In the episode, we ponder the role of emerging pan-regional partnerships in the LGP process.
Having bold conversations
However, perhaps these choices will be determined further into the LGP process. In the gaps between the summer recess, the International Investment Summit of 14th October and the Budget on 30th October, there are genuine opportunities for local leadership teams to put big ideas on the agenda. Let Ministers and civil servants know what would really transform your local growth trajectories? what types of intervention strategies are required to unlock step change in the levels and quantities of private investment? And can ambitious local areas have a major impact on informing and shaping the eventual National Industrial Strategy – giving it a bottom-up feel that has been missing from previous exercises?
Managing challenges and tensions
The LGP process, with an absence of formal guidance, an accepted national strategy to which it is expected to contribute, and specific pots of funding for which it is bidding, is novel. It is a demanding task to do well – especially alongside all the other agendas Labour has promoted in its first few weeks in office, such as planning reform and the potential shake-up of responsibilities that would come with the re-introduction of strategic plans at the sub-national level. It is also always challenging to achieve proactive and enthusiastic stakeholder involvement when the prize on offer is so unclear.
The wisest course is to set firm expectations and milestones with partners about the process insofar as this is possible without formal guidance. Local and regional leadership teams have a great opportunity to contribute substantively to Labour Government and civil servants as they firm up their thinking on how to formulate economic strategy and arrange delivery of it. Influencing both the tone and potentially even the specifics of the Budget and departmental priorities in these early months will be a far more significant prize than any of the individual funding programmes for which we have spent so much time and energy bidding speculatively in recent years.
留言