Tips on developing local growth strategies in a changing political landscape
- Monday, July 1, 2024
- Posted By GC Insight
- By Simon Hooton, Managing Director, GC Insight
The GC Insight team have been running our eyes over the Labour Manifesto. We thought about reviewing all the others but in the interests of evidence-based decision making, figured it probably didn’t make sense. (If this comes back to haunt me, I shall obviously blame the data). Let’s be honest, the commitments in the manifesto aren’t going to meet the full scale of the challenge facing the UK economy’s growth, productivity and inclusion challenges. But to be fair to the Labour front bench, I don’t think they are pretending otherwise. It’s a first instalment to get in power and we should expect more to come.
The mood music suggests there is a front bench team that understands the situation and isn’t complacent about the long-term challenge. There is a fair bit in the manifesto that looks like it should start to move us in the right direction. And, it’s clear that some of the questions about what to do, will be devolved to local areas.
Although the full scale of Labour’s devolution ambitions aren’t fully fleshed out, there are firm commitments to deepen devolution settlements, to mission-driven government and to make Local Growth Plans a statutory requirement, as well as a national Industrial Strategy.
So, there will be yet more strategy coming down the line and this time it will be statutory. We don’t yet know what that means in practice – it could just be a requirement to have one, but it might yet evolve into something more akin to Local Plans which have prescribed preparation process and role in local decision-making.
Right now, many local areas are already engaged in some sort of economic strategic planning exercise and it's not too soon for others to get going as well, even if it is simply to feed into a wider exercise undertaken at a higher tier of local government.
Having worked on economic strategy in the UK and in Canada, going back to the RDA days, and for LEPs and local authorities, here are my tips on the key things to keep in mind.
It will take time and require stamina to change the underlying issues, but to succeed, places need to stick to a strategic plan. We aren’t sure what will happen next week, let alone at the next General Election, but if Labour get in with the sort of majority the polls are suggesting, I hope they will be making plans for long term renewal of the UK which should mean we have a more settled landscape for local and regional economic development that will be needed to make strategy stick and turn the dial on the nation’s fortunes.
GC Insight has worked with a wide range of local authorities, partnerships and combined authorities over the years to help create strategy, generate evidence, assess impact, secure investment and evaluate achievements of economic development initiatives. Our team has a wide range of insights and experience that can help local areas navigate through the opportunities and challenges ahead for businesses, places, people, destinations, infrastructure and the environment. If you would like to know more or think we can help, please get in touch.
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