Local Industrial Strategy

A resilient and dynamic 2030 economy.

Aim

Boosting productivity and driving clean and inclusive growth for a resilient and dynamic 2030 economy.

 

What success will look like

  • Our significant regional health assets, including our health-tech sector are harnessed to tackle societal issues.
  • Businesses meeting the challenges of the future economy and creating good quality jobs.
  • Accelerated economic growth across the City Region through technology and innovation.
  • Our globally important health tech sector will be a greater source of jobs and growth.
  • Our environment promotes healthy, active lifestyles and is fit for future generations to enjoy.
  • Skilled people, in good jobs, with access to training to help build their careers.
  • Healthy, modern communities where everyone living and working in the region can reach their full potential.

It should be noted that the Local Industrial Strategy is still in development, awaiting national guidance on the role of such strategies.

Strengths

  • Substantial university strengths, with research strengths in key subjects.
  • Innovation hotspots around the key university centres.
  • Although gaps to national performance persist, the labour market is strong by historic standards.
  • A highly diverse economy that can help to withstand sector-specific shocks and challenges.
  • Some areas of genuine strength and distinction, including the fastest growing digital sector in the country and highly specialised manufacturing industries.

Challenges

  • Productivity is below national levels in all parts of our area, and the gap to national performance is not closing.
  • Despite improvements there remains a gap between local and national skills levels, particularly for higher level skills.
  • Relatively low levels of business investment in R&D and innovation activity.
  • Investment in the transport systems has not kept pace with economic and population growth. Congestion and capacity constraints risk hampering future economic growth.
  • The lack of an OEM presents challenges around the coherence of supply chain and the productivity benefits such businesses can bring.

Policies and strategies

Who’s helping make this happen

  • We’ve consulted with our local authority partners, businesses and members of the public throughout the production of the Local Industrial Strategy.
  • Our advisory panels have provided valuable private sector expertise as we have developed policies to improve productivity.

What we are doing to make this happen

We have developed a deep evidence base to support the development of our Local Industrial Strategy and to gain a deep understanding of the productivity challenge facing our region.

Our productivity audit (West and North Yorkshire Productivity Audit and Sector Analysis) and a full economic assessment of the City Region (West Yorkshire Economic Assessment) have been published alongside our LIS.

To help us develop the Local Industrial Strategy and bring a level of challenge into our thinking, working jointly with the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Enterprise Partnership, we’ve brought together an independent panel of experts from across the UK, including leading thinkers from academia, business, and the public, voluntary and community sectors.

The panel has supported and critiqued the development of the Local Industrial Strategy, reviewing the evidence base, providing us with independent expert advice on what should be our priorities when designing policy and helping to understand how they might impact the region’s economy.

 

How this will meet our priorities

Boosting productivity

  • Our Local Industrial Strategy forms the centrepiece of our efforts to boost productivity. The LIS identifies strategic priorities for the region that aim to boost productivity through: improving the region’s business environment; supporting the development of new ideas and technology to foster innovation; better developing the skills of people in the region; upgrading the region’s infrastructure; and ensuring that the benefits of productivity growth are felt across all places.

Tackling the climate emergency

  • The ambition to become a net-zero carbon region by 2038 is embedded throughout the Local Industrial Strategy. The LIS will support the delivery of affordable and reliable public transport; ensure that infrastructure can support clean growth; takes the natural environment and factors such as flood risk into account when planning for future development; and future proof existing and future housing stock to reduce fuel poverty.

Enabling inclusive growth

  • Our ambition to build on our position as a world-leader in healthcare technology will not only be a source of economic growth, but will help address health issues locally and nationally and help us play a role in the challenges presented by an ageing population.
  • Our priorities for the region’s workforce will focus on understanding the barriers people face to finding and keeping well-paid and good quality employment to make the labour market more inclusive.
  • Our ambition for innovation and ideas will ensure that good ideas, knowledge and technology are shared, adopted and used by business and wider society in order to make everyone more successful, entrepreneurial and productive.

Delivering 21st century transport

  • The LIS’ priorities for infrastructure include ensuring that affordable, reliable transport is available to all communities so everyone can access work, education and leisure.  
  • The LIS recognises the importance of the transport system in cutting carbon, improving air quality and enabling inclusive growth and supports the development of Inclusive Growth Corridors and an Advanced Urban Transit System.

Securing money and powers

  • We are confident that through delivering on our priorities set out in the Local Industrial Strategy we well demonstrate that West Yorkshire itself is best placed to boost productivity and enable inclusive growth in the region. This will help us build a strong case for further devolution of money and powers.

Page last updated: 26/08/20