Source · Select Committees · Business and Trade Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Paragraph: 53
Regional and local devolution is incoherent and inconsistent across England.
Conclusion
Regional and local devolution is incoherent and inconsistent across England. In some areas, this can result in duplicative and ineffective outputs. In other areas, this results in communities which feel left behind, without the support or capacity provided by other tiers of local or regional government.
Paragraph Reference:
53
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
the development of Local Industrial Strategies has been hugely helpful in developing our understanding of local economies across the UK and informing Government’s drive to boost economic development up and down the country. to drive forward growth in their respective local economies. As part of the transition from the 2017 Industrial Strategy to the Plan for Growth, the Government encourages places to consider key sectors, assets and clusters they want to support to foster their long-term growth ambitions. We also encourage areas to continue to develop evidence-led thinking, collaborating closely with local partners. These would be locally owned plans that do not require the agreement of government and will help to build on the work undertaken as part of the Local Industrial Strategies. We recognise the importance of a more detailed plan for levelling up and, rightly, that many people are keen to understand how efforts already announced since 2019 map together within a wider approach. In developing the Levelling Up White Paper we strongly agree that input from places is imperative to ensure a comprehensive evidence base to build on, which is why we have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders across local Government.