GB Green Week – Developing the UK’s first Clean Growth Local Industrial Strategy – 18/10/18

Date of presentations

18 October 2018

Speakers

Dr Simon Slater, Head of Environment WMCA / SWM Associate. Patrick White, WMCA Director of Industrial Strategy Angela Francis, Green Alliance Chief Economist

Purpose of the presentations

Sustainability West Midlands in partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and Green Alliance put on this event during GB Green Week. The UK Government has recently launched the UK Clean Growth Strategy, 25 Year Environment Plan, and Industrial Strategy. There is the intention for England to have a series of Local Industrial Strategies to help set out longer term investment strategies to address future challenges, improve productivity and guide future local partnership working and national funding. The WMCA has agreed to be one of the first areas to develop a Local Industrial Strategy, which is currently out to consultation until the 8th November. The WMCA has also made the commitment to  be the UK’s first Clean Growth Local Industrial Strategy. “The WMCA will work to ensure local strengths in clean growth sectors of transport, buildings and energy, as well as the importance of the natural environment, form a key part of the new Local Industrial Strategy, with the ambition to become the UK’s first Combined Authority Clean Growth Industrial Strategy.” (WMCA Annual Plan 2018/19 p25) The event looked at the criteria required to develop a Clean Growth Strategy and disruptive ideas that could help the strategy make the changes required. The summary of delegates outputs are captured in the slides below. From a national policy perspective Green Alliance were impressed on the work to date and the input from the workshop. The conclusion was we were well on the way to producing the UK’s first local Clean Growth Local Industrial Strategy – but we needed to be clearer on how this goal was central to the final strategy and clearly flowed into relevant actions and reporting. Thank you to our speakers and delegates for their valuable contribution, and the WMCA team for hosting the event.

Links and Contact Information

For more information contact enquiries@swm.org.uk or call 0121 237 5890.

Downloads

Introduction, context and workshop outputs – Dr Simon Slater What would a Clean Growth Local Industrial Strategy look like? – Angela Francis The Draft West Midlands Industrial Strategy – Patrick White