15:15 - 16:00
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The government committed to regional development and greater devolution of powers, with the aim of inspiring growth and investment across the country. The goal for good jobs and rising productivity in every part of the country could make ‘everyone, not just a few, better off’.
But uncertain economic outlooks have left the Chancellor challenged by her own fiscal rules. Two and a half years in, and with a new budget in front of us, what is the reality for tackling the UK’s uneven economic landscape? The Chancellor’s choices around this long-anticipated budget and the cost of her decisions will have consequences for households and businesses in every corner of the country. Does the 2025 budget paint an optimistic picture for our regions? Does it prioritise place-based policy? Or do the Chancellor’s tax rules and rises prohibit the chance for regional development?
This panel will provide a reaction to the 2025 Autum budget, and what this means for regional growth across the UK.
The government is committed to delivering economic growth through innovation across the country, and the introduction of Local Growth Plans will set the stage for towns and cities to join this journey. It provides an opportunity for strategic collaboration that could accelerate innovation – channelling investment and growth into regions outside of London and the South East.
Building platforms that unite local leaders with employers, industry leaders and universities could be the catalyst for this, creating an ecosystem that facilitates fresh thinking and commercial development. By bringing together industry and government, regional partnerships can help coordinate policies to overcome place-based barriers. Effective change can come from understanding the people and places at the heart of the mission – and regional ecosystems, supported by government, can enable this. They can provide a competitive advantage, improving collaboration and problem-solving to address local blockers to economic growth. The introduction of regional hubs and Catapult networks can facilitate these regional collaborations. So how can such partnerships between policymakers and industry help unlock regional potential?
With areas like the Midlands and the North of England projected to have slower-than-average growth in comparison to the rest of the country, how can place-based, collaborative approaches inspire innovation and reinvigorate local economies?
According to the Learning and Work Institute, the UK risks being held back by a ‘skills chasm’ between regions – and tech skills are at the forefront of this disparity. The gap between high and low skilled areas of the UK is forecast to widen even further, with London and the South East holding the highest concentration of high skilled workers. Over the next three years, 55% of the net new jobs created in information and communication and 43% of new professional scientific and technical jobs are expected to be in London and the South East.
Following the government’s launch of Skills England and its Growth and Skills Levy, which has committed to boost the national skills agenda and meet the skills needs of the next decade across every region, transforming the skills system will play a key role in delivering growth. But what needs to be done to drive this agenda forward?
The whole energy system is in a period of transition, with electricity supplies quickly moving to smaller, localised generation and storage. And the regional benefits of these changes are becoming increasingly clear – investment in new energy infrastructures and advancements in technology can help to bridge the gap for lower ranking regions and create high-quality, well-paid jobs.
We need to strike while the iron's hot and bring our workforce, infrastructures and communities on this innovation journey, too. But what can the private and public sectors do to support each other in this transition?
The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill signals a transformative shift to local power, giving communities control over local assets and rewriting how local growth is achieved. Investment is crucial to this mission but has been historically centred in London and the South East, reducing the opportunity for growth in other areas of the UK. Northern mayors have recently joined forces to drive regional growth, predicting that the North could grow the UK economy by £118bn with the right investment. It’s an example of how collaboration between local government and local businesses has the potential to unlock job creation, opportunity and prosperity in regional communities. And not just for inward investment – with foreign direct investment varying across regions in 2024, place-based policies and powers could be the solution to attracting high-value investment. So how can effective local leadership attract the investment our regions need?
The housing sector comes under scrutiny for a myriad of reasons – from land availability and the rural housing crisis to complex local planning regulations. Rural housebuilding is at the core of this issue, where only 9% of homes are classified as affordable – less than half the rate in urban settings. In the push for new developments, social, affordable and sustainable housebuilding needs to be prioritised.
The government is honing on in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill once again, in the hope of accelerating building and reaching the 1.5 million homes target and raise living standards across the country. Alongside this and the New Towns Taskforce initiatives, local communities will have the opportunity to shape housebuilding in their area, and new generations of towns will help to meet the housing need.
Transport can play a key role in ensuring access to opportunities for people across the UK and enabling regional growth. However, the most deprived areas often lack key transport links, impacting their access to employment, education and public services. The North of England is losing £16 billion a year in productivity due to sub-optimal transport links and underinvestment in transport, 25% below the average for the rest of England. Rural bus services have declined by 52% since 2008, whilst the north-west of England had the highest rate of cancelled railway stops in 2024. Last year more than 384,000 train services across the UK were partially or fully cancelled. Passengers are left with the consequences of a struggling transport system, where connectivity issues, cancellations and high costs are becoming the norm. Regional mayors are already making their cases for better transport systems through Yorkshire’s Plan for Rail, the Liverpool-Manchester Railway plan, whilst the West Midlands is bringing the bus network back into public control.
The Department for Transport is developing a new Integrated National Transport Strategy, which will put people first when developing and delivering transport in England over the next 10 years. But despite years of policies and promises, people aren’t seeing real-life improvements. So how can we ensure transport strategy delivers for the people and supports our workforce?
