Report

Local growth plans

This report from UK think tank the Institute for Government lays out the steps the government should take to make local growth plans as effective as possible.

The government has recognised the role metro mayors across England will have in realising its mission to increase growth across the country. It has asked local leaders to produce ‘local growth plans’ for their areas to show how each would contribute to the national mission.

This paper looks at how these should work. English devolution is shifting. New places are getting new deals, places that already have mayors are anticipating new powers. At the national level, the government is developing an industrial strategy, expected in 2025, that seeks to augment ‘priority sectors’ while initiating broader interventions to drive growth. Local growth plans are, then, just one part of the government’s strategy for growth and will need to be developed as a part of it. This will require careful sequencing.

This autumn, through the budget and other economic announcements, the government has a good opportunity to clarify the purpose of plans and explain how they will fit, and be sequenced with, other policy developments. It should take it.

This insight paper, based on conversations with external experts, those in central and local government, and those with experience of previous local plans, lays out the steps the government should take to make local growth plans as effective as possible.