Britain’s Industrial Future

Iain Stewart Excerpts

Tuesday 15th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to speak in this important debate. I hope to make a constructive contribution by focusing on an area that I do not think we have touched on much: the appropriate balance between national industrial strategies and more local industrial strategies, both of which are important. I am in no way trying to undermine the importance of sectoral national strategies, which are important for finance, regulation, procurement and a range of other things, but more local or regional strategies are also important. To illustrate that, I will draw briefly on two areas in which I have experience.

First, in my time as a Minister in the Scotland Office, I had responsibility for the city and regional growth deal programme, which, of course, has been supplemented by other policy initiatives such as the levelling-up agenda, freeports, and the innovation accelerators that were part of the levelling-up White Paper. The meaning of “local” differs in different parts of the country—it could mean a city region or an individual authority—but my experience is that empowering a local area to take ownership of what it wants to see locally, working with the private sector and academic R&D in what Sir Jim McDonald of Strathclyde University called the “triple helix”, brings investment opportunities and local growth.

The city and regional growth deal programme is well advanced; all parts of Scotland now have one at a certain stage. Some of the older ones are entering the second half of their duration, so it is appropriate to think about what comes next and how we can best link together those different initiatives within the national framework, while looking at how local areas can drive forward their priorities, linking into the transport and other infrastructure that is required, the skills base and other important factors. Greater thinking needs to be done about city deals 2.0. The innovation accelerators, which are being piloted in Glasgow, Manchester and the west midlands, will be an important look at what might be achieved.

Secondly, I will touch briefly on my work on the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge growth arc, because it illustrates the limitations we have in joining up policies across different Government Departments and across different areas. That arc does not sit neatly into any geographic boundary; it crosses three of the traditional economic regions, and I have lost count of the number of local authorities that are part of it. There has to be some strategy for the arc to work without looking at projects within it—be it East West Rail or any other scheme—as entities in themselves. The arc will fail to reach its potential if we look at it as just a housing target, or as putting in a new railway, road or other bit of infrastructure. We must maximise the opportunities for each cluster, whether that is life sciences in Cambridge or engineering, automotive or aviation in my area. There are many potential growth areas and we need the appropriate balance.

The work is not complete on that. A representative of AstraZeneca attended a recent event that the hon. Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) and I held. They said that their growth plans are inhibited by the lack of better connectivity, housing and skills. We must look at all those issues in the round, link them to the national strategies, but give appropriate weight to place-based ventures.

I would love to expand on those points, but the clock is ticking. National strategies are important, but they must be counterbalanced by the place-based approach.