Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress has been made on agreeing local industrial strategies; and what resources he has allocated to (a) civil servants and (b) local areas to develop those strategies.

I am encouraged by the enthusiasm shown across the country for developing Local Industrial Strategies. Policy officials are working intensively with Local Enterprise Partnerships and Mayoral Combined Authorities to develop innovative proposals which address the challenges laid out in our national Industrial Strategy. We are making good progress with trailblazers Greater Manchester, West Midlands and partners across the Cambridge – Milton Keynes – Oxford corridor