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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether Local Industrial Strategies, as outlined in the Industrial Strategy White Paper, will be agreed for all parts of England by the end of 2019.

As we set out in the Industrial Strategy White Paper, we will agree the first Local Industrial Strategies by March 2019.

We are working with Mayoral Combined Authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to develop Local Industrial Strategies that set out ambitious visions for places, addressing local strengths, challenges and opportunities. I have been very encouraged by the enthusiasm across the country for this approach. We are initially developing Local Industrial Strategies in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and partners across the Cambridge – Milton Keynes – Oxford corridor.

Local Industrial Strategies will establish new ways of working between national and local leaders in both the public and private sectors. This will build on the excellent work since 2010 by LEPs and local government in delivering City, Growth and Devolution Deals.