Breaking Barriers, Building Opportunity: A Growth Strategy for Every Community
Amid challenging economic and social pressures, and continuing geopolitical uncertainty, it is more important than ever that we maintain a focus on equality of opportunity as we seek to achieve long-term, sustainable economic growth.
June’s highly anticipated Spending Review set out the Government’s priorities for rebuilding Britain, ensuring that breaking down the barriers that prevent people and communities from thriving is at the heart of our national renewal. Aimed primarily at rebalancing growth, it focused on the need to spread prosperity beyond traditional areas to drive a genuinely inclusive national economy so that previously overlooked regions are regarded as integral to the country’s economic success.
Alongside significant funding for the NHS and for social and affordable housing, the investment in transport infrastructure to rebalance the economic landscape reinforced a commitment to a locally driven agenda. Reduced journey times and improved connectivity can fundamentally alter perceptions, opening up previously overlooked towns and cities as viable, vibrant centres for living, working and investment. These aren’t just practical improvements but transformational economic benefits.
The innovative inclusion of defence spending within broader regional economic strategies represents a departure from historical practice. Traditionally siloed as a purely strategic issue, defence investment is now recognised for its potential to drive substantial local economic growth. This approach leverages infrastructure development, technological innovation and skills training linked directly to defence projects, promising sustainable job creation and local economic vitality, often in areas previously left behind.
Investment in education remains key to an equality of opportunity agenda and the Government demonstrated its committed with an expansion of free school meals and breakfast clubs to funding for nurseries and the maintenance and building of new schools. But there is also a broader need to ensure that education is fit for purpose at every stage, equipping individuals so they can adapt effectively to technological and market shifts and maintain employability. Amid ongoing skills system reforms, we need to ensure that apprenticeships, vocational courses and adult retraining align closely with industry ambitions and meet current and future labour market needs. Lifelong learning opportunities are vital for enabling continuous skill development and fostering economic resilience and the best educational providers, increasingly partnering with industry, are delivering innovative programmes to create flexible, accessible learning pathways.
Alongside a national strategy to deliver growth, combined authorities have emerged as indispensable engines of localized growth. Empowered through devolution, these authorities are uniquely positioned to respond swiftly and sensitively to their communities' needs. They now lead on tailored regeneration projects, infrastructure developments and skills training programmes to develop solutions that are closely aligned with distinct regional strengths, challenges and aspirations.
As part of ensuring that a thriving economy will benefit every community, a new Growth Mission Fund will expedite local projects that are important for growth, with additional funding allocated to support up to 350 communities in some of our most deprived areas. There will also be twenty-five trailblazer neighbourhoods which will receive long-term investment to drive forward the changes they want to see in their areas, championing local leadership, fostering engagement and strengthening cohesion. As someone with extensive experience of local government in the North East, I have always believed that opportunity thrives best when it is tailored to local circumstances and developed collaboratively.
In the immediate short term, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill continues to progress through Parliament and the publication of our Industrial Strategy will deliver further clarity and momentum to the Government’s growth agenda, shaping our economic future.
Our partnerships in The Breaking Down Barriers Commission, as part of the wider Purpose Coalition, highlight how purpose-led organisations can meet their own commercial imperatives and contribute to regional and national economic growth while also being a force for good. They have an integral part to play in rebuilding Britain and ensure that our efforts lead not just to economic growth, but to lasting social and community transformation with opportunities for all.
