When the Chancellor unveiled her Spending Review on 11 June, she simultaneously published the Guidance for Mayoral Strategic Authorities on developing Local Growth Plans. These are the key documents to be prepared by the 13 Mayoral regions and are intended to be a major driver for boosting the Government’s growth agenda.

The new Guidance on Local Growth Plans
“Too many cooks” or “Help needed in the kitchen! “

When the Chancellor unveiled her Spending Review on 11 June, she simultaneously published the Guidance for Mayoral Strategic Authorities on developing Local Growth Plans. These are the key documents to be prepared by the 13 Mayoral regions and are intended to be a major driver for boosting the Government’s growth agenda.

 

Local growth plans are not the invention of this administration, but Ministers have found them useful and are set to encourage ambitious initiatives through this planning process. The trouble with this Guidance is that it adds very little to what seasoned economic development professionals would have recommended anyway.

 

In essence, it confirms how important they are, who has to write them, and broadly what they should contain. It stresses that these have to be ‘owned’ at local level and there is no Government sign-off. It talks of ‘shared priorities’ where central government needs to help achieve some of the local or regional actions and offers the enticing prospect of an ‘investment pipeline’. The Guidance suggests highlighting 4-10 key opportunities best suited to leveraging the elusive growth and invites Councils to specialise in one or more of the eight identified growth sectors for the economy. It then considers some top-level opportunities for attracting private investment and offers help in securing it.

 

This is all very sensible, but then the avalanche of acronyms starts to overwhelm most readers, for it seems that – although the Government is keen to take a hands-off stance, it wants the Strategic authorities to work very closely with a list of organisations. It is not a short list! Here they are:

• The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG)
• The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)
• The Department for Transport (DfT)
• The National Wealth Fund
• The British Business Bank
• The Office for Investment
• The Local Government Pensions Scheme,
• Homes England

No doubt all of these have invaluable expertise which can be made available to those crafting these Local Growth plans, and the idea presumably is not to be prescriptive but to enable Plans to draw upon specialist input.

Happily, the Guidance is more prescriptive when it comes to ‘Engaging with stakeholders’ It says:

 

Mayoral Strategic Authorities should work with relevant stakeholders when preparing and delivering their Local Growth Plan to ensure it provides a single, joined-up vision for local growth in the area, which all interested parties have been able to contribute to. It should also build on and strengthen local partnerships, which will be important for preparing and delivering the plan.

 

It then goes on to illustrate the kind of stakeholders Ministers have in mind. They include representative business bodies like Chambers of Commerce, higher education providers, and local civil society leaders. Again, it mentions Homes England but also includes Skills England, Network Rail, and National Highways. This is all, I suspect, to ensure alignment with the other economic development documents – the Local Transport Plan, the Local Skills Plan and the Spatial Development strategy!

 

Stripped of the bureaucratic language – this can all seem an over-elaborate overlapping Tower of Babel – enough to choke on the challenges which are, in most cases, already well-understood. On the other hand, it is worth remembering that without effective plans, anything that actually happens is just a happy accident. Striking the right balance between scepticism and positive commitment will be a great test for Communications teams as they seek to engage transparently on these matters.

 

Westco sees the involvement of communities and businesses as critical to the entire process and will publish regular articles to discuss ways of following the Guidance. Rhion Jones, the Consultation GuRU, is on hand to assist with all aspects of stakeholder identification, stakeholder management, and consultation, and will be looking at best practice on all aspects of Local Growth plans.

 

Author: 

Rhion Jones is the co-founder of The Consultation Institute and has been monitoring consultation case law since 2008. He has published 50+ commentaries on specific judicial reviews and delivered over 100 courses on the Law of Consultation. Rhion currently provides government and C-suite advice and guidance under his trading name, The Consultation Guru.