The policy churn in local growth initiatives is eye-watering. There are currently multiple fragmented funds and initiatives designed to support local growth – from the Levelling Up Fund to investment zones, the Towns Fund to the Shared Prosperity Fund and much more.

Before levelling up, industrial strategy was all the rage and places spent time and money preparing for local industrial strategies that never saw the light of day. Before that, we had local enterprise partnerships and on and on. We must and can do better and if designed properly, Labour’s proposed local growth plans could pave the way.