The Government's industrial strategy provides an exciting opportunity to recalibrate the British economy. However, success will be dependent on how the policy translates from Whitehall to a local level.

The industrial strategy white paper emphasises the need to support growth and increased productivity across the country. The approach is encouraging and recognises the need for a tailored and bespoke approach to economic policy. Despite this, there was little direction on how the plans should be received and responded to on a local level - whether by region, devolved administration, local enterprise partnership, group of local businesses or public services, to name a few possible models. 

There is a track record of misunderstanding between Whitehall and local government organisations. And while there is interaction between both spheres, each place is unlikely to respond in the same way. For me, this represents the first major hurdle: if economic standards are to improve throughout the UK, we'll need a common way for translating the policy into local delivery.