Blog written by David Ralph, Chief Executive of the Heart of the South West LEP
The Autumn Budget has set out the Government’s plan for growth, with welcome funding and tax reliefs.
However, once again the South West has lost out to red wall voters, with an election likely next autumn. Much of the funding for marine, photonics, engineering, offshore wind and climate science was playing catch-up, and could have been awarded some time ago meaning they would already be boosting GDP and ensuring we can make the most of their economic potential. Instead we are playing catch-up, with the added challenges that higher inflation means that you get less bang for your buck than when similar funding was awarded to other areas.
Strategic transport again also fell to the wayside, with no certainty yet on Edingswell Station in Torquay, or the A303 at Stonehenge.
Our hospitality businesses will welcome the extension to the business rates discount, having struggled since the pandemic, but we also need to reduce the costs of doing business to help increase optimism.
The £4.5bn pledged to attract investment into aerospace, life sciences and green industries will be a welcome boost to our area’s world-class strategic manufacturing sectors but, again, why have we had to wait this long?
More specifically for LEPs, I’m pleased to see that Growth Hub funding has been confirmed for 2024/25, to continue providing our SMEs with access to finance and support programmes. Growth Hubs have been an important source of support for local businesses, and it’s good to see that our push for funding has been recognised.
Hopefully, we can move quickly to getting the Devolution Deal confirmed for Devon and Torbay, which will be an important part of the transition and future delivery post-LEPs. The statement also identified an additional Level 4 category of transition – which may well be relevant for a county Local Authority like Somerset.
I look forward to working with Local Authorities over the coming months to deliver an orderly transition, ensuring our area’s business voice is championed and continues to be meaningful, and services delivered. Whilst local government may in the future lead economic delivery, it is critical that local business leaders continue to help shape the communities and landscape in which they operate. It will be the private sector that delivers future prosperity. There were some positives to help facilitate that, but if UK PLC is to thrive, rather than survive, some of the intractable challenges of workforce and competitiveness are more pronounced than ever.
