Hull and East Riding Mayor Luke Campbell has published the first major economic strategy of the new Combined Authority, laying out how he believes the region can attract investment, raise productivity and create better paid jobs over the next decade.
As a former county councillor and senior scrutiny chair on East Riding Council, these big set piece documents still make me curious. Over the years, I’ve seen, scrutinised and tabled amendments to a fair few, so naturally I wanted to take a look.
They can be quite rigid and formulaic documents. Long on words, short actions. It’s quickly apparent that this one is a bit different. It does not follow the same formula as the many I have seen before it. No grand-standing, no imaginary base-line, no buzz-words. The plan reads more like an industrial investment prospectus than a local authority plan. Good!
As the first document of its kind to plan for the combined economic area, weighing up complex regional issues and opportunities it needs to.
The growth plan has been written agains the back-drop of both national economic realities, but also at a time when the cross-Humber economy is moving closer to the centre of national economic debate.
Energy security, freight resilience, domestic manufacturing and industrial infrastructure are once again dominating thinking across government.
If we play our cards right, we can be well placed to benefit from this, which the Mayor’s document emphasises repeatedly. Too true, and something previous local leaders have occasionally under-valued.
Over the past 15 years this region has become more pivotal to aspects of the wider UK economy. Ports, logistics, manufacturing, energy and food production all feature large in the UK’s balance of opportunities, so as I read through the report, it was very encouraging to see them been lined up as sling-shots into the national picture, leveraging our significance and showing how we can take a leading part.
In my self-appointed role = of arm-chair scrutiny, I found five key aspects of the plan that stand out as positive about Luke’s approach and a few that still leaves difficult questions unanswered.
First, the good bits:
He understands our strengths
The biggest strength of the strategy is that it starts from the economy the region already has, rather than the economy politicians sometimes wish it had. The document is built heavily around manufacturing, ports, logistics, chemicals, engineering, energy generation and agri tech. Luke’s strategy identifies major industrial growth sites including the Humber International Enterprise Park, Yorkshire Energy Park and Goole Freeport tax sites.
The Yorkshire Energy Park alone is projected to support up to 4,480 jobs linked to low carbon industries and manufacturing.
Most regional growth strategies over the past few years have drifted into vague language about digital clusters and creative economies while underplaying the Humber’s industrial strengths. Luke’s plan does the opposite.
He identifies electricity as a major economic problem
One of the strongest sections in the document concerns grid capacity and energy access. The strategy openly warns that industrial investment is already being constrained by power availability, network planning delays and infrastructure bottlenecks.
Most regional growth strategies over the past few years have drifted into vague language about digital clusters and creative economies while underplaying the Humber’s industrial strengths. Luke’s plan does the opposite.
That may sound suprising, but it is becoming one of the defining economic issues in Britain.
Businesses can secure sites, planning consent and investors only to discover they cannot obtain viable electricity connections for years.
The strategy proposes working with Government to align energy infrastructure planning with industrial growth locations across the Humber. Luke is demonstrating some clever and joined up economic thinking by drawing these threads together and highlighting it as a dependency in this way.
The strategy includes small businesses
One of the political dangers in devolution is that economic policy becomes dominated by large infrastructure schemes and multinational investors while smaller firms feel excluded. The proposed Hull and East Yorkshire SME Alliance is designed to prevent that.
The strategy proposes £1 million of direct SME support focused on productivity, innovation, recruitment and business growth.
It also repeatedly references the need to connect local firms into supply chains linked to major industrial investment.
That matters because most people experience the economy through local employers, not investment conferences.
Its honest about inactivity and poor health
Most public sector growth plans talk endlessly about “skills gaps” while avoiding the issue of economic inactivity. The Mayor’s document tackles it directly.
The strategy states that 26,300 people across Hull and East Yorkshire are economically inactive due to long term sickness, representing 37 per cent of the inactive population.
It links that directly to labour shortages and weaker economic growth.
The plan proposes integrated employment, health and skills support alongside programmes such as Connect to Work and a potential Good Work Charter.
Whether those programmes work remains to be seen, but the diagnosis is accurate.
The plan speaks the language investors understand
The document discusses freight connectivity, industrial land, rail access, flood defences, utilities and site readiness. The Humber International Enterprise Park is marketed around its planning status, direct rail links and 100+ MVA power capacity. The Goole Freeport site is promoted through motorway access, manufacturing potential and energy infrastructure.
It does not contain the language of traditional council strategy documents. It is much closer to the language used in commercial investment pitches.
Now for the bad. Where the document has gaps that will need attending to for it to be a success.
Too much still depends on Government
For all the ambition, many of the most important parts of the strategy remain outside local control. Rail improvements, energy regulation, electricity connections and large transport schemes all depend heavily on national government and regulators.
The Mayor can coordinate, lobby and prioritise but he wont be able to compel delivery, so much of the strategy will be vulnerable to changing national priorities.
There are still too many feasibility studies and fluff
Some parts of the document still feel too conceptual. The Western Docklands proposals involve further assessment work, feasibility studies and the possible creation of a Mayoral Development Corporation covering seven sites across Hull’s waterfront. The Bridlington Bay proposals are similarly framed around future opportunity studies linked to offshore industry, tourism and housing. The region has seen decades of masterplans, regeneration frameworks and artist impressions. Eventually, Luke and the Combined Authority will be judged on visible delivery.
Town centres receive comparatively little attention
The strategy is strongest on industrial growth and large infrastructure. It is noticeably thinner on town centres, high streets and smaller local economies. There is extensive detail on Freeports, industrial sites and innovation corridors. There is far less detail on how smaller communities outside the Humber
The overall impression, however, is of a strategy that is more commercially aware and economically grounded than many regional growth plans produced in recent years.
industrial corridor fit into the wider economic model. That might become politically sensitive later.
Housing is disconnected from the growth argument
Affordable housing appears in the Combined Authority’s wider priorities, but it never becomes fully integrated into the economic strategy itself. If industrial growth accelerates, housing pressures across parts of the East Riding are likely to intensify quickly. The document would benefit from a much clearer explanation of how housing supply supports labour market growth and investment.
The East Riding balance may become difficult politically
Economically, the focus on Hull waterfront regeneration, industrial infrastructure and Humber Freeports makes complete sense. Politically, however, the Mayor governs a geography stretching from urban Hull to isolated rural communities and coastal towns.
Much of the investment geography in the strategy remains concentrated around the estuary economy.
Over time, Luke may face pressure to demonstrate more visible benefits across the wider East Riding and coastal communities beyond the Humber corridor itself.
The overall impression, however, is of a strategy that is more commercially aware and economically grounded than many regional growth plans produced in recent years. As mentioned above, I have spent some time in local government and I am yet to see a growth document as well considered, connected and coherent as the one presented here.
The harder part for Luke begins now. I wish him and the team every success.
Take a closer look at the Mayors document: Download the growth plan