00:00Well, I've been amazed at some of the richness of the industry that I've talked to just in
00:15this short space of time that I've been here today.
00:19Going to Exeter Science Park and then coming to the conference, I've met defence, advanced
00:25manufacturing, food, technology, maritime, all sorts of different industries that are
00:34clearly hungry to grow and I think that's the message that I'll take away.
00:39There is huge hunger to grow some really advanced, really interesting industry here in the southwest
00:47and we need to, at government level, make sure we're breaking down the barriers and
00:52providing the levers to enable that growth to take place.
00:55One of the messages in the speech that I made was the more you can speak as a single voice,
01:03not with a mayor, doesn't need to be that structure, we don't have to have the same
01:06structures everywhere across the country, but so that if there is an investor coming
01:11to the UK saying we want to invest in a new technology that we're interested in, what
01:17can I do in the southwest?
01:18There has to be a really clear message and a clear path for that business to get to the
01:24investment and we, at government level, have to understand what the needs are for the southwest
01:30and the clearer, the more joined up, the more MPs can work together, local authorities can
01:35work together, business partnerships can work together, the better I think we can get that
01:40relationship working.
01:42But I think it's important to say that I'm really clear there are lots of investment
01:47opportunities here, there are lots of potentials for us to grow, but I can also see what the
01:53barriers are and there will be reforms at a national level that will help, whether that's
01:59reforming the apprenticeship levy, setting up Skills England, whether it's our big push
02:03for clean energy by 2030 and floating offshore wind, there are a whole raft of government
02:09policies for this new government that will help this region and we need to make sure
02:13we can do that as quickly as possible.
02:15Well, there's a lot. How does our strategic defence review fit with our industrial strategy?
02:21How do we make sure we're giving that long-term security to those big, important defence contracts
02:25that we have here? How can we use the changes, setting up Great British Energy, our push
02:32to clean power by 2030 to really get motoring on, floating offshore wind, the possibilities
02:39of the Celtic Sea that we have? Talking to some of the smaller industries here, the kind
02:46of new start-up technologies, they're doing brilliant work in terms of the R&D level.
02:51There's that gap in funding, making it hard for them to scale up. We know that's a problem
02:56across lots of different sectors. We're looking at how we fill that gap with vehicles like
03:01the National Wealth Fund. So I think there's a lot that we can do if we get this right
03:06and work together. It's complicated. You've got such a rich diversity of all kinds of
03:11different industry. We need to make sure we're tapping into all of that. That will be difficult,
03:18but I think the potential for growth and for skills and for growing the economy is definitely
03:26there.
03:27Well, ideally, I think good government has a good strategy at the national level, setting
03:32the direction of travel, setting the kind of framework under which we want to grow
03:37the economy. And then you make sure you're pushing power as far down as you can to a
03:42local area because we don't have the answers in Whitehall. This has been said for decades
03:47and it's true. So how we devolve is really important. We are working on that strategy
03:53at the moment, working on the legislation for the nations and regions work, the devolution
03:57that's going on. We need to get that right. And that involves talking to people. It involves
04:02understanding what's working now and what's not working now and how we make that better.
04:07A lot of our investments, a lot of our reform to the energy systems, our house building,
04:13you've got to take local communities with you or you're not going to be able to do these
04:18things. So we have to make sure we're speaking to local people about what is needed in their
04:24area, that we take those people with us, that they get the benefits, that they don't just
04:29see big companies coming in and they're not getting any of the benefits themselves. There's
04:32a whole raft of advantages to pushing power down as low as you can to make sure we're
04:38actually doing what works because each region is different, each area is different, each
04:43town is different, and we need to find a way of unlocking that.
04:48Longer term funding for local authorities I think is really important. Every local authority
04:52you speak to says if this annual budget means you really can't plan, you really can't look
04:57to the long term, well having longer budgets will make a difference. There is some funding
05:01that we're putting in to do things like ensure that there is a bit more planning resource
05:06in local authorities, something that they really need. And of course in MHCLG, Angela
05:10Rayner will be looking really hard at how do we make the most of the money that we've
05:16got. We're well aware of the kind of challenges and the need for investment into local authorities,
05:23they're so important, but we also are aware of the economic situation and the reality
05:29that we face and we're going to have to balance that.
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