December 2015

Heart of the South West - Devolution Deal

Where is the Heart of the South West?

United partnership, ready for devolution

Our VISION for productivity-led growthSingle productivity strategy

Single investment programme: Single Capital Investment Fund

£4 billion productivity gain for the UK

People are healthy and well and have the skills they need access higher value jobs and grow their careers with Heart of the South West businesses.

Businesses creates an additional 80,000 jobs and GVA uplift of £4 billion for UK plc

Place with a long term plan for sustainable growth supported by accelerated housing delivery of XX homes by 2030.

Opportunities

Opportunities

Opportunities N.B. Further work being undertaken to include targets

Challenges

PeopleToo many people are kept from the labour market due to preventable ill-health, and the education and skills systems is not driven by what business says it needs.

BusinessWe have transformation opportunities (above) with global potential but our business struggle to find the right support from a system that is complex and not tailored to local need.

PlaceThe Heart of the South West has distinct needs for transport and other infrastructure that historically have not been met – there is no certainty over infrastructure investment to give the private sector the confidence to invest.

Headline asks/offers

• A Single Capital Investment Fund (£tba million/year to 2030), matched by local investment, to deliver an additional 80,000 jobs and £4 billion in productivity. To include a dedicated Housing Delivery Fund made up of devolved HCA resources plus local contributions.

• A single Productivity Strategy combining national and local ambitions for infrastructure, the labour market and skills, and other drivers of growth.

• Investment of £tba million/year in Growth Hub to support local businesses and unlock our transformational opportunities in new nuclear, marine industries, environmental sciences, aerospace, and in the rural economy.

• No one denied the opportunity to participate in our flourishing economy, through a commitment to no NEETs, and through integrated health and care, removing ill-health as a barrier to work.

PeopleThe vision: People are healthy and well and have the skills they need to access higher value jobs and grow their careers with Heart of the South West businesses.

The challenge: The cost of health and care in the Heart of the South West is rapidly increasing. The policy levers and funding streams at our disposal are not sufficient to integrate health and care services.

Even when people are fighting fit, the education and skills system is not providing our businesses with the talent they need to grow.

Proposed solutions: We will continue to build on our nationally recognised integration of health and care, taking on mainstream national budgets to deliver a long term plan for place-based approaches. We will work with business to create a long term plan for the labour market which is responsive to economic need and delivers a skills systems where no one is left behind.

PeopleOFFER from the Heart of the SW ASK of national Government

Strong business leadership in the development of a Single Labour Market Plan for the Heart of the South West to ensure that the education and skills system is responsive to economic need.

A presumption in favour of devolution of all education and skills budgets, including but not limited to DfE, SFA, HEFCE, DWP – as a minimum devolving adult skills budgets, apprenticeship services.

Creation of a business-led approach to careers advice and guidance and a ‘no NEETs’ ambition for 2030.

Local control of work programme and other mainstream budgets including the Flexible Support Fund.

Delivery of ‘whole system’ approach to health and care, taking a longer-term view of the return on investment, i.e. savings for the public purse, from intervening early and preventing ill-health.

Government devolution of a 5-year place-based budget for health, care and public health and the freedom to pool collective resources locally

BusinessThe vision: Businesses create an additional 80,000 jobs and GVA uplift of £4 billion for UK plc

The challenge: The UK languishes behind the other OECD nations on measures of productivity by some 17%. The Heart of the South West performs even more poorly being some 25-30% behind the UK average.

Yet we have hot spots of outstanding opportunity, whether in new nuclear, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, environment sciences or marine industries. We need the tools to offer businesses the support they need to start-up, innovate, grow and succeed, as well as national recognition for our transformational opportunities and support to attract investment.

Proposed solutions: Our proposal starts with full devolution of all nationally held business support budgets to enable the delivery of a properly integrated and simplified business support system

BusinessOFFER from the Heart of the SW ASK of national Government

Strong business-led approach to our Growth Hub as part of our commitment to delivering 80,000 additional jobs and a £4 billion uplift in GVA by 2030.

Devolution of all national business support budgets – from a minimum revenue funding of £1m/year – with more available through a payment by results deal with Government.

Support for our transformational opportunities and cluster development, working to support science, innovation and growth in key technology sectors including working cross-LEP

Commitment to run a Science & Innovation Audit in the South West with at least two neighbouring LEPs working with HotSW.

Establish a £tbamillion/year Single Capital Investment Fund for investment in growth projects (see also Place), with a common appraisal framework designed to focus investments on local economic need.

Provide £tbamillion/year, and remove monitoring and reporting requirements from central government to allow the fund to be operated flexibly to meet economic need. Commit to using HotSW as a pilot for new model of European funding responsive to economic need

PlaceThe vision: Place with a long term plan for sustainable growth supported by accelerated housing delivery of tba homes by 2030.

The challenge: We are a peninsula surrounded by the sea. Whilst an attractive place to visit, and to do business, the high cost of maintaining our infrastructure, much of which is rural in character, has not historically been recognised. We need long-term security of investment in our roads, rail, broadband and protection from the elements, if we are going to capitalise on our transformational economic opportunities.

We have some of the highest house prices in the country outside London and an acute lack of supply of new homes. We have demonstrated we can deliver new homes at pace and scale. With the right tools we could go much further and faster right across the area.

Proposed solutions: A single infrastructure plan for the area will guide a capital investment programme for our area, designed to unlock business productivity. Government will devolve national budgets for transport and other infrastructure for this plan and our Combined Authority will ensure it delivers.

Place

OFFER from the Heart of the SW ASK of national Government

Establish a Strategic Infrastructure Plan (SIP) to 2030.

Provide £tbamillion/year to a Single Capital Investment Fund for the Heart of the South West.

Align investment in local transport infrastructure with national plans, using the Strategic Infrastructure Plan as the vehicle for this.

Allow local authorities who wish to do so the flexibility to commission bus services, and devolve air passenger duty.

Deliver XX additional new homes, through the creation of a revolving Housing Delivery Fund.

Devolution of HCA budgets into the Housing Delivery Fund; flexibility of regulations such as CIL, CPO and planning fees.