Greater Manchester's Local Industrial Strategy


Good Jobs and Growth - Greater Manchester's Local Industrial Strategy

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), the GM Local Enterprise Partnership and the UK Government have agreed and jointly published one of the country's first modern local industrial strategies.

The Greater Manchester Local Industrial Strategy outlines a set of long-term policy priorities to help guide industrial development and provides a plan for good jobs and growth in Greater Manchester. The Strategy was co-designed with business, the community, the voluntary and social enterprise sector and citizens. A comprehensive consultation exercise was undertaken, including a 6-week formal consultation.

The Strategy builds on the national Industrial Strategy, published in Autumn 2017, and ‘Our People, Our Place’ – the Greater Manchester Strategy.

Greater Manchester local industrial strategy - front cover

The Greater Manchester Independent Prosperity Review

Greater Manchester’s commitment to basing strategic choices on the highest quality evidence available has been re-affirmed by the Greater Manchester Independent Prosperity Review. Led by a panel of independent leading experts, the Review developed the evidence on which the Local Industrial Strategy is based.

The panel members were:

  • Professor Diane Coyle: Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge, and Chair of the Greater Manchester Independent Prosperity Review
  • Stephanie Flanders: Head of Bloomberg Economics
  • Professor Ed Glaeser: Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, Harvard University
  • Professor Mariana Mazzucato: Professor in the Economics of Innovation, University College London
  • Professor Henry Overman: Professor of Economic Geography, London School of Economics, and Director of the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth
  • Darra Singh: Government and Public Sector Lead at Ernst and Young (EY)

Ten years on from the path-breaking Manchester Independent Economic Review (MIER), it provides a fresh understanding of what needs to be done to improve productivity and drive prosperity across the city-region.

Made Smarter

Made Smarter was created following an industry-led review of how UK manufacturing industries can become more profitable through strategic leadership for digital manufacturing, digital technology adoption,  faster innovation, and workforce development. It seeks to improve competitiveness, increase exports, and boost productivity of UK manufacturers and supply chains through fully-funded access to expert support, guidance and grant funding.

The Local Industrial Strategy set out plans to improve productivity in Greater Manchester’s manufacturing base by following the Made Smarter approach to accelerating the development, design, adoption and creative application of digital technologies.

The Made Smarter North West Adoption Pilot ran from October 2018 to June 2021. Alongside the Pilot, an evaluation was commissioned to examine its impact.

  • Read more about the North West Made Smarter Adoption Pilot Evaluation