SOUTH YORKSHIRE’S MAYOR LAUNCHES PLANS FOR GROWTH AND SKILLS

Published 19 March 2024 at 11:26am

South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard has announced a new Plan for Good Growth for South Yorkshire, alongside the region’s first Skills Strategy. These landmark documents will put the region on the path towards a bigger and a better economy which will restore the pride, purpose and prosperity of the region.

The Plan for Good Growth and the Skills Strategy will support the Mayor’s overarching vision to develop South Yorkshire’s economic strength. They build on the establishment of the Mayoral Economic Advisory Council (MEAC) and Business Advisory Board (BAB) which provide expert voices on business and the economy within and beyond South Yorkshire. 

Last year, South Yorkshire became the Government’s first Investment Zone in the UK, worth £160 million to attract investment into the region, building on its reputation as the UK’s hotspot for advanced manufacturing. South Yorkshire is currently the home of Boeing in Europe and the region recently received investment from Google worth £1 million to contribute to nation-leading research in digital health.

Growth areas

The Mayor’s Plan for Good Growth sets out how South Yorkshire will attract investment and income into the region and grow more secure, high-paid jobs. It will achieve this by supporting the development of four Growth Areas – Sheffield City Centre and Innovation Spine, South Yorkshire Airport City, the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District and Barnsley Town Centre – as well as improving connection and community through investment in the region’s economic and social infrastructure.

The Skills Strategy sets out three missions that – together with the Plan for Good Growth - will ensure residents of South Yorkshire can stay near but go far. These are:

• To move those far from the labour market into work or to be ready for work;
• To raise attainment of core knowledge and skills; and,
• To increase the supply of a high-skilled workforce

To help deliver these missions, the Strategy outlines seven flagship programmes. These include expansion of Skills Bank – a national exemplar of public and private investment in upskilling the workforce – and a Taskforce which will design a South Yorkshire Young Person’s Offer to support young people to take the next step in developing the skills needed for work and life. 

To launch the Skills Strategy and the Plan for Growth, the Mayor will chair a roundtable of experts at Barnsley College this morning, where he will invite attendees to discuss both strategies. He will also be accompanied by representatives from the College, including two students who will be affected by the measures announced today.

South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard said: “My job is good growth; building not just a bigger economy, but a better economy.

"Our Plan for Good Growth and our Skills Strategy - both of which we’re launching today- outline the practical steps and decisions we will take to get there.

"We can already see the South Yorkshire we want to build, taking shape. We know it will be cleaner, greener, healthier, wealthier and happier.

"So our Plan for Good Growth sets out a new economic model, one that recognises and builds on both our history and our strengths, but also tackles the big, long term challenges we need to overcome if we’re going deliver more jobs, more investment, and good growth; a growth model that lifts up everyone across Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield.

"Our Skills Strategy both reflects and reinforces those ambitions; setting our ambition to offer every single person the support they need to stay near and go far.

"Taken together, those two strategies set out some of the core, fundamental steps we are now taking to rebuild the pride, purpose and prosperity of South Yorkshire.”

Both the plan for Good Growth and the Skills Strategy were approved at the meeting of the Mayoral Combined Authority this week. 

Cllr Sir Steve Houghton, Leader of Barnsley Council and Skills Lead for South Yorkshire’s MCA said: “Our Skills Strategy sets out a clear framework for how we will support residents across South Yorkshire to succeed. 

"Where too often learners and their needs are lost in a maze of partners, providers and programmes, they are front and centre of our strategy. 

"This strategy also puts partnership working at its core, something South Yorkshire has always led the way in, and which is vital for giving residents holistic, effective support.”

Programmes

The Plan for Good Growth and the Skills Strategy were approved by the MCA board on 12/3/24. There will now be a period of community engagement and planning to deliver the objectives of the plans.

Working with partners, the Skills Strategy will deliver seven flagship programmes:

• South Yorkshire Youth Offer
• South Yorkshire Community Skills Hubs
• Expanding and simplifying Skills Bank
• South Yorkshire Single Skills and Employment Portal
• South Yorkshire Technical Offer
• Better Business Campaign
• Mayoral Awards

Good Growth

South Yorkshire’s tech sector has seen stand-out growth in recent years. It has remained resilient, growing through COVID, whilst elsewhere growth in the sector slowed. Specialisms in EdTech, Gaming, BioTech and AI, data and analytics have produced Tutorful, Sumo, Unicorn Biotechnologies and FourJaw. The digital sector grew at a compound annual growth rate of 7% between 2016 and 2021 in SY.

Recent DSIT analysis gives South Yorkshire the largest share of the Clean Tech economy (6.9%), more than three times the share of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.

Our analysis suggests that closing the gap with national average productivity level (outside of London) would add 17.8% or £5.9bn to the SY economy, equivalent to each resident being £4,300 more productive. We believe nearly £2bn of that gap could be closed with targeted investment in the transport and skills systems.

We estimate that, increasing the effective size of metropolitan South Yorkshire to that of comparable Western European and US peers would increase the number of commuters by 4% would be worth about £1bn per year to South Yorkshire.

We estimate that if 10% of the population in South Yorkshire with Level 3 earned wages equivalent to those at level 4 or above on average in South Yorkshire, total earnings could increase by close to £200 million.

If South Yorkshire’s inactivity rates due to ill health were reduced to the English and Welsh average, earnings in the region could increase by close to £300 million a year.

Employment

We estimate that supporting 20,000 people with no qualifications up to level 2 could generate a further £200m in earnings, and moving a further 20,000 people from level 3 to level 4 could generate a further £200m in terms of earnings.

Someone with no qualifications could, on average, increase their earnings by £175 a week by moving up to level 2 of English and maths in South Yorkshire.