Does the UK Industrial Strategy risk leaving Yorkshire and the Humber behind?

In November, the Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission (YHCC) submitted a response to the UK Industrial Strategy Green Paper. In preparing our response we spoke to business, educational and local authority partners, and the consistent, overriding message was that stable, consistent, and mission-led regulation and policy are the most fundamental provisions a government can make for business investment. The UK has not had an industrial strategy since 2017, unlike most other countries, and we welcome the government’s intention to address this gap. With the green paper, the government appears to be in listening mode – requesting respondents to identify barriers to investment in industry and propose solutions. 

However, we are concerned that the government’s approach risks leaving Yorkshire and the Humber behind. Our region is crucial to UK industry, and the Humber Industrial Cluster is a major global emitter of carbon emissions. The YHCC publication Our Carbon Story highlights the need for Yorkshire and the Humber to decarbonise four times faster than the usual rate to meet the regional emissions reduction target of net zero by 2038. Transforming from a high-carbon heritage to a low-carbon future should also be seen as a significant opportunity to reinvent the region’s economy and address social and economic inequalities arising from previous industrial decline. Businesses of all sizes across the region are eager to seize this opportunity.  

Crucial aspects of the region’s industrial story are missing from the green paper. The future of the steel industry in Scunthorpe is uncertain. As the TUC has highlighted, it is expected that at least 2,000 jobs will be lost, and potentially many more in the wider area are at risk, with decarbonisation being blamed. If locally made steel were replaced with imported steel that is still reliant on coal-fired furnaces, the UK could lose jobs without reducing emissions. This would be the worst of both worlds, especially for the communities impacted by the job losses.  

Meanwhile, the Humber Industrial Cluster, which includes oil and gas refining, energy generation, and chemical industries, has a well-developed decarbonisation plan. Yet it remains unclear whether the government is willing to invest in it. The Humber Industrial Cluster Plan does involve carbon capture and storage (CCS), with a bioenergy component (BECCS) that has divided opinion. But a low-carbon industrial future must ultimately be achieved with or without those technologies, and it must be fair and just to succeed. Decarbonising the industrial sector poses additional risks to people employed in high-emitting sectors, their supply chains, and the foundational economies of places like the Humber, where these industries are located. Therefore, it is very concerning that the green paper’s clean energy growth sector doesn’t mention the Humber.  

Across our region, some businesses in all sectors will not fully adapt to the low-carbon economy or other climate effects. Some businesses will fold while others will emerge and grow. This could particularly impact the food and farming sector, which is crucial to our climate-ready future in terms of land use, environmental resource management, and the future of rural communities. We cannot achieve nature recovery without farmers and the supply chains that support them. This is where an industrial strategy needs to recognise not just the sectors that currently have high-growth trajectories, but also the sectors we will need in the future to help places thrive in the changing climate. Training, skills and technical innovations in agriculture are all important here. 

A successful industrial strategy, then, is only partly about backing winners such as renewable energy technologies. It must also include clear plans to support communities in the places that are instrumental to decarbonisation and climate resilience. In particular, this means: 

• activating the power of businesses and organisations to invest in training, skills, research and development, and decarbonisation, particularly through stable, mission-led regulations that give confidence for investment

• enabling fair and inclusive climate action, which cannot rely on trickle-down effects from high-growth sectors but must target investment, education and institutions in the places where inequalities are profound and economic transformation challenges are greatest

• transforming our energy system, not just through technology but also by enabling demand reduction and energy efficiency to help all businesses reduce their energy costs, and by fully engaging communities in the planning of new energy infrastructure. 

As set out in the devolution white paper, there is an opportunity for our mayoral combined authorities to help set a more joined-up agenda for investment in industry, infrastructure, skills, and action for climate and nature. The national industrial strategy needs to focus on enabling these regional opportunities in all regions, and to reduce the over-centralised nature of the UK economy. Here’s hoping that opportunity is on its way. 

Andrew Wood, Senior Engagement and Impact Officer, Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission 

Read the Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission’s response to the Industrial Strategy Green Paper