Key to the effectiveness of the Black Country Economic Recovery prospectus is the way it links national and regional priorities with action at a local level. It aims to communicate a coherent Black Country narrative in the context of the priorities set by the West Midlands Combined Authority.

Key to shaping the prospectus was a policy awayday involving the Black Country LEP Board and leaders, chief executives and directors of regeneration from the four Black Country Councils. As were a series of interviews with key stakeholders leading up to the awayday.

At the core of the document is a five-point plan linked to a programme of interventions and investments designed to drive economic recovery. The five points are: Back Black Country Business; Deliver Skills for Today and The Future; Nurture Green Growth; Create Vibrant, Safe and Healthy Places; and Mobilise Devolution and Public Service Reform.

Shared Intelligence supported the process by facilitating the conversations and awayday; articulating the policy alignment; and crafting the overall narrative.

Shared Intelligence was engaged by the Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to support it and its local partners to develop its local industrial strategy (LIS). Published as one of the government’s trailblazers, it set out the long-term strategy, based on clear evidence, and aligned to the national Industrial Strategy.

The work was carried out with the LEP’s partners in local public services, business and representatives of national government. We co-ordinated a process that built an evidence base about the core opportunities and challenges for the Buckinghamshire economy and an understanding of the existing “family” of related local strategies within which the LIS needed to mesh. It drew on Buckinghamshire’s four internationally significant economic assets – the Westcott Space Cluster; Silverstone Park and Tech Cluster; Pinewood Studios and creative businesses; and Stoke Mandeville and MedTech businesses. This strategy has recently been updated to take account of the Covid pandemic and the challenges that it has brought to our economy.