Business Secretary Greg Clark and Greater Manchester’s Deputy Mayor for the Economy Richard Leese have this week set out progress towards a Greater Manchester Local Industrial Strategy, one of the UK’s first Local Industrial Strategies.

Developed in collaboration with regional partners, the Local Industrial Strategy for Greater Manchester will harness the regions distinctive strengths and build on them in areas like health research and advanced materials to unlock growth and boost people’s earning power across the region’s cities and places.

Once launched, the Local Industrial Strategy will capitalise on Greater Manchester’s long and established history of entrepreneurship and enterprise, its devolved health and social care budget of £6 billion per annum and its position as home to one of the largest graduate pools in Europe.

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said: “To allow Greater Manchester to thrive and drive productivity and prosperity we need to make sure there are good jobs, a skilled workforce and businesses are supported, and this is what the plan is about.

We want to use the strategy to build on Greater Manchester’s unique legacy of industrial ambition and creativity to create a thriving, digitally-enabled green city. We want to work with businesses on the strategy to create an innovative plan that improves the lives of everyone who lives and works here.”

Having a Local Industrial Strategy is pivotal to future of our health tech revolution, as Rowena Burns, Chair of Health Innovation Manchester, explains: “The strength of our commercial life sciences sector and assets in health tech, data analysis and healthcare puts Greater Manchester in a fantastic position to accelerate innovation, driven by Health Innovation Manchester and supported by devolution.”

Read more about the announcement and Local Industrial Strategy progress report via the UK Gov website.