February 2023: regional growth update

We’re committed to ensuring your voice is heard in your region, and that real, practical change can be driven to boost productivity and prosperity. To do this, the CBI sits on business groups across Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in the regions, making sure that businesses voice is central to their plans to drive growth across all English regions.

This monthly update gives the latest news from across the regions focused on the CBI Seize the Moment priorities; to achieve net zero, driving innovation, putting business at the heart of UK trade policy shaping a more agile skills system, and instilling a culture of valuing health more as a nation.  

Latest headlines

• The Crown Estate has signed agreements for lease for six offshore wind projects which could begin to generate green electricity by the end of the decade and have the potential to provide enough renewable electricity for more than seven million homes. Three of the six projects are located off the North Wales, Cumbria and Lancashire coast, and three are located in the North Sea off the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coast.
• Two devolution deals for Suffolk and Norfolk have been announced offering the counties in the East of England more powers and funding worth over £1bn.They are both ‘level three’ deals, which means that the counties will change their governance model to appoint a directly elected leader.
• Government backs a new pan-regional partnership (PRP) for the Oxford-Cambridge Corridor - The partnership covers Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and parts of Oxfordshire - an area which has a population of about 3.5 million people. 
• The government is reviewing whether to appoint levelling up directors after interviewing just a handful of people for the 12 posts last year. Dehenna Davison, levelling up minister, has said that the whole process is now being looked at within t