Published in June 2018, the Report aims to provide guidance to places seeking to develop effective Local Industrial Strategies, as proposed in the National Industrial Strategy, launched by BEIS in 2017. Local Industrial Strategies (LIS) differ from Strategic Economic Plans (SEP) in that they are more collaborative between public and private sectors, and they are intended to be more focused and action-driven.

The Report does this by suggesting ten considerations when developing a LIS, that it discusses in detail along with an explanation of how these considerations could be specifically applied to skills policy.

Following discussions with local and combined authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and central government, the Report seeks to outline a set of ideas about how local and central government can address the challenges they face in designing a LIS, with the WWC continuing to work with key stakeholders to develop these ideas.