Research

Publications

Our Plan for Sustainable Growth

Our Plan for Sustainable Growth is an evidence-based and focused approach to the key factors needed to unlock the full potential of our area in a way that benefits businesses, communities, and the environment alike.  Built in collaboration with partners it will build on our successes and deliver our mission of a greener, fairer future for our area.  Our research shows we have built the key sectors for growth and are well-placed to create and deliver large parts of the emerging National Industrial Strategy. To release this potential we are focusing our efforts in four key areas: enhancing innovation, attracting investment, connecting communities and boosting our recognition, outlined in this plan

Publications

Western Gateway Economic Narrative

Our area has huge potential to lead the world in many of the sectors we will need to create economic growth, economic stability and secure the UK’s future. In this narrative we set out our unique strengths in our five key sectors, high value manufacturing,  cyber & technology, green energy, fintech, creatives & digital. We show how they intersect with our heritage, culture and natural environment to make the Western Gateway area one of the most vibrant and exciting places to do business and propel it to the highest forecast growth outside London.

Publications

The Western Gateway Updated IER: The UK’s Future Economy

The Western Gateway is a diverse economy, centred around three major city regions (Bristol, Cardiff, and Swansea) but with a significant rural and coastal element, and stretching 150 miles from Pembrokeshire in the west to Wiltshire in the east. With an overall population of 4.8 million, the Gateway is one of the UK’s leading regions for high tech knowledge-led economic activity, broadly comparable in its national significance to the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, but it combines that with ample affordable development land, a highly skilled workforce, and excellent transport accessibility to London, the South East, and the wider national and global economies.