Place-based vs. place blind? - Where do England's new local industrial strategies fit in the 'levelling up' agenda?

Although rebalancing the UK economy has long been a focus of UK governments, this has recently used the rhetoric of 'levelling up'. Amongst other policy instruments, the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy has been an indicator of the core economic priority areas, with selected local areas also invited to produce their own local industrial strategies to provide a more nuanced delivery of those goals. This article considers the economic profile of five of the Combined Authority areas tasked with delivering the first of these local industrial strategies. By examining the profile of educational attainment, and the core sectors, it examines how well equipped they are to capitalise on these key growth sectors. The article finds that in many cases, the combined authorities have sectors which are comparatively under-represented in terms of the national economy, and have a population which is broadly ill-equipped to access job opportunities in those sectors.