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Long term competitiveness

Devolution that delivers growth: practical recommendations for the Devolution Roadmap

11 November 2026
10 minutes

Executive summary
We support the government's ambition to deepen devolution and empower policymakers to drive growth.

Through our Regions and Nations programme, established in 2017, we have worked with metro mayors, combined authorities, devolved administrations, local authorities and businesses across the UK to support investment, growth and high value job creation.

Over our decade of working on these issues, we strongly believe that the next phase of devolution should focus not only on powers and structures, but also on capability, capacity and delivery.

Successful devolution depends on strong institutions, effective leadership, access to expertise and meaningful engagement between government and business. Places need the tools, skills and support required to translate devolved powers into inclusive growth.

We have therefore set out five practical recommendations that would help ensure the government’s Devolution Roadmap delivers stronger growth, increased investment and better outcomes for communities in every corner of the UK.

A roadmap that prioritises delivery
The debate around devolution has often focused on which powers should be devolved and to whom.

These questions remain important. Businesses benefit from greater consistency, clarity and certainty in the devolution framework, alongside long-term funding settlements that allow local leaders to plan with confidence. Our previous work in this area has consistently supported these principles.

However, powers alone do not guarantee delivery. The next phase of devolution should focus on strengthening the institutions, leadership and delivery mechanisms that allow local areas to attract investment, support business growth and deliver major projects.

The challenge facing many places is no longer identifying opportunities. It is converting them into investable propositions and implementing them successfully.

Successful devolution requires three things:

  • Clear powers and accountability

  • Strong local institutions and leadership

The ability to connect local opportunities with investment, expertise and delivery support.
The Devolution Roadmap presents an opportunity to strengthen all three.

  • Recommendation 1: Put business and investment at the heart of devolution

  • Recommendation 2: Establish a growth accelerator function within No10 North

  • Recommendation 3: Build local investment capability

  • Recommendation 4: Create a Devolution Leadership Academy

  • Recommendation 5: Establish a National Devolution Secondment Programme

Read more detail about each of these recommendations below:

1. Put business and investment at the heart of devolution

Put business and investment at the heart of devolution

Strong business engagement is critical to successful devolution.

Too often, businesses are consulted on strategies after key decisions have already been taken. The most successful places involve employers, investors and industry representatives from the outset.

Government should ensure that strategic authorities and devolved administrations establish structured business engagement mechanisms that support Local Growth Plans, investment strategies and skills priorities. We believe that business should be embedded in local growth planning and that effective devolution depends on strong partnerships between industry and devolved institutions.

Business consultation should not simply be a tick-box exercise. The business community is a key delivery partner, capable of contributing expertise, market insight and investment to support the political and investment priorities of regional leaders.

This is particularly important in skills policy. Employers are often best placed to identify emerging skills shortages, future workforce requirements and opportunities for collaboration with education and training providers. Stronger business involvement would help ensure devolved skills systems remain aligned with economic opportunity and employer demand.

The outcome should be Local and Regional Growth Plans that are both ambitious, as well as deliverable, investable and capable of creating sustainable, high-quality jobs.

2. Establish a growth accelerator function within No10 North

Establish a growth accelerator function within No10 North

Government should establish a Growth Accelerator function within No10 North to help unblock high growth opportunities.

This would not be another policy unit or advisory body.

Instead, it should be a focused delivery capability able to bring together departments, agencies, local partners and private sector expertise to resolve barriers preventing growth projects from progressing. It should support places facing challenges in areas such as infrastructure constraints, investment readiness, skills shortages and access to private capital.

The function should build directly on lessons from the Office for Investment and the Strategic Investment Opportunities Unit rather than duplicate existing arrangements. Its role should be to help places adapt proven delivery models to local circumstances, coordinate central government support around priority projects, and unlock barriers that require national and local action. It should complement the work already underway across government while helping places access expertise and support more consistently.

Its objective should be simple: Find the opportunity. Remove the barrier. Accelerate delivery.

Governance will be critical to its success. Business expertise should be embedded within the design and operation of the function and commercial, investment and delivery experience should help shape priorities and interventions from the outset.

Strong political sponsorship will also be essential. Delivery mechanisms are most effective when they have visible support from the centre of government, clear accountability and measurable objectives.

The Growth Accelerator should report against a focused set of outcomes, including:

  • investment unlocked

  • projects accelerated

  • jobs created or safeguarded

  • productivity improvements supported

  • delivery of national and local growth priorities.

In doing so, it would provide a practical bridge between national priorities, local opportunities and private capital.

3. Build local investment capability

Build local investment capability

Government should strengthen the ability of mayors, combined and strategic authorities and devolved administrations to develop credible investment propositions, engage investors and bring major projects to market. This should build on the expertise and delivery models already developed through the Office for Investment and related initiatives, while ensuring that support responds to the priorities and circumstances of individual places.

Government has already demonstrated the value of combining public sector leadership with commercial expertise. It should now embed this approach more systematically across devolved institutions, moving from targeted support for individual opportunities towards building lasting local capability.

The Office for Investment has played an important role in strengthening the UK’s investment proposition and improving coordination between government and investors. The Strategic Investment Opportunities Unit has further demonstrated how targeted support can connect capital with investable opportunities across the country. The next phase of devolution should build on these successes, not duplicate them.

Government should ensure that mayoral strategic authorities and devolved administrations have reliable access to investment-readiness support, commercial expertise and specialist advice when developing major projects and investment propositions. This would help build lasting capability within places rather than requiring them to seek support afresh for every opportunity.

This should include stronger links between:

  • local and regional Growth Plans

  • investment promotion activity

  • industrial strategy priorities

  • skills priorities

  • national economic objectives.

Our work with the Office for Investment’s Strategic Investment Opportunities Unit has brought industry expertise to the challenge of connecting private capital with significant investment opportunities. Through the Scotland Investment Accelerator Programme, delivered with the Department for Business, Science, Innovation and Trade in Scotland and Scottish partners, we have also helped places strengthen their investment readiness and understanding of investor needs.

TheCityUK also delivers practical training on FDI attraction and facilitation in other markets, including Vietnam and Ukraine. This training is delivered by practitioners from across industry, using cross-sector case studies and hands-on learning methods, with targeted support from the UK government. A similar, commercially driven and cost-effective approach could help UK regional development teams strengthen their investment propositions and improve investor support.

4. Create a Devolution Leadership Academy

Create a Devolution Leadership Academy

As devolution expands, government should invest in the development of civic and political leadership across the UK.

A new Devolution Leadership Academy should bring together mayors, combined authority leaders, devolved administrations and senior officials to share experience, build capability and develop future leaders. Our previous work has highlighted the importance of investing in civic leadership, organisational development and the sharing of knowledge and best practice as the metro mayor model expands.

The Academy should draw on expertise from successful devolved administrations, international examples and industry practitioners.

It should focus on practical challenges including:

  • investment attraction

  • economic development

  • partnership working

  • infrastructure delivery

  • workforce planning

  • skills strategy.

Strong local leadership is one of the key ingredients for successful devolution. Government should therefore treat leadership development as economic infrastructure in its own right.

This is particularly important as strategic authorities take on greater responsibility for shaping local labour markets, coordinating skills provision and ensuring local people can access the opportunities created by growth and investment.

5. Establish a National Devolution Secondment Programme

Establish a National Devolution Secondment Programme

One of the biggest constraints facing many devolved institutions is access to specialist expertise.

Government should establish a formal secondment programme allowing experts to move between Whitehall, devolved administrations, strategic authorities and business.

This should include gaining expertise in:

  • investment and project finance

  • infrastructure delivery

  • planning and regeneration

  • economic development

  • commercial negotiation

  • programme management

  • skills and workforce development.

Such a programme would help strengthen local capability while also improving understanding between different parts of government and industry.

It would also allow places to access specialist knowledge that may otherwise be difficult to recruit and retain. This is particularly relevant in areas such as skills policy, where strategic authorities increasingly need access to labour market intelligence, employer insight and experience of designing effective pathways into work.

International examples show how this can work in practice. In Japan, national government support for the TSMC semiconductor facility in Kumamoto included seconding officials to help ensure approvals and investor support operated seamlessly between national and local partners. This strengthened delivery capacity around the project, helped maintain agreed timelines and supported skills transfer to the region for future major investments. Capacity sharing in this way also creates lasting relationships, spread best practice and help build institutional memory across the devolution system.

Conclusion: Making devolution deliver jobs and growth

The next phase of devolution should not be judged by the number of powers transferred or institutions created. It should be judged by outcomes.

The ultimate test of devolution is whether it helps places attract investment, support businesses, improve productivity and create more opportunities for people.

In the financial and related professional services industry alone, almost 2.5 million people are employed across the UK – around one in every 13 people in work, with around two thirds of those jobs based outside London. Our experience through our Regions and Nations Programme has shown that strong local leadership, effective partnerships and access to expertise can make a meaningful difference to growth outcomes.

The Government has set a clear direction of travel through its commitment to enable deeper devolution, the expansion of locally produced plans for growth and a more place-based approach to economic policy. The challenge now is implementation.

The five recommendations set out in this paper are deliberately practical. They focus on leadership, capability, skills, investment and delivery. Together they would help ensure devolved institutions have not only the powers to act, but also the capacity and expertise needed to succeed.

Successful devolution is ultimately about connecting national ambition with local opportunity.

If government can equip places with the right powers, the right people and the right partnerships, devolution can become one of the most effective tools available to drive investment, raise productivity and create high-quality jobs across every part of the UK.

That is why the Devolution Roadmap should be viewed not simply as a constitutional reform programme, but as a growth strategy.

The success of devolution will not be measured by the powers that are devolved. It will be measured by the jobs created, the investment attracted and the opportunities unlocked in every postcode.

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