The UK needs greater collaboration between national and regional authorities, more empowerment of regional mayors and policies tailored to specific regions to significantly improve its productivity performance in the long-term, according to the Regional Productivity Agenda published by The Productivity Institute. It states that, despite its commitment in the Industrial Strategy and the Devolution White Paper the government is not sufficiently focused on joining up and scaling up pro-productivity policies across regions.
Developed by the Institute’s eight Productivity Forums across the UK, the regional agenda calls for better alignment of national pro-productivity policies, including investment, innovation, skills, trade, and foreign direct investment, with those of regional bodies and local authorities. Additionally, it emphasizes the need for coordination and a regionally tailored approach to the implementation of the industrial strategy.
The Regional Productivity Agenda includes executive summaries of all of the Insights Papers published by the eight Productivity Forums, including the East Anglia Insights Paper co-authored by Owen Garling and Burcu Sevde Selvi from the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Cambridge, and the East Anglia Productivity Forum.
Their research highlighted a number of issues that are felt across East Anglia, including a fragmented approach to governance, skills shortages and mismatches, disparities in the quality of the region’s infrastructure as well as the challenges of climate change and the opportunities of Net Zero.
The report also includes a productivity scorecard, bringing together a number of different datasets to highlight the strengths and challenges faced by East Anglia. Figures show that Cambridgeshire and Peterborough outperform the rest of the region in Export Intensity, with Peterborough also leading in new business formation. There are also significant variations in the proportion of low and high-skilled individuals across the region. Furthermore, 4G connectivity shows a large contrast, ranging from nearly 90% in Peterborough to just 57.8% in Breckland and South Norfolk. Fibre connectivity also varies considerably—86.6% in Peterborough compared to just over 25% in Norwich, East Norfolk, and North & West Norfolk. Cambridgeshire’s lower fibre coverage reflects the broader rural nature of East Anglia.
The report calls for an integrated approach to pro-productivity policies at a national, regional and local level. To fully capitalise on the potential of a cohesive productivity agenda, local authority powers must be scaled up to intermediate levels of government. The recently published English Devolution White Paper provides an opportunity to develop an approach to regional governance in East Anglia that ensures that decisions are taken at the most appropriate level.
East Anglia’s leadership in renewable energy, particularly offshore wind, positions the region to lead the country’s transition to renewable energy and establish national and international influence. As one of the driest and lowest-lying regions in the UK, East Anglia also faces unique challenges related to the impacts of climate change.
Addressing productivity challenges at the most relevant spatial scale offers the best opportunity to resolve coordination issues that are central to many of the region’s productivity concerns.
Owen Garling, Knowledge Transfer Facilitator at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, said: “There is an urgent need for all tiers of government to work together to adopt a place-based perspective on productivity growth. Many UK regions, including East Anglia, face low productivity, where isolated interventions won’t suffice. A systemic, joined-up approach is essential.”
The launch of the Regional Productivity Agenda coincided with this year’s National Productivity Week, led by The Productivity Institute, from 27 January to 31 January. It saw a series of regional events held to discuss the productivity challenges holding back the UK’s regions and how to address them. The East Anglia Productivity Forum event – Innovation and infrastructure in the East – took place on Friday 31 January 2025, where the findings of the report on East Anglia were presented by Garling and Selvi and debated by panellists living and working across the region.
Read the report: East Anglia: Exploring economic strengths and addressing productivity challenges
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy.
