Building on the work of the Great South West partnership, four South West LEPs - Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Dorset, Heart of the South West and Swindon and Wiltshire - commissioned an independent enquiry to identify opportunities to stimulate rural productivity and growth. This resulted in the South West Rural Productivity Commission Report which was published in October 2017.
The report received a positive response from national and regional stakeholders, and was mentioned in the Government’s Industrial Strategy as good example of collaboration to address shared challenges.
Since then, these four Great South West LEPs have been working to agree the next steps in implementing the recommendations of the report with GFirst and West of England LEPs taking an active interest.
The LEPs have been reviewing the findings of the report; discussing them with Government and local partners and considering the options for progressing recommendations in three spatial workstreams: nationally, regionally and locally.
The diagram below sets out the three-element approach to developing rural workstreams:
For further information visit the South West Rural Productivity Commission webpage.