Together we are stronger” was the headline from the Great South West Team

“Together we are stronger” was the headline from the Great South West Team at today’s GSW Annual Conference 2025.

Unless you were some of the Local Authorities present, where the conversation about Devolution seemed to divide!

But as Luke Pollard MP, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry said, “we need to stop talking about coming together, and just get on with it.”

And we should get on with it, because industry cannot afford to, and is not stopping! With over £95b GDP, 4m+ people and over 155k businesses, the region has a lot to be proud of!

So let's crack on. This region is after all, defending, feeding and powering the nation, as well as being the 2nd highest manufacturing region in the UK.

With the region supporting all five of the defence capabilities, land, sea, air, space and cyber, it is the UK’s defence ‘spine’. So, it was great to hear that Luke Pollard felt that there is a strong case for a DTEC (Defence Technical Excellence College) here in the Great South West region.

The day had a jam-packed agenda, with far too much interesting debate to fully cover on a LinkedIn post, but suffice to say, it was very interesting to engage in debate about these topics:

How will the Industrial Strategy transform the growth and productivity puzzle?

How is the UK economy shaping up, and how can the South West power business investment?

Making a case for the Great South West in Westminster.

Breakout sessions on – unpacking the Industrial Strategy, scaling up the South West’s dynamic clusters, building the South West’s workforce, getting investment ready and working with Westminster.

Devolution and the future of regional growth.

Today the Great South West also launched their Industrial Workforce Plan, outlining the talent pipeline that this region needs for the current and future state - see link in the comments below .

There was a LOT of talk about skills, but fundamentally it boils down to people. It is critical that investment in people is not seen as a cost, but as an investment in productivity. We are also failing our youngsters from our areas of low social mobility, and we need to fix that. We need to fire up those who are doing less well in life, as they too are our future talent!

And finally, it was loud and clear that industry should not sit silently, but be louder in our engagement. I'm happy about that! Let’s not be shy or cautious, but impatient with change, and as someone said today, “be more Grrrrrr!”

Richard T., Darrin Laishley, Mark Bolton, Alex Clancy, Andrew Rawstron CEng MEng Hons, Corinne Matthews CRAeS, James Fairbairn, Sajid Butt FRSA, James Hall, James Hills, Chris Wardman