Growth

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The Mayor will produce a Local Growth Plan, the guiding star for other plans and strategies. This must take a ten year view of what can be done to promote a strong economy and prosperity for everyone in Hampshire and Solent. 

We believe that the Local Growth Plan needs to promote all the ways we thrive and flourish.  Prosperity doesn’t mean growing our economy by using up all the world’s resources. It means planning a future economy that safeguards our health, restores nature, and reduces the harm caused by climate change. 

Climate and nature action go hand-in-hand with economic growth. To safeguard our children's future, we call on the Mayor to:

1. Focus on what makes us thrive. Put people at the centre, by asking business what help they need with the transition, and communities what they see as priorities for them to thrive. 
2. Plan for growth that is future facing - a high-skilled, economically prosperous region, with green manufacturing, services, innovation, and exports.  The UK green economy has grown by 10% since 2023, faster than the overall economy. 
3. Concentrate on creating good clean local jobs.
4. Skill up our future workforce and leaders with education and training that fit them for those roles.
5. Make our economy fair. Keep more money local to make the local economy stronger.
6. Build energy security, so we can keep people in work and keep homes warm in the face of global upheavals and wars.
7. The Electricity Grid is a barrier to a thriving economy. Get it fit to meet the needs of local business as well as residents, and cope with much more local renewable energy generation. 
8. Move to a “circular economy”, where nothing is wasted, creating many new repair and reuse jobs.
9. Recognise that nature is the foundation of a healthy local economy: clean air, clean rivers, and thriving wildlife.

Examples of green growth:

• The move to electricity for heating and transport
• Investing in renewable energy generation
• Using modern, greener, building methods and materials
• A new, clean, transport infrastructure
• Adaptation to make our infrastructure more resilient to the changing climate e.g. flood prevention
• Affordable places to live which promote community and connection
• A secure local food supply, and making farming “regenerative”