With a population of 1.5m people, over 60% of whom are working age, Lancashire has a significant talent pool. And with a student population of over 55,000 across four universities we are adding to that talent every year. This workforce serves 52,000 businesses, generating £34bn per year. Or at least, it did, pre-Covid.

Now, one of our greatest strengths is at significant risk. We have been No.1 in the UK for aerospace for many years, with 500 supply chain companies making us the fourth largest aerospace cluster in the world.  With that sector now under major threat, Lancashire will need to re-purpose the supply chain and maximise our other sector strengths.

The Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review (NPIER) identified four prime capabilities for the North:

Advanced manufacturing
Energy
Health Innovation
Digital

Lancashire has significant strengths in every one of these sectors. We employ over 85,000 people in the engineering sector, and over 41,000 in the energy and environment sector, where we are a global leader in the development of small modular nuclear reactors. We have no less than four Enterprise Zones focused on growing these sectors further still, and the Engineering Innovation Centre, recently opened as part of UCLan’s Preston Campus, will significantly add to that asset base, as will the AMRC’s new home at Samlesbury.

In Health Innovation, Lancaster University has broken ground on the development of a new Health Innovation Campus, and the university also has significant strengths in cyber security, a priority growth opportunity in the digital sector.

And yet, Lancashire is often overlooked. We have been over-shadowed by the core cities of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle, drowned out by their ‘urban chatter’. That needs to change, and we plan to change it.

Lancashire offers an excellent quality of life for our businesses and residents. The county is 80% rural, with 137 miles of coastline, two National Landscapes and Sites of Special Scientific Interest. More than 60,000 people are employed in Lancashire’s visitor economy, which is valued at £4.41bn. We attract over 69m visitors a year to our cultural venues and festivals, to our gastro pubs and Michelin starred restaurants, and to the UK’s favourite seaside resort, Blackpool. With game-changing attractions such as the Eden Project North, new hotel developments coming forward in Blackpool, Burnley and Preston, and significant opportunities across the county, there should be great potential to further grow this sector. As long as we can support it to re-open in a safe and economically viable way.

Lancashire is a brilliant collective of brands, brains, products, people, places, services, heritage, land and opportunity. Pre-Covid, we were already developing ambitious plans for growth, bringing the county together behind a new vision set to transform our economy and fully realise our potential for the benefit of all our residents.

Strong place leadership is ready to tackle the challenges and deliver against our objectives, utilising all the inherent qualities that make Lancashire the place it is. Our innovation, our industrial excellence, our connectivity, hard work and tenacity. We are ready to create, build and regenerate. We are ready to redefine Lancashire for a post-Covid world. And we want to engage with businesses and residents from across the entire county to celebrate every inch of our towns, cities, villages, coast and countryside.