County authorities have the ambition, size and expertise to engineer real change in their local skills markets but are currently shackled by their limited powers. In Place of Work proposes the tools counties need to deliver.

Earlier this year Localis took the bold step of calling for a placed-based approach to industrial strategy, a move that we welcomed. They were forthright in their recommendation for a new governance settlement to underpin these strategies and defined “place” within a national geography that respected county boundaries.