Theresa May's new industrial strategy is welcome, especially her commitment to investment in infrastructure, driving growth and developing skills. But history has shown us that the ‘drip-down' effect of high-level investment alone does not change communities. The only way to truly change a community is for it to be driven by the community itself – a local strategy in the truest sense of the word.

Industrial policy needs to reach into communities that have been left behind for decades. Of the 614 postcodes that were experiencing highest unemployment rates in 1985, only 8 have seen their unemployment rates fall to the national average. The trickle of investment can only reach so far, and sadly only a few drips, if any, will ever reach the poorest, most disadvantaged single mother in a housing estate in Brixton.