UK government’s international investment summit results in extra money into South Yorkshire
The government’s inaugural international investment summit could unblock billions of pounds of investment opportunities for the country – and South Yorkshire lined up to take advantage of it.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has hosted his government’s first international investment summit in London where cabinet members, business leaders, mayors and more have discussed the opportunities for the UK and its regions.
The plan – very clearly – is to tell the big companies the UK is open to business.
From South Yorkshire, mayor Oliver Coppard was in attendance to sell his vision of growth for the county.
Speaking from London, Oliver Coppard told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that an extra £325million investment from nuclear energy company Holtec was coming to the region.
Mr Coppard said Holtec was already going to invest in South Yorkshire but “they’ve now said they were going to invest £325m in nuclear supply chains to develop their manufacturing capability in the UK”.
Mr Coppard was asked how the people of the region would benefit from this – and other potential investments.
He said: “Better jobs and more opportunities – I’ve said from day one, I want everybody in South Yorkshire to be able to stay here and go far.
“Everybody needs the opportunity to have a great job in South Yorkshire and companies like Holtec who create good, high-tech jobs in the industries of the future are now investing in South Yorkshire.”
He added he wanted to build a bigger and better economy and this summit allowed him to tell people from around the world what South Yorkshire can offer and “come and invest here”.
But whose responsibility is it to get the money – is it more on Mr Coppard or the government?
He said it is a partnership.
Mr Coppard added it’s not just him and the government – the partnership includes the councils of South Yorkshire and the private sector, too.
When talking about how much money is missing from the region, Mr Coppard said when comparing South Yorkshire to St. Louis (Missouri, The United States) then you can see St. Louis is “two times the size of South Yorkshire in terms of population but the economy is five times the size of South Yorkshire’s economy”.
He added: “Arguably, we should be much bigger. We need a bigger economy in South Yorkshire, we need a better economy in South Yorkshire and in order to do that we need to grow the businesses we have and create new businesses and make sure we are taking advantage of what we’re the best at.”
Mr Coppard said in advance manufacturing “we’re world-leading”, as well as in the health and tech industry and engineering.
He said: “We need people to understand and see their strengths and invest on the basis of their strengths and work with us to grow the whole economy of South Yorkshire so everyone gets the opportunity to go far.”