North East Lincolnshire

OVERVIEW

North East Lincolnshire has a huge array of successful businesses within a variety of sectors. As well as providing some of the UK’s biggest port opportunities and being at the centre of a major concentration of process industries, North East Lincolnshire is also an expanding hub of renewable energy.

Traditionally, North East Lincolnshire’s economy was driven by fishing, chemicals and tourism. The area was home to one of the world’s largest trawler fleets. However, more recently, many traditional industries have undergone a decline and many parts of the local region are suffering from economic and social deprivation with pockets of fuel poverty.

Today, the seafood and fishing industry is re-inventing itself as a multi-billion-pound food and seafood processing cluster, centred on Grimsby, which is also supporting growth in the storage and distribution sector. North East Lincolnshire has two of the best deep water ports in the UK which facilitate considerable import trades.

Most importantly, the area also has a burgeoning renewables sector, largely servicing the offshore wind industry, which is investing millions in existing and planned wind farms off the Lincolnshire coast in the North Sea.

VISION OF A LOW-CARBON FUTURE FOR NORTH EAST LINCOLNSHIRE

NEL Council has set out a strong and clear vision for a low-carbon future for the area and engaged DragonGate to create programme of engagement to bring that vision to fruition.

There were 3 main phases of engagement:

Phase 1: Top-down Engagement & Roundtable: “Building the Future Now”

Wednesday 22^nd March 2017

Top down policy discussion with DBEIS, DFE and other key policy experts. The roundtable was held under Chatham House Rules.

This initial engagement gave the opportunity to align strategy and refine projects with policy. It created an opportunity for NEL Council to participate in discussions with leaders in renewable energy, to find out how successful plans for a low carbon future could be.

Roundtable Highlights:

Phase 2: Proposition Development and Making the Business Case

The discussions at the roundtable further shaped the development of the NEL Vision paper, entitled “Stronger Economy, Stronger Communities: A Vision of a Low Carbon Future for North East Lincolnshire”, which can be found here: http://www.cleanbreak.today/our-vision/.

This formed the blueprint for national engagement and presented project partners with a vision to become involved in.

 

Phase 3: National Engagement: “Clean Break Summit: Investing in a Renewable Future”

13^th & 14^th September 2017

The inaugural Clean Break Summit will be the first of its kind to bring together investors, industry, local and national businesses, innovators, research & development organisations, third sector and skills developers.

Stakeholders will learn about local and central Government vision for UK energy, the Industrial Strategy and Northern Powerhouse agenda. It will create a forum for wider discussion on the best way forward for the renewable energy market in the UK.