HEPI / Lloyds Roundtable dinner on universities and regional growth
On Wednesday 28 January 2026, HEPI and Lloyds will host a roundtable dinner in central Bristol looking at how universities can best position themselves to drive and support regional and national growth.
The joint Lloyds Bank and PwC report Drivers of growth: Universities’ enhanced civic role at the heart of national prosperity shows higher education is at a pivotal juncture and, as the recent Post-16 Education and Skills white paper makes clear, higher education institutions are being expected – and are keen – to do more than in the past to engineer regional growth. However, the desire within universities to engage more with local and regional policymakers, with employers of all sizes and with parts of society that have historically been out of their reach is being hindered by financial pressures, political uncertainty and geopolitical instability.
The West of England Growth Strategy highlights five priority sectors to drive growth potential (advanced manufacturing, digital & technologies, clean energy industries, creative industries and everyday economy), while the Government’s Industrial Strategy identifies eight sectors deemed to have particular potential for growth. Such regional and national strategies will only succeed if higher education institutions are able to play their part alongside national, regional and local policymakers.
This roundtable dinner will bring together colleagues from across the South West to discuss how higher education institutions can best position themselves to support UK growth. The discussion will be chaired under the Chatham House Rule.
Please note this dinner is invitation-only. For any queries, please contact Emma [email protected] or Carole [email protected].
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Jonathan Alltimes says:
“What Adam Smith tells us and Joseph Schumpeter doesn’t.”
Bristol has two major factor endowments, a river and underdeveloped land within a short distance of the university. Bristol has docks and an international airport, but the other transport infrastructure and the telecommunications infrastructure needs upgrading. Given the levy-funded government subject-specific priorities for higher education, a collaboration with the City of Bristol College may be possible. A matrix of supply-side technology options needs to be matched to demand-side options by the university and business firms. It needs to include pilot production as well as R&D, for which government may support both investments through a new private company with its own private capital.
The UK Industrial Strategy covers most of the product and service sectors of the economy, which have been aggregated into technology-focused administrative categories. An economic theory of competition does not inform the strategy, but there is a big reliance on R&D funded by DSIT, for example manufacturing. The choice to lower industrial electricity prices for more businesses is great news, as is the skills training and the infrastructure projects. The regulatory reforms will require time to prove themselves, as will government procurement policy.
It is difficult to discern what is being funded by the Department of Business and Trade, as compared with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and how headline figures relate to smaller sums. Other than the eight sectors, the industrial strategy includes, to quote direct:-
British Business Bank with increased capacity and capability and £4 billion additional capital for the IS-8.
Proactively bring forward more investible sites across the UK through a new £600 million Strategic Sites Accelerator.
Strengthen local business environments across the UK with increased support for regional innovation (through the new £500 million Local Innovation Partnerships Fund) and skills.
A new £500 million Mayoral Recyclable Growth Fund available to invest in local growth projects.
A £150 million Creative Places Growth Fund.
£600 million for a Health Data Research Service.
National Wealth Fund has committed at least £5.8 billion of its capital to ports.
Investing £625 million to train up to 60,000 more skilled workers.
The Government is providing increased backing to CCUS by allocating £9.4 billion in capital budgets over the Spending Review period.
BBB to make direct equity investments of up to £60 million.
Establish a new Sovereign AI Unit within government, with up to £500 million.
Made Smarter Adoption programme across England with up to £99 million from 2026.
Invest up to £12 million in UK Data Sharing Infrastructure Initiatives from April 2026.
Invest £36 million to support new Smart Data schemes.
Introduce the National Data Library, backed by over £100 million of government funding.
Funding for 16-19 provision by £400 million in 2025-26 and £160 million in colleges and other providers.
Note the UKRI budget and unallocated funds: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dsit-research-and-development-plans-to-2029-to-2030
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