A YEAR OF PROGRESS FOR THE GREATER LINCOLNSHIRE LEP

2022 has been another busy year for the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership and local businesses, writes Chief Executive Ruth Carver. From labour shortages, cost of living and energy prices to the continuing pandemic, there have been many challenges to overcome, but we are particularly proud of the fantastic progress we have made in a number of key areas. We have four game-changing and international sectors in Greater Lincolnshire: food, energy, ports and logistics and defence.

Uk Food Valley

The game-changing UK Food Valley was launched at our annual conference at the end of 2021. It is an ambitious project to create a top 10 global food cluster in Greater Lincolnshire, and its priorities are to accelerate food chain automation and digital technology adoption, deliver low-carbon food chains from farm to fork, and develop the market potential of naturally good-for-you foods and new sources of protein such as fish, vegetables, salads, fruit, pulses and lean meat.

The UK Food Valley in Lincolnshire currently supports around 75,000 food sector jobs,

18% of jobs in the area compared to 4% of the UK workforce.

The launch event was an excellent opportunity to hear an impressive range of expert speakers from the food industry and to bring people together at long last for an in-person networking event.

SEAFOOD

Pilot

In January the Grimsby seafood cluster launched a £430,000 six-month UK Food Valley pilot programme to help upskill the fish processing workforce in Europe’s largest seafood cluster.

The pilot was supported by the National Centre of Food Manufacturing (NCFM) in Holbeach, part of the University of Lincoln, as well as by North East Lincolnshire Council and the Greater Lincolnshire LEP.

The seafood sector and the NCFM used the pilot to shape a new centre for food processing education, research and innovation in Grimsby. The aim was to ensure that the food processing cluster, centred on the seafood industry but also including expertise in other foods and food logistics and cold storage, has the expertise needed to drive forward growth.

Speaking at the launch at Grimsby Town’s Blundell Park stadium, Val Braybrooks, Dean of the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, said: “This fund is so exciting; it really opens up the opportunity to put some resources into Grimsby to help our businesses. We have a great team of people to work with and organisations such as Grimsby Institute, Seafish, North East Lincolnshire Council and the Grimsby and Humber Seafood Alliance.”

Offshore Wind Hpo

Alongside seafood, another major and growing sector for North East Lincolnshire and the Humber is offshore wind energy – and this year opportunities to invest in the sector have been promoted by the Department for International Trade and the LEP.

The DIT launched its High Potential Opportunity (HPO) for the Offshore Wind Deepwater Ports Hub (Teesside and Humber) at Offshore Wind Connections 2022, a major conference in Bridlington. The HPO showcased the investment opportunities presented by the offshore wind energy sector on Teesside and the Humber, particularly for companies looking to manufacture wind turbines, towers, blades, cables and other energy infrastructure.

“As the world moves towards net zero, wind energy will play a crucial role in reducing our reliance on fossil fuels,” said Pat Doody, Chair of the Greater Lincolnshire LEP.

“We’re fortunate to have a well established offshore wind energy sector on our North sea coast, and this HPO will help to cement our position as a world-leading cluster in this area, as the recent opening of the Hornsea 2 development demonstrates.”