Doncaster’s Economic Strategy and Action Plan

Economic growth, Innovation, Local Authority, Sectors, Strategy and policy development
In 2018, Doncaster set out its ambition for an economy that promoted inclusive growth in their Inclusive Growth Strategy 2018-21.  Ortus worked with the council during the process of developing its strategy to undertake a study of the major platforms for economic growth, examining key sectors and the foundational economy and identifying the contributions that could be made to inclusive growth objectives. In 2022, the council set about refreshing its strategy and integrating additional elements, namely the concept of a regenerative economy to complement the central theme of inclusivity.  Ortus was commissioned to lead a refresh of the platforms for growth study, again examining sectors of opportunity and economic niches and focusing on supporting innovation, working with Kada Research. The project also includes the development of a structured plan that…
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The development and justification of a strategy to support sector specialisms in Sheffield

City Region, Economic growth, Strategy and policy development
Sheffield City Region had recently developed a draft Growth Plan for the local economy and this had been submitted to government for review. A fundamental conclusion of this work was to highlight the need to better understand the sub sectors of the City Region’s economy which represent its USPs, and the specialist businesses and specialist technologies that exist locally. This was deemed to be vital in demonstrating the specialisms that differentiate the City Region from other LEP areas. This project was designed to identify and assess these specialisms, with a view to providing insights to allow the City Region to prioritise investment in support of them. Importantly, the specialisms had to be identified in light of global trends and in consideration of the key markets and areas that are forecast…
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The size and performance of the UK’s Low Carbon industries

Government, Research, analysis and evidence, Sectors
This project was a data-driven analysis of this highly dynamic and emerging sector. The Ortus team, whilst working at TBR, led a multi-disciplinary team that designed and implemented a novel and comprehensive methodology. The study required the development of new definitions for the low carbon economy based on numerous sub-sectors, the capture and analysis of business and economic data for each sub-sector (including GVA), a large survey to capture business operations and financial data which was robust at the level of each sub-sector, economic and data modelling to generate population-level estimates and the production of a published report. The study used economic impact assessment techniques and followed Green and Magenta Book guidelines. The study has been used by UK Government as well as a wide range of stakeholders to evidence…
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Doncaster’s sector specialisms

Economic growth, Local Authority, Strategy and policy development
Working with Sheffield University, the Ortus team delivered an extensive review of the economic size and scale of economic clusters (i.e. specialisms) in the Doncaster economy and reviewed the opportunities for these clusters to contribute to inclusive growth targets. The project considered two specific factors: The ‘enablers’ that are key to maximising economic opportunity and growth across any identified platforms or sectorsScenarios for future growth and how specific platforms or sectors may contribute to future growth in employment and economic wealth. Through a range of quantitative analyses, using public and business datasets, we first identified the key strengths of the Doncaster economy from an economic cluster point of view. This identified four clusters of significance – Engineering & Technology, Future Mobility, Advanced Materials and Creative & Digital. The study then…
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