Communities

Why it matters:

Ignoring local communities has a real cost. Where investment flows in but opportunity flows past, scepticism hardens into opposition – and materialises into delay, litigation costs, volatility and stranded capital, and to governments as backlash against the industrial strategy they are trying to deliver. Projects also depend on local authorities for the basics that make them possible – planning and permitting, access to electricity and water, a workable tax position – and that support is harder to win and keep without a fair return to the people and communities who host the projects. Real value delivered locally, in the form of skills, jobs, redistributed value, shared infrastructure and minimised harms like pollution, is what turns community backing into a durable asset rather than a recurring risk.

Where are we now?

Without intentional design, communities risk seeing investment flow in while opportunity flows past. Too often, community engagement is treated as an afterthought and a legal box to tick rather than as the work of winning real community trust – without which, projects can stall or sink under local and political pressure. Good examples already exist – workforce development, local supply chain strategies, community decision-making, place-based planning – but they remain too few, too fragmented, and delivered project-by-project rather than coordinated at scale at the cluster level, where the impact of multiple projects compounds.