Competitive Advantage Sectors

• Significant agricultural land where innovation on soil quality and crop resilience is taking place.
• Food and drink manufacturing has a rich history within York and North Yorkshire with global food and drink manufacturers still based here
• Our strong science base is future proofing the food industry, from genetics and alternative fertilisers to tech adoption.

Growth Outcomes:

• Adoption of technology to improve efficiency and increase productivity, including precision agriculture, robotics and automation and increased digital skills capabilities.
• Improved production and resilience through new processes to increase productivity and inward investment, create high-quality jobs and reduce carbon emissions, including increase regenerative agriculture, increase next generation horticulture and greater translation of R&D/innovation into industry.
• Increased inward investment through investment in commercial development and incentives to attract new businesses, develop clusters and create jobs.
• Increased trade and export, supporting business to navigate complicated processes and maximise the Yorkshire brand

From 100+ years of science based at Fera who are developing food fit for the future, to McCains, the world’s largest manufacturer of frozen potato products, on the coast.

York and North Yorkshire is integral to feeding and growing the UK.  

• York and North Yorkshire are national leaders in the bioeconomy, hosting a significant workforce and businesses across agritech, bio-based materials, and sustainable food production, with specialisms in agricultural innovation, food and beverage manufacturing, and biotechnology.
• Leading edge research is taking place at the University of York, addressing global challenges to heal our people and our planet.
• Critical healthcare needs are being addressed here, from global brands, such as LabCorp to small but significant businesses.

Growth Outcomes:

• Increased commercialisation leading to start-ups, spin-outs and scale-ups and job creation, both driven by our universities and the private sector.
• Development of a northern cluster and inward investment for both sectors, encouraging greater recognition for assets outside of the south and increasing inward investment and new job opportunities.
• Increased supply of talent through career development support and creating a future pipeline of talent, including graduate retention.

From responding to global challenges linked to climate change with businesses developing innovative materials to replace fossil fuels, to healing people, with pharmaceutical development and health advancements, such as Abingdon Health in Harrogate developing a saliva-based pregnancy test.

York and North Yorkshire is integral to healing and growing the UK.

• At the forefront of energy decarbonisation, including the location of the country’s first demonstrator project converting a redundant gas well into a geothermal well.
• York and North Yorkshire has the potential for energy independence, generating all the energy to power the region within its geographic boundaries.
• Drax Power Station, based within Selby in North Yorkshire, is the UK’s largest biomass power station, playing a central role in producing the UK’s electricity and exploring bioenergy with carbon capture and storage.
• A substantial amount of our building stock needs to be retrofitted to reduce energy poverty, improve health and reach decarbonisation ambitions.

Growth Outcomes:

• Increase the deployment of clean energy, supporting energy independence, reducing carbon emissions and creating new job opportunities
• Growth in the construction supply chain by investing in retrofit requirements and building confidence in the market, creating demand for new jobs.

From Kellingley Colliery, the last deep mine in the UK, supplying Drax power station to Drax powering most of London and leading the production of electricity from sustainable biomass.

York and North Yorkshire is integral to powering and growing the UK.

• York and North Yorkshire’s railway heritage is unrivalled, with over 160-year history.
• Home to the UK’s biggest and best train operating companies, rail technology as well as civil engineering consultancies.
• Our rail tech companies have achieved notable successes in AI advancements, seamlessly weaving together disparate data sets and harnessing train positioning data with unparalleled precision. This heralds a new era of real-time insight extraction from aggregate data, powered by AI algorithms and tailored for dissemination to pertinent user groups.
• From Network Rail’s Eastern Region HQ in York to SYSTRA, specialising in world-leading engineering and consultation, and the Institute for Safe Autonomy.

From the 1840s and playing a key role in connecting London to Edinburgh by rail to York being a major centre of railway operations and administrations, only matched by London.

York and North Yorkshire is integral to connecting and growing the UK.

• Range of creative businesses operating across York and North Yorkshire, covering photography, film, video, audio, computer or digital arts and interactive media – e.g. gaming.
• 1500+ businesses in York and North Yorkshire are operating in the creative & digital sector.
• York is one of only 25 cities in the World – and the only UK city – to have been designated as a UNESCO City of Media Arts.
• York and North Yorkshire’s combination of urban, rural and coastal places sets it apart from other areas. Each place has its own creative network and strengths.
• Application and adoption of new and emerging immersive technologies like AR, VR, XR.

• Increase the no. of start-ups and scale-ups and inward investment in the sector by building confidence in the sector of the opportunities within York and North Yorkshire and a northern cluster (One Creative North).
• Retain talent locally through skills development and career pathways support.

Defence & Security – this sector can relate to several businesses, covering manufacturing, cyber security and the military. Although this sector has not been identified as a competitive advantage sector, there are emerging opportunities where York and North Yorkshire has strengths.

Defence is a growth sector referenced within the National Industrial Strategy. The UK government has also announced defence spending is to increase by £13.4bn year on year and other European government announcements and pledges to increase spending on security and ramp-up production of military equipment have multiple significant implications for the companies operating in the sector: both in terms of how they scale up their manufacturing processes; how they fast tract the development of key strategic technologies, and how they reshape and build up supply chains that are resilient as possible.

York and North Yorkshire has strengths within defence and security. We’re home to a number of Ministry of Defence assets, including Catterick Garrison, Europe’s largest garrison, RAF Leeming, Fylingdales, GCHQ site in Scarborough, which is believed to be the longest continuously-serving site for Signals Intelligence in the world. We also have the Institute of Safe Autonomy based at the University of York. RAF Menwith Hill near Harrogate is an extensive satellite ground station and communications intercept and missile warning site. It has been described as the largest electronic monitoring station in the world.

There are also manufacturing capabilities taking place within York and North Yorkshire linked to defence, although this can be difficult to define as many businesses wouldn’t directly identify themselves as operating in this sector. Currently, there are around 20 businesses across York and North Yorkshire supplying into Defence and Security.

There could be growth opportunities within this sector for York and North Yorkshire due to its landscape. One of the most important elements for businesses operating in defence is privacy, so rurality lends itself well to this and the subregion has sites that could be appropriate for this. We’re currently undertaking some research to better understand this sector and its scale within the subregion.