There’s so much to Cumbria, it’s difficult to know where to start. Covering nearly half the North West’s land mass, we’re home to a heritage key city, three ports, industrial urban areas, 180 miles of coastline, an enterprise zone and rural areas that boast two national parks. Our natural assets are internationally renowned, our employment rate and business growth rate both outperform the national average, and our economy is worth over £12bn.
Despite being home to world-class capabilities in manufacturing, energy, defence, agriculture, culture and tourism, long-standing structural factors such as rurality, dispersed settlements, infrastructure constraints and demographic change mean that Cumbria hasn’t always been able to translate this depth of assets into commensurate economic performance. And that’s why devolution, and the new Combined Authority, represents such an exciting new direction.
Cumbria Combined Authority (CCA) is a new statutory authority, which will be led by a directly elected Mayor from May 2027. We are a strategic body, focused on providing strategic leadership, coordinating investment and planning at scale, improving growth, and fostering collaboration between the public and private sector across Cumbria. Working in partnership with Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council, our role is to focus on priorities that are best addressed at county level, rather than by individual councils. These include:
Our shared vision, building on the Going for Growth strategy, is for a modern, entrepreneurial economy where world-leading sector strengths and an outstanding natural environment drive prosperity for all people and places.
Taken together, Cumbria’s challenge is not one of ambition or capability, but of alignment, coordination and long-term focus. With the right structures in place, the county is well positioned to convert its strategic importance and emerging momentum into higher productivity, better jobs and stronger, more resilient communities right across the county.
Progress in one area depends on progress in the others, and none can be delivered in isolation. Delivering on that proposition is a long-term challenge that cuts across organisational and geographic boundaries, and cannot be addressed by any single council, service or sector acting alone. It requires coordination, scale and long-term leadership.
Cumbria is in a pivotal phase of investment, innovation, and growth that’s steadily strengthening its position as a vital contributor to the UK’s modern industrial strategy, a productive economy, and national net zero ambitions. We’ve embarked on a once in a generation opportunity to unlock new funding, accelerate long term economic development, and amplify Cumbria’s voice on the national stage.