Policy Fragmentation and Place-based Opportunity in UK Fashion and Textiles

This report analyses the positioning of the UK fashion and textiles sector within national, devolved and local policy frameworks to assess its capacity to operate as a stable, place-based economic system that supports skills retention, inclusive growth and regional resilience.

Using fashion and textiles as a case study for the Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub, the research draws on policy analysis, stakeholder mapping and 19 in-depth interviews to demonstrate that the sector’s fragility stems not from a lack of capability or demand, but from structural instability created by fragmented governance, short-term interventions and weak coordination across policy domains. It finds that the sector’s ambiguous location between creative industries and manufacturing has limited its visibility within industrial strategy and investment policy, while identifying public procurement as the most underutilised and potentially transformative lever for stabilising demand, strengthening local value chains and improving job quality.

The report shows that where procurement and place-based approaches are aligned, fashion and textiles manufacturing functions as anchor infrastructure within wider local economies, supporting skills ecosystems, innovation and social mobility, and concludes that coordinated action across governance levels is essential if the UK is to avoid the long-term economic and social costs of continued underinvestment.

This research is for the Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Hub which seeks to address nationwide issues through local partnerships and place.

By working with local LPIPs, the Hub aims to understand and solve local challenges around the UK through an innovative and effective service-driven approach to place-based policy-making and public service delivery. The LPIP Hub is designed to lead to a step-change in the quality and impact of the evidence created by universities and their local place partners.

The Hub has £3.6 million from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and Innovate UK. It is a national consortium, led by the University of Birmingham, convening stakeholders across the research and policy ecosystem.