Today (10th May 2022) marks an important day in the political calendar. The Queen’s speech, which set out the government’s legislative agenda for the next parliamentary year, was a mix of new plans, long-made pledges and a handful of held-over bills.
Crucially, there was some promising language for the bioeconomy and the Government's approach to boosting it in the context of Levelling Up, economic growth and environmental security.
"Her Majesty's Ministers will encourage agricultural and scientific innovation at home. Legislation will unlock the potential of new technologies to promote sustainable and efficient farming and food production.”
Projects like BioYorkshire will support North Yorkshire (and the wider UK's) drive towards environmental sustainability, The UK’s bioeconomy is estimated to be worth £220 billion and supports over 5 million jobs. Independent economic assessments estimate BioYorkshire will generate £1.4bn in GVA, create 4000 highly skilled jobs, reduce carbon emissions by 2.8 million tonnes per year across the UK and reduce UK waste to landfill by 1.2 million tonnes per year.
We fully understand the urgency and scale of the challenge facing the UK as it seeks to remain a world leader in research, innovation and invention. We believe the focus should be on delivering the right partnerships with the right capabilities and vision to build on our country’s unique strengths in research, industry and agriculture. And we are doing exactly this in North Yorkshire, creating a global, bio-innovation powerhouse. Through projects such as BioYorkshire, we are confident that the UK can kickstart a new era of regional growth and set us on course for a greener, cleaner future.
This was also the theme of a fascinating article by Lord Hague in the Times today, where he sets out the importance of turbo-charging science and technology into an urgent national mission. You can read his full article here.
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