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Regional Growth and the Net Zero Transition: South West
How the South West can accelerate sustainable growth and the net zero transition.
Read time: 5 mins Added: 05/06/25
Unlocking regional potential
Regional approaches to growth and investment are critical in enabling the UK’s transition to net zero while improving economic security and resilience. In this new feature series developed in partnership with edie, we explore the unique opportunities and challenges facing certain parts of the UK. First up: the South West.
A recent survey conducted by edie and Lloyds revealed that 94% of UK business and sustainability leaders now view a ‘place-based approach’ to net zero as important to accelerate decarbonisation, while 82% agreed that local collaborations can drive previously untapped value from the net zero transition.
Commencing a new series of regional discussions on approaches to decarbonisation, economic resiliency and growth, edie and Lloyds convened a high-level roundtable discussion in Bristol, focusing on sustainable growth opportunities in the South West.
As climate targets go, the region is one of the UK’s frontrunners. Bristol City Council is striving to achieve carbon-neutrality by 2030, after officially declaring a climate emergency back in 2018 – one of the first councils to do so. The target has been backed by noteworthy funding commitments. Bristol City Council launched a city-wide £1bn investment plan, Bristol City Leap in 2023, aiming to catalyse approaches to a place-based low-carbon transition.
The edie and Lloyds roundtable brought together sustainability and finance experts from a range of local businesses – ranging from SMEs to large organisations - to discuss how the region can grow and prosper through sustainable-focused actions and initiatives.
Navigating the ‘sustainability winter’
The South West, like many other regions, is currently going through what one participant described as a “sustainability winter” – a moment in time where the appetite for net zero initiatives has cooled due to economic constraints, disinformation and national and global uncertainty.
“The world is changing rapidly, unpredictably. The messaging going out is that net zero is too difficult, too expensive,” one participant said, asking the others around the table whether corporates will be able to weather this narrative shift.
Participants were adamant that sustainability “will come back strongly,” and a mix of new financial models, long-term corporate action plans and regional collaboration can help the South West master its approach to decarbonisation.
Indeed, the region is primed to drive a low-carbon, nature-based transition, provided regional and national policies, and corporate appetite, can align to tap into what has already been delivered.
In the image above, a group of senior South West regional leaders from business, NGOs, academia and finance at an exclusive roundtable conducted by Lloyds and edie.1
The Cornish Peninsula could utilise its geothermal resources; the Crown Estate is planning major offshore wind projects, while interconnectors due to come online will bring solar power from Morocco to the UK landing into North Devon. Hinkley Point C will bring nuclear to Somerset as well as an electric vehicle (EV) Gigafactory near Bridgwater. The region could access minerals needed for battery production and has the largest area of “semi- natural habitats” of any English region, including some of the country's rarest and most endangered UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UK BAP) priority habitats (PDF, 1.6KB).
Policy was a key talking point of the roundtable, participants believed the Government’s Devolution Priority Programme – of which numerous South West council’s applied to be a part of – could be an opportunity for the region to look at “more organic cooperation” that drives growth and sustainability.
Many of the participants noted that the current narrative on sustainability had seen the business case evolve to focus more on cost savings in the short-term and resiliency in the long-run. “The business case hasn’t gone away”, one participant noted, but that it hangs off different themes such as climate risk and reputation.
Our first regional roundtable with edie was a real eye-opener. By bringing together the key stakeholders from across business, NGOs, academia and finance, our discussion drew out the most important interventions and collaborations needed to drive sustainable growth across the region – and I was encouraged by the positive and collaborative energy in the room.
Ben Deverell Relationship Director – Head of South West & South Wales, Lloyds Corporate & InstitutionalEconomic growth
Earlier this year, research from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) found that the UK’s net zero economy grew by 10% year-on-year, with the South West the second largest contributor, at 5.4% of the national total.
The region is working to develop additional innovative financial mechanisms to unlock funding for sustainability initiatives. It is doing so with financial and practical support from the EU’s Horizon Europe Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission – a project aiming to decarbonise and modernise 100 cities this decade.
More recently a Bristol Climate Action Investment (BCAI) has been drawn up to engage with the private sector. Funding will be unlocked and used to install heat pumps, solar panels and energy-efficient lighting at council-owned buildings across the city-region.
Some financers around the table noted that net zero is not the only priority for some clients, and that new mechanisms will need to be introduced to unlock capital and partnerships that drive social, environmental and economic opportunities. For example, Lloyds is working with the National Wealth Fund and other organisations to blend public and private financing for improving the energy efficiency of social housing.
It was enjoyable to hear the enthusiasm and capability in the room across key sectors such as manufacturing, energy, academia and professional services which left me optimistic about the role net zero can play in the South West’s investment and growth story. We are at hand to support our clients and regions with the net zero transition through our financing, expertise but also through convening experts as we did with the support of edie in Bristol.
David Willock Managing Director, Sustainability Advisory, Lloyds Corporate & InstitutionalParticipants agreed that conversations on the economic and sustainability transition needed to focus on an engagement journey that looked beyond a “five-year risk window” to outline the value the region could unlock.
Sustainability needs to be “almost normalised and baked into finance”, one participant noted, with another claiming that “positive tipping points in the transitional industries” such as battery storage and car manufacturing would help spur the net zero transition.
Tapping into the abundance of low-carbon opportunities could see the South West emerge as a real enabler of a national transition, growing the economy through green sectors in the process. The immediate challenge remains, evolving the short-term worries and misconceptions of climate into a business case for long-term sustainable growth.
What’s next?
Both Lloyds and edie look forward to the rest of our programme of roundtables in cities across the UK, before presenting the full results of this collaborative series later in the year.
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- Anita Yandell-Jones, Chief Customer Officer, Ecotricity
- Ben Deverell, Relationship Director – Head of South West & South Wales, Lloyds Corporate & Institutional
- Christopher Tregenna, Group Treasurer, Pennon
- David Willock, Managing Director, Sustainability Advisory, Lloyds Corporate & Institutional
- Edward Rowberry, Chief Executive, Bristol & Bath Regional Capital (BBRC)
- James Tiernan, Head of Sustainability, Unite Students
- Jennifer Wakely, Global ESG Reporting Lead, Specsavers
- Luke Nicholls, Publisher & Series Host, edie
- Matthew Grimwood, Partner, TLT
- Monika Paplaczyk, Investment Director, Thrive Renewables
- Simon Peacock, Head of UK Regions and Clients, JLL
- Stephen Sadler, Chief Financial Officer, Yattendon
- Stuart Brocklehurst, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Business Engagement and Innovation Director, Green Futures Solutions, University of Exeter