Across the UK, Combined Authorities and UK regions have invested significant time and effort into producing economic strategies, sector plans and growth frameworks. These documents are often ambitious, well-evidenced and politically endorsed. Yet many regions still struggle to convert interest into landed investment.
The issue is rarely a lack of vision. More often, it is a gap between strategy and execution – between what a region aspires to deliver and what it is practically able to offer when an investor is ready to move. This gap is commonly described as a lack of “investment readiness”, and it is increasingly the factor that determines whether opportunities are secured or quietly lost.
What investors mean by “ready”
For international investors, readiness is not abstract. It is operational and time-sensitive. Investors look for clarity on sites, planning, infrastructure, skills availability, governance and timescales. They assess risk as much as opportunity, and uncertainty is often a deal-breaker.
Many regions underestimate how early these questions arise in investor conversations. While local partners may still be refining propositions or aligning stakeholders, investors are already comparing locations globally. If answers are slow, fragmented or conditional, attention moves elsewhere.
Investment readiness therefore goes well beyond place promotion. It is about whether a region can demonstrate delivery confidence – the ability to move from enquiry to commitment without friction.
Common barriers to readiness
In our experience, readiness constraints tend to fall into a small number of recurring categories:
- Sites and infrastructure: Land may exist in theory but lack planning certainty, utilities capacity or remediation plans.
- Skills alignment: Workforce strategies are often disconnected from the immediate needs of target investors.
- Governance complexity: Investors struggle to navigate fragmented responsibilities across councils, agencies and arms-length bodies.
- Timelines: Internal decision-making processes do not match commercial timeframes.
- Ownership: No single body feels empowered to lead an investor journey end-to-end.
None of these issues are insurmountable, but collectively they can erode confidence and stall momentum.
Why readiness is a system challenge
Investment readiness is often treated as the responsibility of inward investment teams alone. In reality, it is a whole-system issue. Planning, skills, transport, utilities, property, economic development and political leadership all play a role.
Regions that perform well tend to align these functions early around priority sectors and projects. They focus less on producing perfect strategies and more on removing practical barriers to delivery. Crucially, they create a sequence of activities by deciding what must be fixed first to unlock investment.
This approach recognises a simple truth: investors do not invest in strategies; they invest in places that are ready to act.
Readiness as a competitive advantage
In a global market where capital is mobile and competition intense, readiness itself becomes a differentiator. Regions that can respond quickly, present clear pathways and demonstrate joined-up delivery gain a tangible edge.
This matters particularly for regions outside established metropolitan centres. Competing on scale alone is rarely viable. Competing on certainty, responsiveness and partnership often is.
Improving readiness is therefore not just about enabling individual projects. It is about repositioning the region as a credible, lower-risk location for international expansion.
Turning readiness into action
Progress does not require perfection. Many regions already have the assets they need; what is missing is coordination, prioritisation and delivery focus. Practical steps often include:
- identifying a small number of genuinely investable sites and sectors
- stress-testing propositions through investor conversations
- clarifying governance and decision-making routes
- aligning skills and workforce planning with target industries
- bringing external capability in where capacity is constrained.
Each of these actions builds confidence – internally and externally.
A question for regional leaders
If an investor called tomorrow, asking for certainty on sites, skills and timelines, how confidently could your region respond?
Investment readiness is not a one-off exercise. It is an ongoing discipline that sits at the heart of successful regional growth. For regions serious about translating ambition into outcomes, readiness is where strategy becomes real.
