Green skills go regional: Reflections on conversations at the Labour Party Conference

9 October 2025

Earlier this week, my colleague Asim Ali and I attended the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, making a beeline for events on green skills and the environment.

Notably, any event that was billed as being about ‘green skills’, was focused on the energy transition, i.e. energy generation/transmission/distribution, or retrofit. When we asked about other, much needed, green skills - such as in product design and circular economy, the natural environment and ecology, or risk assessment and adaptive capacity building - we heard two clear messages from panelists.

First, was that we shouldn’t frame these as ‘green skills’ but rather just as ‘skills’. This point would make sense, if it weren’t for the fact that our economy is very on short people who are skilled in product design for the circular economy, ecology for nature restoration, and evaluating and mitigating climate change risk. There is clearly still a long way to go in explaining these gaps to businesses and policy-makers, never mind in then building up the skilled workforce with the capacity required. One day we will be able to call ‘green skills’ just ‘skills’, but today is not that day.

Second, when we asked about capacity-building in the green skills space, MPs consistently told us to speak to Regional Mayors. Clearly, anything ‘green’ and ‘skills’ are now seen as matters devolved to the regions, but this then raises questions about whether the regional governance structures are in place to support this, how joined up policies are, and whether this will result in an uneven patchwork of efforts.

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Are the regional governance structures in place to support this? Not everywhere. Only a handful of areas in England currently have a Regional Mayor. While everywhere is set to get one eventually, elections for those in the fast track will be in 2026 at the earliest. Add in the time it will take for offices, staff, and policies to be in place, it could easily be another two to three years before any serious work begins, never mind any output being seen.

For those areas not in the fast track it will take even longer. Whom do we speak to in the meantime about green skills? This is not immediately clear. The government points us to Regional Mayors who don’t exist, while the local authority areas they will replace are too busy planning their handovers to take on any new projects, all adding up to there being something of a black hole for the convening powers of local government and green skills.

When there are Regional Mayors, will the environment and skills be joined up? Not obviously. Devolution will require Mayoral Authorities to produce strategic plans for transport and local infrastructure; skills and employment support; housing and planning; economic development and regeneration; environment and energy; health; and public safety. They must produce strategic plans for the first four, but not for environment and energy. It’s recognised that health outcomes are in large part determined by the other areas, but there is no similar recognition of environmental outcomes being determined by polices in the other areas.

The Local Government Association is calling for the devolution framework to be expanded to include more detail on the competency surrounding environment and climate change. Supporting this, and in the interim, there will be a clear role for ISEP UK regional networks to play their part in joining up green skills with the drivers of economic output and healthy lives.

Will there be an uneven patchwork of efforts? Almost certainly. How much you want your local authority to be in charge of the environment, and the skills to sustain it, depends on how much you trust the politicians – local policy is only as good as the politicians in charge. Where regions are run by people who believe in climate change and the need to mitigate and adapt to it, then this is could work well. However where regions are run by climate change sceptics and those committed to cancelling “net zero nonsense” then it obviously won’t work at all. Here again, ISEP members will be key to the effort of engaging, and joining up, local employers and local education providers, stepping in where there is a policy vacuum.

What became clear in Liverpool is that the debate over green skills has been devolved by government. Until regional structures and national frameworks align, gaps will remain, and with them, real risks to delivering the UK’s climate ambitions. In the meantime, ISEP members and networks will be central in shaping this agenda from the ground up, helping ensure that green skills don’t get forgotten, but become a lived reality in every sector and region.


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Chloë Fiddy

Senior Policy and Engagement Lead

Chloë is the Senior Policy and Engagement Lead for Climate Change and Energy at ISEP. Within this remit she works on projects relating to greenhouse gas reporting and transition planning and reporting, as well as adaptation. She is particularly interested in finding practical solutions and approaches which lead to standardised, replicable and trustworthy reporting, so that decision-makers have better data to work with. Previously Chloë has worked at senior levels in the manufacturing and retail sectors, and in climate and sustainable development planning roles in the public sector. Her prior business experience and her understanding of the way that the public sector functions inform her approach to climate change and energy and social sustainability policy and engagement at ISEP. She is a Trustee on the board of Uttlesford Citizens Advice and a District Councillor and is active in her community. In her spare time she enjoys live music and cooking for family and friends.