Sheffield Pride of Place Prospectus: Shaping a better future
Sheffield Pride of Place Prospectus: Shaping a better future
Lizzie Davies, Sheffield Place Manager, explores the Sheffield Prospectus, a vital tool for promoting business and community collaboration in Sheffield’s vision for 2035.
On 11 March, following a successful launch in Sheffield, the Sheffield Pride of Place Partnership1 formally launched the Sheffield Pride of Place Prospectus 2025-2035 at the House of Lords. The Prospectus acts as a useful tool to demonstrate that Sheffield is open for business, uniting diverse leaders around a shared vision for the city’s future.
Uniting local leaders behind this shared ambition for a more prosperous future for our city has been a real privilege. Together, we have worked with people from different sectors, different neighbourhoods, and different professions to combine everyone’s expertise and experience in this Prospectus. I am truly excited to continue to work alongside my colleagues on the Sheffield Pride of Place Board, and our partners, to meaningfully address local challenges, and drive Sheffield’s growth.
Tim Roberts, Chief Executive, Henry Boot plc, and Chair of Sheffield Pride of Place
The launch event brought together representatives from Sheffield City Council, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, and the Government, alongside business and community leaders.
A Sheffield fit for the future
Business in the Community (BITC) has been working in Sheffield since 2019. The Sheffield Prospectus, developed alongside local decision-makers, with input from a diverse array of community leaders from across the city, reflects BITC’s track-record of supporting lasting change in the city. The Prospectus sets out key ambitions to build on Sheffield’s strengths as a Core City. It asks government and businesses to work together to accelerate Sheffield’s economic growth, drive greater social mobility for local people, and enable more resilient infrastructure fit for the future.
In working alongside Sheffield’s businesses and communities on this Prospectus, it’s been vital to build on what Sheffield already knows, and what local people tell us about the changes they want to see, including building on our ground-breaking work to develop the Sheffield City Goals. Sheffield is a city that inspires; always has, always will. Over the next ten years, we will reinforce and strengthen the incredible efforts of the thousands of local people, businesses, and community organisations who work each week to help their neighbours and lift up their city, whilst harnessing Sheffield’s cutting-edge potential.
Kate Josephs CB, Chief Executive, Sheffield City Council
The Prospectus has been made in Sheffield, for Sheffield, reflecting both the everyday realities of diverse local communities, and the long-term efforts of the city’s stakeholders to address the challenges they face. The Prospectus aligns with the Sheffield City Goals, Sheffield City Council’s 10-year Growth Plan, and South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s Local Growth Plan. It is vital that government and businesses work together to unlock the city’s economic growth, sustain Sheffield’s SME base, boost employability, and pursue effective neighbourhood regeneration.
Building a Sheffield to be proud of
As well as highlighting the success of existing Sheffield-based programmes, such as Opening Doors, See it Be it, and Sheffield Business Together, the Prospectus paints Sheffield as a city with a proud industrial and social heritage and a bright and innovative future as a key driver of the UK’s economic growth. It emphasises the incredible opportunities afforded both by Sheffield’s existing assets, and by the those who live and work there.2
Next steps for employers
Endnotes
1 Sheffield Pride of Place is a growing collective of Sheffield’s businesses, educators, and community organisations, working in partnership with Sheffield City Council, facilitated by Business in the Community. Chaired by Henry Boot CEO Tim Roberts, the partnership unites diverse leaders committed to leveraging their unique strengths to help create a city where everyone has access to opportunity.
2 Home to the world leading Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, the Don Valley Growth Corridor, Olympic Legacy Park, and two world leading universities, Sheffield also hosts pioneering creative and health tech businesses and a diverse range of SMEs. It is also proudly the UK’s greenest city, where extensive urban parkland meets the hills and rivers of the Peak District, and where cultural assets such as the Crucible Theatre and Millennium Gallery welcome global visitors each year.
3 Sheffield is one of the 18 Places operating through Business in the Community’s Pride of Place Programme, backed by the support of Strategic Partner Aviva, as well as hundreds of influential leaders from business, local and regional governments, and the voluntary sector.
