Last week saw the launch of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation.

The strategy sets out a range of Scottish Government reflections, some of them sobering, about the scale of the challenge that is facing the Scottish economy over the ‘decisive decade’ ahead.

It recognises that engaging proactively and constructively with businesses is key to its success, and builds on the work that has been done in recent years to develop a more successful export and inward investment strategy.

Some of its recommendations to support entrepreneurship and innovation, in particular, are thoughtful and ambitious. Efforts to improve firm-level productivity could help address a long-standing weakness in the Scottish economy. The strategy also recognises a need for greater focus, particularly on delivery, and an awareness that evaluation needs to play an enhanced role in decision making. These are longstanding criticisms of economic policy in Scotland.

There is much that is laudable in the strategy, and some that is new, but how much is genuinely going to transform the Scottish economy? What was the ‘big idea’ that would “deliver economic growth that significantly outperforms the last decade”? It’s not obvious.

One ‘big idea’ that didn’t feature was putting local communities, businesses and councils in the driving seat of developing their economies. Instead, the vision remains one where decision making continues to be concentrated in Edinburgh.

The Scottish Government will determine the vision of economic transformation and spending priorities.

No mention is made of ceding control of local economic development priorities, nor of putting central government agencies at the service of locally determined priorities. But this ignores the appetite from local communities to take ownership of their future.

Take the North-east. The region has been hammered in recent years by the dual effects of the winding down of activity in the North Sea and the challenges of the pandemic. Payroll employment in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire is down 8% since July 2014, compared to growth of 4% for Scotland. It is badly in need of economic transformation, from an economy concentrated in offshore oil and gas extraction to one embracing new energy innovations and greater economic diversity. But it is not just government that is leading this initiative, it is the local community.

This was brought into sharp focus last week with the launch of the Energy Transition Zone, including a new National Floating Wind Innovation Centre. The key driving force behind this is the private sector Opportunity North East initiative which led and part-funded it, with support also from both the UK and Scottish Governments. But this is locally led and driven by the vision of its business and community leaders, including Sir Ian Wood.

The Economic Transformation strategy pays tribute to the work that Opportunity North East have done, but does not seem to draw the right lessons from this experience.

Specifically, that if there is to be a successful ‘economic transformation’ that this has to be driven by the local priorities, capacity, and needs of different communities across Scotland. The North East benefits from the convening power of Sir Ian Wood, but elsewhere in Scotland business leaders and businesses could equally be found to stand forward – and if not the Scottish Government should use its convening powers to establish a business-led forum to this purpose.

Economic transformation requires giving local decision-makers the central role in deciding and delivering for their communities, supported and enabled by the Scottish Government. It will not succeed if it remains only policymakers in Edinburgh pursuing their vision.

Stuart McIntyre is a senior lecturer at the University of Strathclyde.