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Future North West: Our Shared Priorities
Places As our evidence work makes clear, there is no single clear economic geography but places are where economic, environmental and social priorities can be brought together in an integrated and balanced way to deliver the outcomes we seek. In moving forward, we therefore need to consider the role of places and the relationship between them. We must recognise the need for variable geographies in looking at particular issues such as economic development, housing, transport and the natural environment, which do not map neatly onto recognised groupings of local authority boundaries. We must also recognise that, as already indicated, this document cannot and does not set out to capture everything that goes on in local areas. It focuses on those North West priorities which are relevant to particular places, or where action in local areas will help deliver North West priorities. It therefore provides a strategic framework to guide and assist decision making in local areas: it is not a top-down framework but has been developed jointly with the key local area partnerships. For many issues, local authorities and the private and third sectors already come together in a variety of partnerships on a county or functional economic area basis. Locally-driven action will be a primary means of addressing the priorities set out in this document, and our local partnerships have strong track records of successful delivery for their areas. We therefore need to recognise our key local area groupings and their important role in supporting the delivery of Future North West.
Cheshire and Warrington The Cheshire and Warrington economy is worth £21 billion per annum in GVA and contributes some 18% to overall North West GVA. The area’s key strengths are: its knowledge economy linked to the high proportion of graduate skills; its geographical location with train journey times of under two hours to London from its key towns, as well as connections to the main airports, Manchester and Liverpool, the Midlands and North Wales; and its high quality of life. Cheshire and Warrington also has the economic capacity in terms of underutilised assets that could enable it to develop and grow significantly more without compromising sustainability and its high quality of development. Cheshire and Warrington has a unique role in the North to attract private investment and jobs into high value, ‘knowledge economy’ sectors and is able to achieve high private sector leverage from relatively small public investments.
Cumbria The Cumbrian economy is worth just over £7 billion, which is some 6% of North West GVA. Cumbria is geographically large (7000 square kilometres) and has a relatively small and dispersed population of just under 500,000 people living mostly in small towns and villages. Whilst recent economic growth has exceeded North West levels, Cumbria is still behind the North West and UK in terms of GVA and there continues to be significant disparities in economic prosperity within Cumbria, particularly between East and West. The economic challenges that Cumbria faces are largely due to its geography, an overdependence upon declining industries, the need to travel long distances to access services and facilities and structural changes to agriculture and the rural economy. Cumbria has a number of assets and opportunities which present the potential for a significant transformation in the economy: energy and low carbon technologies in West Cumbria and Barrow; the growth potential of Carlisle; strengths in agriculture and food production, and marine and offshore engineering; an outstanding natural environment including the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks, Solway Coast, North Pennines and Morecambe Bay; and a high quality of life offer.