POWER TO THE PEOPLE: INVESTING IN THE REGIONS

To Get Their Way

By Nicky Godding, with additional reporting by Ian Mean and Peter Davison

In 2014, Chancellor George Osbourne launched The Northern Powerhouse to boost the North of England’s economy after decades of being left behind by the south.

Has it worked? A report published last year by the Institute for Public Policy Research says there’s a way to go, but highlights the positives. Economic growth was marginally higher in the North than the national average, and the productivity gap with the rest of the country has narrowed slightly. Employment also grew more there than elsewhere, especially in the manufacturing, science and technical sectors.

Early days, but a good idea? The Midlands thought so. The following year The Midlands Engine was established encompassing England’s central belt from Herefordshire across to Lincolnshire.

The Midlands Engine seems to be having a positive effect too, and there certainly seems to be a lot going on. A report published this year by national law firm, Irwin Mitchell, revealed that Birmingham, its epicentre, is set to be one of the fastest growing economies by the end of this year. The city’s GVA is expected to grow by 1.2 per cent in 2020, taking the total value of the city’s economy to £28.3 billion.

What’s sauce for the goose, as they say, and last year saw the launch of the Western Gateway. This followed publication of The Powerhouse for the West report, commissioned by Bristol City Council, Cardiff Council and Newport City Council. The Western Gateway stretches along the M4 corridor from Swindon and across the Welsh border to Cardiff and

Swansea, and in the north from Gloucester and Cheltenham to Bath and Bristol. Western Gateway partners now include Bath and North East Somerset Council, Gloucestershire County Council, Swansea Council and Swindon Borough Council.

Oxfordshire has long been discussing similar ambitions with Cambridgeshire on developing an Oxford/Cambridge Arc, and government agrees.

The land from Oxford through Milton Keynes to Cambridge already contains globally-renowned universities and a vibrant and ambitious business, science and technology ecosystem.

What’s exciting about these powerhouses/ gateways/arcs, whatever we call them, is that organisations within them want to work together. It’s been tried before –some remember the regional development agencies in the 1990s and early 2000s. But this time the initiatives aren’t being driven by central government, although it is supporting them – it’s being driven by the regions themselves.

Don’t compete, collaborate with your neighbours

Each region excels in key industry sectors.

The Midlands has automotive excellence in abundance and the Oxford/Cambridge Arc excels in science and space technology. The Western Gateway has unrivalled aerospace expertise and could be an exemplar in sustainable energy, but each region is strong in manufacturing and services, and offers land and investment support.

We urge these regional powerhouses to work together in a spirit of collaboration, not competition.

The 17th century English poet, John Donne, wrote: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

It would seem that individual councils and local enterprise partnerships and have finally realised that more can be achieved by working together, and they’re doing just that.

(But perhaps we won’t mention that John Donne’s poem goes on to say: “if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.” That’s a discussion point for another feature entirely).