Memorandum submitted by from the North
West Regional Development Agency
The North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA)
welcomes the opportunity to provide evidence to the select committee.
This paper complements the National RDA Network response.
This submission provides a specific Northwest
perspective and flavour to the questions raised by the inquiry
and provide some specific examples of how, in the Northwest, the
NWDA is working with partner and adding real value in driving
the regional economy and providing a good returns on taxpayers'
investment.
This paper is structured according to the questions
raised by the committee.
1. OVERVIEW OF
THE NWDA ROLE
AND RESPONSIBILITIES
1.1 The Northwest Regional Development Agency
(NWDA) role is to lead the economic development and regeneration
of England's Northwest. It is currently responsible for:
— Supporting business growth and encouraging
investment
— Matching skills provision to employer
needs
— Creating the conditions for economic
growth
— Connecting the region through effective
transport and communication infrastructure
— Promoting the region's outstanding
quality of life
1.2 The Northwest Regional Development Agency
(NWDA) is overseen by a private sector-led Board. The Board is
responsible for setting the strategic direction of the Agency
across all areas of its activity. The Board ensures that the Agency
delivers its strategic remit of developing a Regional Economic
Strategy (RES) on behalf of the region and that it delivers the
priorities within the strategy for which it is responsible.
1.3 The current RES was launched in March
2006. Agreed by all major partners and sub-regions, it sets out
a clear vision for the region's economy and identifies the priority
actions required to meet that vision, based on clear evidence
and detailed analysis of the challenges and opportunities facing
the region. The North West reviews progress against the RES every
six months and reviews its priorities every 2 years.
1.4 The Region is currently working on the
successor document to the RES—the new Regional Strategy,
announced by Government in its Review of Sub-National Economic
Development and Regeneration. This will bring spatial, environmental
and infrastructure priorities together with sustainable economic
development goals for the first time.
1.5 The production and implementation of
the strategy is being led by the Agency, closely involving the
Regional Leader's Forum of Local Authorities. The Strategy will
be approved by the region's Local Authorities. Wider partners
are engaged in its development through an advisory group of private
and public sector partners, who will lead on relevant elements
of the strategy. Consultation, as with precious strategies, will
be extensive and inclusive involving over 4,000 organisations
including intensive engagement with business.
1.6 Alongside this strategic role, NWDA
uses its funding to:
1.6.1 Deliver physical infrastructure and
employment sites, working with the region's local authorities
and through a variety of joint delivery vehicles including Urban
Regeneration Companies, Economic Development Companies and partnerships
with the private sector.
1.62 Deliver business support services in
accordance with the principles of Business Support Simplification—using
the new regional Business Link as a primary gateway to services
1.63 Attract Foreign Direct Investment to
the region through our work with UKTI. This activity has saved
or brought in over 14,500 jobs to the region in 07/08.
1.64 Fostering innovation and scientific
advance—building on the globally competitive science assets
and research based business that exists in the region. NWDA has
played a leading role in supporting groundbreaking developments
such as Daresbury International Science and Technology Park and
our key nuclear, biotech, chemical and advanced manufacturing
sectors.
1.65 Support Local Authority and Business
partnerships that reflect the region's economic geography, ensuring
prioritisation within the sub-region's of Greater Manchester,
Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria and Cheshire.
1.66 Provide strategic leadership of the
tourism sector within the region. The Agency gives both core and
project funding to the region's 5 Tourist Boards, as well as funding
a range of focused tourism and project activity. Core funded activity
covers sub-regional strategic leadership work by each Tourist
Board, strategic and tactical marketing and work to improve the
flow and quality of visitor information / services and to raise
the quality, productivity and profitability of tourism businesses.
The Agency has taken a national lead role in a number of areas,
including the current review of VisitBritain's role, and work
to improve tourism statistics through Partners for England.
1.67 Support employment and skills needs
in the region both to grow the size of the workforce and to deal
with the severe challenges of worklessness. We do this in conjunction
with statutory agencies such as the LSC and Job Centre Plus, supporting
City Employment strategies, skills and leadership programmes as
well as developing the HE/FE facilities in the region.
1.7 In the seven years since the NWDA was
established we have:
— Created or safeguarded 170,000 jobs.
— Created 9,000 new businesses.
— Reclaimed 3,500 hectares of Brownfield
land.
— Levered £2 billion of private
investment.
2. THE NEED
FOR A
LEVEL OF
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
AND REGENERATION
POLICY DELIVERY
BETWEEN CENTRAL
AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT
2.0 The Northwest is an £111 billion
economy with 6.8 million people and 230,000 firms. It is the largest
regional economy outside London and the Greater Southeast. The
Northwest has specific sector strengths that make it an important
economic unit for Government and Business.
2.1 Within the Northwest, there are 5 sub
regions which include the city regions of Merseyside and Greater
Manchester—functional economic geographies in their own
right, but with sectors and labour markets that are not self contained.
2.2 Many of the drivers of economic development
do not respect administrative boundaries (eg transport, housing
and employment) and are often best tackled at the level at which
any market failure may occur.
2.3 In the most part, regions represent,
for their populations, a sense shared understanding about business,
culture and identity. The Northwest is no different. Where prioritisation
about investment needs to take place, here in the Northwest we
work collectively with central and local government, through mechanisms
like the RES and the leaders' forum to make those tough choices
as a region, rather than have them imposed.
2.4 The NWDA focuses its resources on market
failures or region wide priorities that are not funded by national
Government Agencies (such as the LSC, Highways Agency or English
Partnerships). It also has a clear commitment to focus its leadership
capacity to deliver priorities that no one local agency or authority
can achieve on its own. For example, by helping determine, in
mediacity, the best site in the Northwest for the largest digital
and creative hub outside London; driving development and regeneration
in Ancoats, a historic and fragmented city centre location or
bringing together partners to link HE/FE provision with local
businesses and communities in Burnley to maximise economic and
social impact.
Mediacity:UK
The NWDA played a pivotal role in helping to
bring the BBC to Salford. As well as ensuring, that the move was
supported by £30m funding for vital local infrastructure,
the RDA was responsible for working above the competing local
partners to help the BBC find a site to suit their needs at the
heart of a new media cluster for the North and the UK.
The mediacity site is a transformational action
in the Regional Economic Strategy but it is not all about the
BBC—they are an important part of it, but the RDA recognised
quickly that the opportunity afforded by the Salford Quays site
was to generate a critical mass of creative and digital businesses
as a hub for the north. Mediacity promises £300M of private
sector investment in the first phase alone.
The RDA demonstrated decisive leadership and
took a lead role with local partners, chairing the task group
and used it's financial clout and leverage to facilitate confidence
for both the BBC move and future of mediacity by securing investment
in transport infrastructure and public realm on the site.
The development will ultimately span a 2000
acre site providing jobs for over 15,000 employees on over 7m
sq ft of business floorspace. Opportunities for over 1000 businesses
will be provided. The initial BBC move is expected to provide
around 2,400 new jobs.
Ancoats
At over £70M of investment, the Ancoats
Urban Village is one of the largest funded initiatives by NWDA.
Its effect on regeneration has been evidenced by significant outputs
and huge leverage on private investment. Without NWDA strategic
leadership and intervention, this would not have happened.
The project will deliver significant outputs,
including: 1,800 new residential properties; 50,000 square metres
of new commercial floor space; 1,600 new jobs accommodated; 8
hectares of brown field land being transformed; and £332M
private sector leverage. In the 2008 Interim Evaluation, URS reported
that the project is making "good progress against outputs
and demonstrates good additionality".
NWDA led the innovative use of CPO, setting
the agenda for the area—the first time an RDA had ever utilised
such CPO powers, pioneering the process. A Local Authority CPO
requiring detailed planning in advance would have failed.
NWDA provided leadership and coordination of
the investment decisions and planning of key local partners. This
generated the confidence about investment opportunity for land
holders/developers to enable them to share some of the risk
Some of the wider outcomes achieved include:
— The development of Ancoats now opens
the way for the city centre to spread eastwards and start to bring
new opportunities to the areas of deprivation and decline in wider
East Manchester
— UNESCO world heritage status
— Manchester City Council now looking
to promote creative industries and small scale media companies
on the back of the area's "guaranteed" future
Burnley HE/FE
The Race Riots in 2001 put Burnley into the
spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Since then, the council and
partners have been working to address some of the fundamental
causes—low levels of employment, skills and aspiration in
all local communities
The development of proposals in 2007 for a new
HE/FE campus gave an opportunity to make transformational change
in the town, but this was not going to happen without specific
intervention.
NWDA brought together all the key stakeholders together
and challenged partners to be more ambitious about plans for the
college and the wider economy of Burnley.
As a result the Forum produced an Enterprise
Strategy Action Plan which firmly embedded the HE/FE plans in
a wider context—tackling the skills gaps experienced by
the local business base and the need for more and higher value
employment.
The HE/FE campus is already on site partly funded
by £9.8m NWDA funding together with plans for a neighbouring
enterprise centre. Strong links have been made with the new business
park on the old Michelin Tyre warehouse site with an anchor tenant
already providing 150 new jobs in aircraft manufacturing. There
are also plans for further incubator space on this site
The effectiveness of RDAs and their role in adding
value
3.0 The Northwest Development Agency has
been identified by the National Audit Office as performing strongly
in adding value to our investments (people, business and place)
as well as our strategic leadership in the region. A detailed
annex showing NWDA performance against government outputs targets
is attached at Annex A
STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
3.1 Whilst funding intervention is often
required where market failures exist, often, the barrier to growth
is the lack of leadership and failure to overcome local differences.
It is in these situations where a regional body can make significant
progress be galvanising support and demonstrating strategic leadership.
Strategic Leadership—West Cumbria
West Cumbria is an area which, despite significant
strength in both the defence and nuclear sector, has suffered
years of decline. There was no history of effective cross boundary
working or clear vision and prioritisation for the area. The decommissioning
of Sellafield represented a significant challenge and opportunity,
but required a completely new approach.
NWDA supported partners in working together
to develop an integrated masterplan for West Cumbria. NWDA's role
was to provide the economic analysis, evidence and challenge required
to enable partners to identify the business strengths and strategic
importance of West Cumbria's expertise in energy, environmental
remediation and engineering. NWDA brought Local Partners and Whitehall
Departments together to identify clear priorities based on strong
evidence. The launch of "Energy Coast" masterplan, by
Secretary of State John Hutton, confirms the commitment of all
parties to work together to achieve transformational change in
the area's economy based on its unique potential to contribute
to the UK's strategic energy and environmental policy aims.
In doing so, NWDA refocused the objectives of
the existing delivery structures including Urban Regeneration
Company—West Lakes Renaissance to reflect the new challenges
and opportunities emerging as a result of decommissioning and
new renewable and nuclear energy generation and waste management.
NWDA Board has an agreed investment programme for WLR of £180million
over a 10 year period.
Specific projects delivered by the new partnerships
include:
— Securing the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority (NDA) headquarters in West Lakes
— Broadband accessibility to 99.4%
of Cumbria homes and businesses (£18.2M NWDA investment),
— The University of Cumbria
— A Nuclear Training Facility linked
to the National Skills Academy for Nuclear (£6 million NWDA
investment).
— Government support for a National
Nuclear Laboratory, based on the assets already available in West
Cumbria.
PARTNERSHIP
3.2 Another feature of RDAs which demonstrates
their significant added value is their ability to bring partners
together to jointly own priorities, and focus on development outside
their usual sphere. This example of the NWDA's role in developing
the RES with the region shows the importance of having a body
above the local level leading this work.
Partnership—Regional Economic Strategy
Whilst the NWDA is charged with leading on the
development of regional strategies, The Northwest Regional Economic
Strategy is developed and owned by the region. An Advisory Group
of 25 significant regional partners, including representatives
from sub regions, public, private, voluntary and community sectors
was set up at the outset of the RES process. This group considered
the specification for the evidence base, debated the initial "Issues"
paper and was actively involved in drafting large elements of
the strategy.
RES is seen as a strategy for all economic development
activity within the region, not just an NWDA document
RES has a small number of specific actions with
a lead responsibility assigned to each. Targets and performance
indicators have also been agreed by all partners for each element
of the RES so it can be truly performance managed, with quarterly
monitoring and an annual progress report having been produced
As a consequence of the way we engage partners
throughout the process and despite differences of opinion between
partners, NWDA is able to broker agreement between all regional
partners and end up with a focused document making tough choices,
but one to which all regions partners signed their agreement.
PEOPLE
3.3 Economic growth in all regions is driven
by a skilled workforce in productive employment. RDAs, whilst
not the primary funder of either these themes, have a key role
to play in prioritising action for the region in order to grow
our skills and workforce in line with the economy. Regional Skills
and Employment Boards are one way the NWDA demonstrates leadership
here.
People—Regional Skills and Employment Partnership
The Northwest Regional Skills and Employment
Board was set up to provide leadership on skills and employment
at a regional level and includes a range of stakeholders including
JC+, universities and the LSC.NWDA accepts that it cannot make
progress on skills and employment alone, and has an important
leadership role in connecting skills priorities with the RES and
align partners funding and priorities with regions economic and
business needs.
The main role of the group is to agree a shared
evidence base on skills issues for the region, and set out a series
of priorities for action. Regional and sub regional bodies such
as LSC, sub regional partnerships and universities can use the
priorities to direct their strategies and local commissioning
activity. Although RDA funding is relatively small in comparison
to the LSC and JC+ but is flexible enough to fund across skills
and employment and ensure a focus on the economic benefit of intervention,
striking a balance between growing the overall size of the workforce
and driving innovation and productivity through higher level skills.
NWDA has been able to bring the partnership
together and use the group to advise on Regional Funding Allocations
and act as a sounding board for the skills and employment aspects
of the Regional Economic Strategy. The RSEP will also have a key
role to play in relation to those MAA & EDC areas that want
to take greater local control over local skills.
BUSINESS
3.4 NWDA delivers the Government's business
support objectives in the Northwest. With expertise in key regional
sectors and a business led board, NWDA can provide the simplification
of business support and the flexible funding across policy areas
which business need in order to improve productivity and competitiveness.
Manufacturing is still a vital sector in the North West, and the
example below demonstrates how the NWDA adds real value to ensure
that a national programme is right for the requirements of Northwest
businesses.
Business—Manufacturing
Manufacturing businesses in the UK had a total
turnover of over £459 billion in 2005. The largest contribution
of over £60 billion came from the North West region. The
sector employs around 400,000 people (which represent 12% of the
total workforce) and produces 18.4% of the region's total GVA
output. Productivity (GVA per worker) is £48,500 in manufacturing,
compared to an average GVA per worker figure in the region of
below £32,0001.
Nationally, BERR supports the Manufacturing
Advisory Service which helps manufacturing businesses to improve
their productivity and performance. Recognising the significant
variations in the manufacturing environment around the UK, this
is a delivered by regional MAS bodies.
Given the importance of the Sector in the Northwest,
the NWDA recognised the importance of adding additional support
to the NW MAS programme. Five objectives were chosen for additional
support: Process improvement, Innovation, investment, skills and
image under the NW "Agenda for Change". "Agenda
for Change" was independently evaluated for Government by
DTZ consulting in 2007 and the analysis demonstrated how particularly
well received MAS was in the Northwest and how performance in
the region is particularly strong compared to MAS nationally
By 2008 the NW, over 1,135 productivity projects
had been undertaken, safeguarding or creating over 8,000 jobs
with close to £200m of sales created or safeguarded by the
intervention. This year, the government has begun to determine
the next iteration of MAS and have already determined to include
significant parts of the Agenda for change programme led by the
Northwest. NWDA is again looking to supplement this new MAS offer
based on business feedback from the NW.
PLACE
3.5 Successful places are fundamental to
a strong economy. The Northwest's towns and cities and rural areas
are important not just as places for employment and business,
but also places which offer a high quality of life which in turn
attracts and retains skilled workers and new investment. NWDA
works closely with the local partners who know these places best,
in order to maximise the impact of investment from a wide range
of organisations and the impact of national policy. The two examples
below demonstrate different aspects of the NWDA's role in this
respect—taking a lead role in developing the visitor economy
and working closely with Liverpool to deliver the capital of culture.
Place—Tourism
The NWDA has consistently taken a leading role
in the development of regional and national thinking on tourism
and the visitor economy. Highlights include:
— The first region outside London to
produce and implement a regional tourism strategy in 2003, leading
to the restructuring of Tourist Board support in the Northwest.
— Playing a lead role in the current
review of British tourism.
— Leading the establishment of the
English Tourism Intelligence Partnership, which with funding from
all RDAs and from VisitBritain this has enabled the creation of
a dedicated Tourism Intelligence Unit within ONS.
— Work on the definition of the visitor
economy and to clarify the roles of local authorities and of Tourist
Boards in the management of destinations and the region's attack
brands
— National work on tourism skills
— Innovative work on a methodology
for the measurement of same day tourism that has generated robust
data for this poorly researched but crucial component of tourism
Place—Liverpool Capital of Culture `08
Liverpool European Capital of Culture 08—The
Agency has played a pivotal role in first securing the title for
Liverpool (by showing the bid was supported by the entire region
including brokering an endorsement by Manchester). NWDA then brought
other parts of the region together to develop their own specific
themes for 08, based on their existing strengths and visitor offer:
Cumbria Year of Adventure, Cheshire Year of Gardens, Manchester
Year of Sport and Lancashire's year of Food.
This is expected to generate an addition £100M
of economic value to the regional economy, £50M in Merseyside
alone.
Without Agency leadership Capital of Culture
would not have generated this regional impact. The Agency was
also influential in helping to bring the Turner Prize to Liverpool
(the first time it has been held outside of London) which generated
an economic impact of £1.3M and other key international events
(including La Machine and MTV Europe Awards).
Visitor attractions are seeing increases of
100% in visitor numbers, over 6 million visits have been made
to cultural events and one quarter of these are first time visitors
to the city. Mid year research shows that the economic impact
is likely to be substantially higher than forecast
EXPERTISE
4.0 The NWDA is a significant source of
economic development, spatial and sustainability expertise for
the region. One of its principle roles is to provide services
including research and economic intelligence to the region including
our sub regional partners. Specific areas of expertise include:
4.1 Research
4.11 The Northwest has one of 9 Regional
Observatories which have been developed in the English regions
to support regional policy making, through the provision of high
quality information and analysis.
Its main functions are:-
— Providing data analysis and research.
— Produce briefings on national policy
and macroeconomic developments.
— Helping to disseminate and widen
access to intelligence.
— Conducting research to fill data
gaps.
— Answering information and intelligence
enquiries.
— Regional economic forecasting.
4.12 NWDA is currently developing and consulting
on the evidence base for the next regional strategy—and
have demonstrated an ability to absorb new aspects into this research—for
example the inclusion of a strong spatial and transport element
in the next regional strategy,
4.2 Public Private Partnership
4.2.1 The NWDA, in common with other RDAs
is taking advantage of working more closely with the private sector
in terms on fits property portfolio. The PPP concept allows the
RDA to tighten its focus on its core activity of delivering the
RES whilst maintaining direct strategic control of investment
assets. The private sector investment and business acumen helps
drive up value and create a capital receipts stream for re-investment
into other strategic sites across the region.
Case Study 7—Public Private Partnership
In December 2006, NorwePP, a public private
partnership, was launched by the NWDA and Ashtenne Industrial
Fund (AIF) to manage and develop the Agency's portfolio of commercial
property. AIF was selected in September 2006 as preferred bidder
and the 50-50 joint venture gives AIF an equal stake in the portfolio.
NorwePP holds 42 commercial properties situated
across the Northwest region, but mostly in Merseyside and West
Cumbria.
The use of private sector expertise and finance
will improve the performance of the portfolio, particularly in
respect of providing accommodation for companies to create employment
within the region. NWDA-allocated resources in managing these
properties will be channeled into the strategic development of
sites, to meet the regeneration objectives set out in the Regional
Economic Strategy (RES).
4.3 Equality and Diversity
4.3.1 The NWDA provides leadership for the
region on tackling equality and diversity issues in the North
West Economy. This involves careful targeting of its mainstream
programmes, as well as funding specific actions aimed at groups
at risk of disadvantage and exclusion. This work includes:
— Establishing the Migrant Workers
Northwest Institute, to support businesses and migrant workers
in the region
— A £30m Business Start up programme
with 50% of business starts to be achieved from women and BME
communities
— A £10m Leadership and Management
programmes aimed at BME and women employees in business, which
are currently underrepresented in senior and leadership roles
— Supporting people out of worklessness
and into work, including specific actions with NHS Northwest on
mental health related worklessness
— Strengthening the region's understanding
of, and approach to tackling, hate crime and violence
5.0 THE EXTENT
OF AND
NEED FOR
OVERSEAS ACTIVITY
5.1 The National RDA response sets out the
rational and business case for RDAs operating overseas offices.
5.2 Foreign direct investment is an important
driver of the NW economy. A recent report (July 08) for the NWDA
showed that the 2000+ foreign owned companies in the NW (less
than 1% of the business base in the region) accounts for 17.3%
of our regional GVA, 11.6% of all jobs and that these companies
pay 25% higher salaries than indigenous firms.
5.3 In 2007-08 the Northwest attracted 156
foreign direct investment projects of which the public sector
was involved in 91 (58%). These projects created/safeguarded14,656
jobs and led to £10+ billion of investment in the region.
Over 50% of theses projects came from locations where the NW has
representation. If the UKTI data for involved successful inward
investment projects to England is dissected, then RDAs were involved
in 75% of the projects and 84% of the associated jobs.
5.4 2007-08 was a particularly good year
for the Northwest in terms of Inward Investment; the region reported
an 8% increase in the number of FDI projects in comparison to
2006/07. Nearly all targets from the NWDA internationalisation
strategy were achieved.
|
| NWDA's Internationalisation Strategy Target
| Achieved in 2007/08 |
|
| 150 FDI pa by 2010. | 156 FDI in 2007/08
|
| 17% of FDI should be primarily R&D pa. |
20% of FDI were primarily R&D |
| 25% of FDI should have average salaries of £30k pa or more.
| 32% of FDI1 had salaries of £30K |
| 17% of FDI should come from high growth markets India and China
| 13% of FDI came from India and China |
| 1 For which we had average salary data.
| |
|
5.5 It is also worth recognising the value for money
created by NWDA representation overseas. A recent report on the
Foreign Direct Investment success highlights value created in
terms of cost per job. Figures for Far East/Australasia are similar
to UKTI and represent an order of magnitude better value for money
than most other economic development/support programmes.
|
| Key overseas Market | NWDA Investment
| Created by the NOE Teams
| Cost per job |
| | No of FDI
| Total Jobs | Total Capex
| |
|
| USA & Canada | £640k
| 15 | 1142
| £46,885,000 | £560
|
| Japan | £195K
| 5 | 31
| £1,308,000 | £6,290
|
| Australia & NZ | £78k
| 2 | 17
| £2,100,000 | £4,588
|
| China | | 7
| 29 | £750,000
| |
|
Case Study 8—Bank of New York
The Bank of New York is the oldest bank in the United States
and one of the largest banking groups in the world, with US$10.8
trillion of assets under custody.
In November 2004, it selected Manchester to be the location
for a new operations centre. The Bank leased 91,000 sq. ft of
office space at the prestigious One Piccadilly Gardens in the
centre of the city. Measured in the tens of millions of US dollars,
the investment is expected to create up to 750 jobs by the end
of 2008.
The move was driven by a growing requirement to service the
Bank's rapidly developing UK and European business. It was also
aligned with its strategy of spreading its facilities across the
UK, rather than concentrating them in one place.
Jackie Williams, managing director of the Bank of New York's
Manchester office, says that "regional agencies, such as
the NWDA worked hard to understand the Bank's needs. The result
was a comprehensive package of information that made a compelling
case for Manchester"
Williams says that the "final element in the decision
was the support that the Bank received from the local investment,
regional development and training bodies, including the NWDA,
MIDAS, Manchester City Council and Manchester Enterprises."
"The work of our public sector partners was very important
in influencing not only our final decision, but much of the activity
that has been going on since then. It would have been a much more
challenging step to take without that support," says Williams.
6.0 THE CONSEQUENCES
OF EXPANDING
RDA REMIT TO
INCLUDE NEW
FUNCTIONS, AS
PROPOSED BY
THE SNR, INCLUDING
THE DELIVERY
OF ERDF
6.1 Sub National Review
Regional Strategy
6.12 The Sub National Review proposes to replace both
the RSS and RES with a single Regional Strategy. This is a major
opportunity for the Northwest and was proposed in the region's
submission to the SNR, which was endorsed by the region's Local
Authorities and private sector partners.
6.13 Partners in the Northwest have already agreed appropriate
Local Authority, GONW and RDA engagement at a regional level.
A new Regional Leaders Forum has been established and partners
have already decided to roll the partial review of the RSS into
the production of the first regional strategy in England. This
will be developed jointly by the RDA and Leaders Forum, and work
has already commenced on preparing the evidence base, and by December
this year, working closely with regional partners, the first issues
and principles paper will be released for consultation.
6.14 NWDA and the Leaders' Forum planning team are already
working closely together to ensure that the preparation of this
strategy works seamlessly, no matter who ends up being the planning
body.
Strategic commissioning
6.15 The Sub National Review was clear that aside from
the additional responsibilities for the RDAs such as the regional
strategy and regional planning body status, the RDAs should move
to a more "Strategic and commissioning" operating model.
NWDA's proposals for implementing the objectives of the SNR and
meeting changing economic conditions are set out in its Corporate
Plan, approved by Ministers in July 2008.
6.16 This involves a comprehensive change to the way
we run our investment, moving towards a programme management structure
in preparation for delegation of project level decisions where
appropriate and where capacity exists. NWDA is also rightsizing
and restructuring to align the operation of the Agency to its
new Corporate Plan.
6.17 We are also working closely with Sub regions and
other partners such as Economic Development Companies, the new
Homes and Communities Agency set up team and MAA partners to establish
a process for joint investment planning. The intention is to work
with these areas to clearly identify which investment from all
major partners is hitting local priorities, and to ensure this
investment is aligned to produce maximum impact.
6.2 ERDF
6.21 The Northwest ERDF Programme 2007-13, known as the
Northwest Operational Programme (NWOP), has a single set of objectives
that supports the EU "Growth and Jobs" agenda and is
aligned to the Northwest Regional Economic Strategy. With a total
of £521m funding, the ERDF Programme in the Northwest will
enhance the competitiveness of the regions economy by supporting
the creation of the right conditions for growth in employment
and enterprise.
6.22 The NWOP has 4 Priorities and 11 Action Areas, and
aims to create 26,700 net additional jobs, improve the region's
annual Gross Value Added (GVA) by £1.17 billion, and ensure
a 25% reduction in additional CO2 emissions generated from Programme
investments. The investment frameworks associated with the NWOP
are linked and aligned to the NWDA corporate plan to ensure maximum
opportunities to match investment.
6.23 NWDA has taken on this role from the Government
Office, again something for which the Agency and the region have
been asking. It makes sense that a programme based on the Lisbon
Agenda of competitiveness and complimentary to EU "Growth
and Jobs" agenda is clearly linked to the regional growth
strategy.
6.24 Besides the strategic significance of bringing the
RDA Single Programme and ERDF together, significant savings are
to be made by use of the same approval procedure and the fact
that applicants are now able to make a single application for
ERDF and RDA match
6.3 Rural Development Programme for England
6.31 The NWDA is now delivering the socio economic elements
of the RDPE programme. We are also looking to integrate the support
under the Rural Development programme more widely with other public
sector investment and to focus it through a strategic approach,
addressing longer term needs, through proactive project commissioning
working with and supporting entrepreneurial businesses.
6.32 As part of a focus on local needs and priorities,
NWDA has adopted a strong Sub Regional approach (known as "Leader"
and implemented by Local Area Groups) adopted Local Area Groups
will deliver approximately 50% NWDA's RDPE Budget (£35m).External
regional panel to approve the Local Area Groups and their Local
Development Strategies has been established
6.33 NWDA is clearly well placed to align the stated
goals of the RDPE Regional Programme (below) with those wider
economic priorities in the RES
— Improving the competitiveness of the farming and
forestry sectors
— Improving the environment and countryside
— Rural quality of life and diversification of the
rural economy
7.0 THE ACCOUNTABILITY
OF RDAS
7.1 As with many NDPS, accountability is often raised
as a concern for RDAs. But in truth, the weight of scrutiny of
regional development agencies is higher than many national NDPS
(due to regional scrutiny) and is increasing. Existing forms of
scrutiny include the formal scrutiny role of the Regional Leaders
Forum (4NW in the case of NWDA) the presence of local authority
leaders on the NWDA Board as well as the formal accountability
to BERR Ministers, both on outputs and outcomes as well as government
policy.
7.2 The sub national review proposed to increase the
level of scrutiny with the development of a parliamentary regional
select committee and a regional grand committee as well as appointment
of a regional minister. The fact that some RDAs use mechanisms
such as URCs to deliver their programme is also often overlooked.
URCs provide Local authorities a unique opportunity to scrutinise
and demonstrate accountability for regeneration investment in
their areas. For the NWDA this represents around ¼ of the
single programme budget.
Scrutiny
7.3 The main mechanism of formal scrutiny of the NWDA
to date has been the remit of the NWRA (now the leaders' forum
4NW). In the Northwest this scrutiny relationship has been a powerful
mechanism for ensuring economic and social partners can add real
value to the Agency's work. This is evolving as we move towards
a new regional strategy and engage 4NW in the earliest part of
strategy formulation.
7.4 In recent years scrutiny has included:
— Inquiry into Equality & Diversity and Environmental
Sustainability in NW RES. April 08
— Scrutiny Inquiry into the Relationship between
the NWDA and Sub Regional Partnerships in the NW. Aug.07
— Scrutinising the "Business" Theme of
the NWDA RES. Oct 07
— Scrutiny of the Quality of Life Theme of the RES.
The challenge will be how this fits with the new regional
select committee proposals and how we avoid overburdening the
agencies with too much scrutiny. One of the issues will be how
a regional and cross departmental select committee works with
existing departmental Select Committiees.
7.5 Performance assessment
7.51 RDAs are also subject to performance assessment—the
most recent for the Northwest took place through the NAO in November
`06
7.52 Findings—Agency scored 20 out of a possible
maximum of 24 points—performing strongly overall. The NAO
found that NWDA had a clear vision with a track record of success,
effective managerial leadership and strong progress in identifying
and agreeing priorities for the region. At the time there was
a need to improve performance management and to build on evaluation
processes.
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