Written evidence from The Northern Way
I welcome the opportunity to provide written
evidence to the Committee's inquiry into new local enterprise
partnerships. I am writing as Chairman of The Northern Way and
reflecting the work of The Northern Way across the North of England.
Working together with local government leaders
from all three main parties, universities, business and regional
development agencies, The Northern Way promotes collaboration
on the key economic opportunities and challenges facing the North
of England. Our focus is on those issues—innovation, energy,
transport and private investment—where collaborative approaches
add most value. We have been described by the Secretary-General
of the OECD as the "stand-out example of cross-regional collaboration".
Our work reflects a distinct way of working—cross-sectoral,
cross-party and cross-boundary and importantly evidence-led.
The Government's drive to secure an economic
recovery and support stronger private sector growth that is more
balanced across industries and across the country is strongly
welcomed. Ensuring that future new local enterprise partnerships,
based around real economic geographies, have the capacity and
skills to play their part in meeting this challenge will be critical.
Over the years, The Northern Way has been a
strong advocate and champion for the economic contribution of
the North's city regions to the overall growth of the UK economy.
Working together, we have provided a forum for the provision of
peer support, constructive challenge, exchange of information
and best practice, and the development of evidence to influence
policy development and delivery on the key issues facing the city
regions.
These opportunities and challenges will be equally
applicable to how local enterprise partnerships work together
on a limited number of key areas in future. Our report, "City
Regions of the North" (please find enclosed with this response)
identifies some of these challenges including:
— Developing policy and strategies to respond
to current economic challenges and their integration at different
spatial levels.
— Enhancing the confidence of leaders to
take politically difficult decisions as power and responsibility
is devolved.
— Engaging non-local authority partners,
including the private sector and key agencies such as the Homes
and Communities Agency.
— Reconciling an increasingly broad and
ambitious policy agenda within their capacity.
Many of the biggest challenges the North faces
cross the boundaries of the natural economic areas that will in
future be represented by local enterprise partnerships; including
the need to improve the transport connectivity that links the
North together, with London and internationally, the need to build
a new energy economy, the need to promote the supply of growth
finance for business, and the need to create a more business-friendly,
more entrepreneurial culture that delivers wealth for the locality
and is globally competitive.
Transformational economic change needs co-ordinated
planning and delivery. LEPs will need encouragement and support
to mobilise resources from national and international sources
on strategic economic priorities that are greater than their boundaries
to deliver the necessary scale and critical mass in a global economy.
Central government has an important role to play to provide the
conditions and framework for LEPs to collaborate in such a way.
The work of The Northern Way partnership has
reflected the need to focus upon economic geography and its implications
for policy, with a particular focus on integration of policy across
administrative boundaries and between varying levels of government.
For example:
— The Northern Way Transport Compact has
secured consensus across the North on the strategic transport
priorities that deliver the improved connectivity essential to
driving forward the North's economy. Its development of this strategic
evidence and pre-detailed business case work helps government
and the national transport delivery agencies target resources
and investments that maximise the opportunities for economic growth.
For example our work with Network Rail has demonstrated that capital
investment of just over £0.5 million as part of the Northern
Hub Strategy could yield over £4 billion of benefits across
the North.
— Research shows that the Leeds and Manchester
City Regions demonstrate a lower level of interaction than places
of a comparable size and distance apart, and improving links across
the Pennines can help to increase economic growth.
— The Northern Way's Carbon Abatement Technology
programme has resulted in the development of the UK's largest
carbon capture demonstration plant at Ferrybridge coal-fired power
station in Yorkshire and will be a major step forward in realising
the potential of carbon capture and storage technology. By investing
in energy infrastructure, particularly offshore wind and carbon
capture and storage, and developing the associated supply chains
that cut across the North, new business opportunities can be created
in other sectors; exploiting the North's manufacturing and technology
strengths, and—in the process—rebalancing the economy
and helping to boost the prosperity of the North of England as
a whole.
— The N8 partnership of the eight most
research intensive universities in the North of England has identified
a number of shared science and technology opportunities which
support research and strong business led collaborations to create
jobs and businesses across the North. This partnership is already
maximising collaboration between universities and businesses to
create additional new jobs and companies. Since its set up in
2007 the N8 has worked with over 165 companies and achieved £22.5
million research income.
— Research from the Northern Way's independent
Private Investment Commission shows that international investors
will look at the offer available over a wider than purely administrative
boundary area when making an investment decision. These can and
will be, on occasion, broader than the boundaries of proposed
local enterprise partnerships. New arrangements will need to take
account of this.
As you consider the new local enterprise partnerships
and how they will work, I would urge you to take into account
the distinctive features of the North and how a framework for
collaboration between LEPs can be supported and promoted to strengthen
their role in the delivery of key cross boundary investments that
will ultimately be fundamental in rebalancing economic growth.
12 August 2010
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