Member Article

Giving the NE the best chance of development

I have voiced the opinion that there are two paces of the UK economy, a fast track for London and a negligible growth for the regions, essential for a strong UK plc.

I also believe that the region needs the collaboration and cohesion of all council leaders to ensure that the region competes more strongly to achieve essential growth.

Two worrying matters arose last week.

I have just been invited to be an independent board member of the Newcastle City Deal Group. I am honoured and delighted to be asked and to have the chance of supporting the drive to bring much-needed development and growth to the city.

A similar approach is needed for Sunderland (for which I am a city ambassador) but I am concerned at the public debate emerging about the lack of collaboration and cohesion amongst our region’s council leaders.

Greg Clark, minister for cities, said that Sunderland will be included in the second wave of City Deals, if the seven council leaders from Northumberland to Durham, can work together and create a combined authority in which they share responsibility for major spending decisions. That speaks volumes. Another reference appeared in a recent excellent FT article profiling Sunderland, written by Chris Tighe (well done to the Sunderland Business Team for the exposure in seeking investment), and I was concerned at the expression from Sunderland Council: “We have two economic bases: a Sunderland-based economy and a Newcastle-based economy. The issue is, which works.”

In the same article Sunderland University rightly responded: “Sunderland and Newcastle cannot afford to be ‘hostile brothers’”.

I was quoted too, adding: “They [the North East Local Enterprise Partnership] are saying that they are working together better than before; we are beginning to see some evidence of that.

“We can only grow if we grow collaboratively.”

The proof will of course be in the pudding, but we need to ensure that there is a confidence in the region’s ability to deliver and create a stable market for investors to achieve a good return from their investment - and not to compete against each other. A more positive matter last week was the keynote of Lord Heseltine’s Review, ‘No stone unturned in pursuit of growth’.

The core of which are measures to unleash the potential of local economies and leaders and enable every part of the UK economy to raise its game.

The aims are synonymous with those that the North East has pursued for some time; inject stability in the economy, create the conditions for growth, and maximise the performance of the UK (in our case North East).

We need the strong partnership amongst local government and between local government and the private sector.

We have the nucleus for this in the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.

Heseltine’s Review has 89 recommendations. Amongst them, it proposes that the LEPs develop tailored local economic plans.

The North Eastern LEP already has this in hand, with the Adonis Commission.

I had the chance to attend two of the meetings with Lord Adonis, and was impressed by the insightful comments from the private sector of finance and property and construction and the willingness for the NE LEP to succeed.

If the NE LEP does succeed it then has the chance to bid competitively for a huge financial pot through the devolution of funding, not just the City Deal to operate separately between Newcastle and Sunderland, but the full spectrum of public funding on skills, local infrastructure, employment support, housing business support services and innovation, with the NE LEP empowered to lead economic development.

From my sectoral perspective of land, property and construction, this will achieve the access to finance desperately needed in the region, the investment in infrastructure and the growth in demand that is much needed to kick-start construction and help to create a stable and vibrant property market.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kevan Carrick .