Special report: Liverpool City Region – collaborate to accumulate
THE Northern Powerhouse “will not work without a strong Liverpool City Region at its heart.”
Those were the words of the Liverpool City Region LEP’s former chairman Robert Hough and summed up the overriding message to come out of a round table discussion hosted by funding provider the Merseyside Special Investment Fund (MSIF).
The event focused on how the city region could play a full part and benefit from opportunities presented by a so-called Northern Powerhouse – the mantle given by Chancellor George Osborne two years ago to the Government’s objective of rebalancing the UK economy.
Regardless of the positivity around Hough’s declaration there was serious discussion about what theNorthern Powerhouse concept actually is and what it means to businesses and people within the Liverpool City Region.
John Hall, chief executive of professional services membership organisation Professional Liverpool, said: “It’s a great concept. But a big worry is that every time you listen to George Osborne or (Lord) Jim O’Neill (commercial secretary to the Treasury) it’s Manchester or Leeds.
“You very rarely hear, Liverpool, Hull or Newcastle. I think if they were really serious about it, really intending to make it happen, rather than something virtual, HS3 (the prospective east-west rail linking the north) should be the priority over HS2 (the north-south link).”
It was then that Hough delivered his pro-Northern Powerhouse argument.
He said: “Northern Powerhouse is a complex subject. It isn’t just about transport. It’s about capitalising on the strengths and the power of the north as a whole. It’s about skills, entrepreneurism, SMEs, all those issues, housing, special planning.
“Transport is one. HS2/HS3 has taken a dominant position in that conversation. But the wider position is much bigger. For me, the Northern Powerhouse is about scale, skills enhancement, clustering, agglomeration and building those strengths collectively so the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts.
“What will come out in a report are the key capabilities in the north. They are advanced manufacturing, health innovation, energy and digital. And Liverpool City Region is a microcosm of those strengths of the north, so I’m very positive indeed about economic opportunities.
“The Northern Powerhouse will not work without a strong Liverpool City Region at its heart.”
This story is part of a 16-page special report on the Liverpool City Region.
To download the full report for free, click here
The panel agreed that collaboration across the Northern Powerhouse region would be key to its success.
Hough continued: “The north is collaborating. For example, we have the largest wind farm in Europe in the Irish Sea, just off the North Wales coast with £5bn of investment. Siemens is working hard with North Sea investors on similar opportunities.
“The Northern LEPs, particularly in Humber and in Liverpool, are working hard to get supply chains organised on both the North Sea and the Irish Sea. I think that’s an example of the Northern Powerhouse working particularly well.”
Shula Jones, project lead for the newly opened Port Academy, which will teach skills for the maritime sector, said: “I think the whole debate work collectively with others then we can’t respond to the huge opportunities that are out there for us.”
John Cater, vice chancellor of Edge Hill University, said that if Manchester was the driver of the Northern Powerhouse it was important to ask what it does and doesn’t have.
He said: “It doesn’t have offshore wind and it doesn’t have automotive which is in either Liverpool or the North East. So by collaborating, in some senses it is a beneficial partner.
“I’d be quite interested to see if there are parallel levels of collaboration around science and technology, its core strength.
“If we get that, then I would say it’s an even game. If it’s not the case, then I would say it’s not an even playing field.”
Hough replied: “Manchester recognises the value of the wider north and the special qualities of the Liverpool City Region around the port, logistics and manufacturing that it clearly does not enjoy.
“I believe there is that collaborative process. Equally, each party will promote its own cause, quite naturally.”
Cater came back: “One thing that would interest me at the moment is the innovation audits.
“Manchester is leading on the health economy. Many of those health economy issues are at least as pertinent in the Merseyside and elsewhere.
“If we see pan-northern collaboration around that, then I think it would be a tremendous step forward. I’ll wait and see on that. I think we’ll see some, but whether we see equity will be an interesting debate.”
Ian McCarthy, festival director of IFB2016, said it was important to recognise Manchester’s particular strengths were looking at opportunities and bringing them to the market.
He went on: “The closure of the (AstraZeneca site at) Alderley Park is a prime example where from the jaws of failure, defeat, a dreadful story, we’ve now got a massive opportunity for the North West.
Manchester gets a high level of partnership funding – it brings together Manchester Science Park, Manchester University and other academic institutions and the land on site.
“That’s the area where Liverpool City Region needs to move on much more decisively, where we can bring to the market product that various sectors require.
“We should recognise Manchester’s progress in that. I know Manchester very well, I worked there for 10 years. It will look after its own interests and quite right too and it will share those interests where it’s in its strategic interests to do so.”
Hough had encouragement for Liverpool, when he said: “What we have at Sci-Tech Daresbury is extraordinary – a national scientific excellence centre with millions of pounds invested there. It is unparalleled anywhere else in the UK and it is in the Liverpool City Region, we shouldn’t forget that. It is an extraordinarily powerful attribute.”
This story is part of a 16-page special report on the Liverpool City Region.
To download the full report for free, click here
