Humber LEP continues to drive growth for region

A KEY challenge for the Humber region has long been getting people to realise the potential of the Humber estuary.

Described as a ‘unique natural asset’, the estuary is already home to the UK’s largest ports complex and the area has established itself as the UK’s Energy Estuary. 

But as momentum builds in the region, not least followed by last week’s ground-breaking of the £310m Siemens and ABP wind turbine manufacturing and assembly facilities in Hull, things are looking up.

Chief executive of the Humber LEP, Kishor Tailor, said now that the energy estuary has been recognised, the region is seeing positive movements.

“People are looking to invest in the area and the government now understands what we mean by the energy estuary,” he said. “On the back of that, this year, we will see more support from government. For example, the National College for Wind Energy is to be located on the Humber which will augment our ability to drive the national skills agenda. This comes from government understanding what the Humber is about.

“We’ve had more enquires because people see that Siemens is coming, too. That’s good news.

“We’re turning the plans into action and seeing physical change.

“There are all sorts of things happening which is creating confidence in the region.  In 2015 I want to see things turning into jobs for local people and on the back of that, we will see more investment.”

Yesterday, it was announced that an extra £9.9m will be invested in the Humber between 2016 and 2021 after the city region’s growth deal was increased.

The funding will support capital investment at Further Education providers, transport investment in Hull, Goole, Stallingborough and on the A18, and will also be used to attract new businesses, visitors and residents into Hull’s historic Old Town and Cleethorpes town centre.

As the Humber LEP continues to build on this momentum during 2015, there are a number of areas it will focus on to further drive growth for the Humber economy, one area will be inward investment.

“We want to draw more investment from the UK but also promote our region as the energy estuary more in Europe. We are now seeing Danish investors looking to invest, too.

“This is partly on the back of Siemens’ agreement but also because of the opportunities the Humber provides.”

Mr Tailor said the LEP also wants to maximise the opportunities for key sectors including food businesses and ports and logistics.

One of the LEP’s main objectives during 2015 is to work with businesses and organisations such as UKTI to encourage more of the region’s companies to export.

“Our exports account for 12% of GDP, which is lower than other regions – we need to up our game,” Mr Tailor said.  

“Part of our strategy is making people think better and we are encouraging businesses to identify potential markets.”

As part of this, the Humber LEP has recently organised a trade mission with the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce to explore opportunities in Malaysia.

“We want to help business grow and expand and create jobs,” Mr Tailor added.

One of the ways the LEP has helped to do this is by launching the Humber LEP Growth Hub, which signposts businesses to the most appropriate business support and helps facilitate one-to-one meetings.

“People were complaining saying there wasn’t a simple gateway for businesses to go to, so we set this up. In the first two months, it had 16,000 hits and 192 business have had one-to-one meetings,” Mr Tailor highlighted.

“We’re not going to reach all of the 40,000 businesses in our region, but we want to engage more business with the LEP agenda.

“There has been a lot of talk in the previous years but now there is action and we are seeing things happen.

“We will see people getting jobs and getting work.

“The processes are in place. We are beginning to see new jobs and more skills. The whole agenda around skills has been a major task and we want to see a lot more jobs going to local people.

“But the skills challenge is a long-term challenge – we have got to change the attitudes from a very young age. That takes a long time.”

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