Advancing Opportunity in the Regions: The Future of the North East
The following is Nick Brown’s introduction to the Smith Institute publication “Advancing Opportunity in the Regions: The Future of the North East”, which was published today. The complete publication can be found here.
During the last two decades, no English region has done more to help itself than the North East. Comparative studies of the English regions often highlight the continuing income gap between our region and others. It is more instructive to look at where we were and how far we have come over the last two decades.
With recessionary forces at work in the economy this series of studies published by the Smith Institute is timely. The Smith Institute’s earlier work on regionalism has helped set the agenda for what is in the North East a very important and vigorously debated series of topics. In taking stock, this publication attempts to look ahead and to reflect on recent developments.
When I was appointed the Regional Minister I made it clear that my objective was to drive up the prosperity of the region. My key instrument for doing so was to work closely with the private sector. I wanted to further expand and diversify the region’s employment base and to build stronger sectors, particularly service sectors which were historically underrepresented. 32% of the region’s employment base is in the public sector, compared with a national average of 27%. Manufacturing employment counts for 12.5%, compared to a national average of 10.7%. Until the recession struck we were doing well, with the fastest economic growth rates of any English region.
The reasons for the region’s success and for our ability to work our way through the slowdown are not always understood by outsiders. The city region analysis is a good fit for the North East in terms of economic development, housing policy, and spatial strategy. It also has quite a lot to offer to the debates about transport policy. However, there are all sorts of other nuances to the North East, cultural, sentimental, traditional, that add huge passion and value to the region’s political life, but which tend not to show up to the cold analytical eye of an outsider. One of the great strengths of the North East of England has been the remorseless growth of institutional co-operation at regional and sub-regional level.
The twin drivers of the region’s economy are the conurbation of Tyne and Wear, with its hinterland in South Northumberland and North and East Durham, and the Tees Valley, which would count South Durham as its hinterland. Co-operation at political level, working closely with the region’s economic development agency, One NorthEast, across political boundaries, has been the largest single driver of change over the last decade.
As regional minister, I have invested a lot of time in bilateral meetings, placing the emphasis on economic development in the private sector. More than anything else I see the role of Regional Minister as being the region’s champion within the Government.
As the labour market loosens, I see it as my job to try and tighten it. There are a range of really exciting private sector-led projects which can make a real impact on the employment base of our region, and which the region will take to its heart. Nowhere is this more true than in the renewable energy sector. There is enormous enthusiasm, right across the region, for doing our bit to combat climate change. This is as true of the university sector, the regional TUC, and the region’s strategic local authorities, as it is of the private sector and the general public.
Perhaps the most exciting single development is the prospect of a UK centre of excellence for renewable energy on the North banks of the Tyne. Located in the old ship-building and ship-repair yards, there is a real prospect of creating something like 4000 jobs on the back of an off-shore wind farm industry. The whole region is behind these exciting plans to bring the river back to life and to give effect to the Prime Minister’s vision of employment based on new green industries.
Similarly, the Teesside regeneration programmes, with the potential to be joined together by a Tees Metro public transport system connecting with Darlington and the East coast mainline, is a project that has captured the enthusiasm of the region.
In other areas as varied as the expansion of Teesport, to the underdeveloped potential of the region’s cultural, tourist and hospitality attractions, there is an energy and a practical determination about the North East that is unique to the region. The success of the Sage on Gateshead’s bank of the Tyne is a showcase for our region at its best. As well as attracting artists of international standing, its outreach work bears comparison with anything else in the country.
This pride in the region’s achievements and its history comes together in the campaign to rescue the Lindisfarne Gospels from the vaults of the British Library and to showcase them to the world in their proper home in Durham Cathedral. When the Gospels were last allowed into the North East on loan they attracted record visitor numbers. The region kept them safe during the Viking invasions, so it’s safe to say we can look after them now.
The challenge for our region should not just be seen in economic development terms. The region still has far too many youngsters not taking part in skill development or higher education. Retention rates are high, but we still have too many who don’t participate at all. As a region we have to turn this around. Our future is not as a supplier of unskilled labour, but as a vigorous, dynamic, well-skilled and well-educated community shaping its own future. The region is a great place to live and work. If my strategy of driving up the region’s prosperity is the right one, it has to be a strategy that everyone can participate in and get the benefits of the success that we aspire to.