Is the Northern Way just a talking shop?

Jan 30 2008 by Alex Turner, Liverpool Daily Post

As budgets are cut, Alex Turner investigates whether the quangocan make a difference

ITS mission was to close the North-South divide, but three years on fears are growing that the Northern Way might become nothing more than a talking shop.

When the pan-regional economic development quango was launched, the Government set The Northern Way the target of improving the North of England’s economic performance by £30bn a year. That figure was deemed to be the productivity gap between the North’s economy and the average performance of the other English regions.

But three years and £100m later, The Northern Way, which has seen its budget cut, is about to revise those targets.

It still aims to narrow the gap, which has yet to be closed, but now plans to do so more by discussion rather than direct intervention.

Led by the three northern regional development agencies, The Northern Way acts as an umbrella organisation for eight city regions, from Liverpool in the west, Hull in the east, Sheffield in the south and Newcastle to the north.

Its budget has also been cut. The quango will spend £45m on pan-regional projects in the next three years.

Last week, it launched a consultation about its policy and research programme for 2008-11. The £6m research project will be used to gather evidence on issues including transport, industrial innovation and private sector investment in the hope that it will allow the North to influence national policy.

Tellingly, though, the organisation chose not to hold one launch event, but two, announcing the consultation first in Manchester then again, 24 hours later, in Leeds.

Maybe it was to underline one of the key issues the group’s latest collection of reports identified: the lack of connectivity between the North’s two principal economic centres. Or perhaps the Newcastle-based organisation has still to overcome the parochial attitudes that can affect business and that has hampered the concept of The Northern Way.

A report by the University of Manchester, The Roles and Economic Functions of the City Regions of the North, published last week, highlighted the fact that long-standing obstacles to closer integration, including inter-city rivalries and a mountain range, remain.

It said: “As with the smaller centres in the North, even in the cases of Manchester and Leeds, there is a degree of parochialism and local rivalry that inhibits the development of higher-order specialisation.

“It is also compounded by the perception of the Pennines as a psychological as well as a physical barrier.”

A problem the organisation has faced since its inception in 2004 is there is no “magic bullet” to the difficulties faced by those who want to integrate the £220bn economy of the North.

Initially, The Northern Way drew up a list of 10 investment priorities, ranging from building quality homes to marketing the North to the world, as it tried to find the right combination of solutions.

BUT, in a review of its activities towards the end of its second year, the organisation scaled back its focus to three priority areas: transport, industrial innovation and private investment.

Director of The Northern Way, Andrew Lewis, took up his post last summer following the review. He believes the organisation can add real value to the economy of the North of England.

“Instead of a role to play in 10 areas, we wanted to have a bigger influence in a smaller number of areas of bigger issues,” he said. “We won’t try to spread ourselves too thinly.”

“I think what The Northern Way said when it kicked off was right. There wasn’t one thing that would solve the problems. We are putting forward really strong proposals on how the economy of the North of England can be improved.