Rachel
Burnham writes: Last Wednesday, in my role as Public Policy
Adviser for CIPD Manchester, I had the pleasure of chairing a Public Policy
meeting for the branch at which Ed Cox, the Director of the Institute for
Public Policy Research North (IPPR North), discussed with us the ‘Northern
Powerhouse – Rhetoric or Reality’. The
IPPR North is the northern base of a think tank focused on public policy issues
and they have carried many pieces of research and produced publications on the
Northern Powerhouse and related topics.
Since our meeting last week they have launched a ‘Blueprint for a Great North Plan’, which sets out the steps they believe stakeholders across the
northern region need to be taking now to make the most of the Northern
Powerhouse idea.
This post is based on my personal reflections from this
session and on my additional reading on the Northern Powerhouse. Here is a link to a Flipboard which brings together
some of these reports & articles and includes a basic introduction to what
is meant by the Northern Powerhouse.
The
idea
One of the points from our meeting was just how much the
idea of the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ has captured the public imagination –
certainly here in Manchester – if you are reading from down south that may of
course not be the case at all! Almost
unlike any other government initiative, this one has fallen on open ears in the
North – that is not to say that everyone
shares the same understanding or that there aren’t critiques of it, but it has
achieved a widespread recognition at least.
It picks up on our metropolitan pride, whether for Manchester,
Liverpool, Newcastle or Leeds; builds on our historic achievements from the
industrial age; fits with more recent re-energising of these cities, helped by
actions such as the move by the BBC to the Greater Manchester area; and of
course, taps into the widespread irritation with the over-dominance by London
and the South-East of almost every aspect of political and economic life in
this country. No wonder we like the
sound of the Northern Powerhouse! It
feels about time!
However, the ideas behind the Northern Powerhouse are
about more than northern pride, but are also about how we create a thriving and
sustainable national economy that works for the whole country. So, don’t stop reading if you don’t live in
the North!
The
reality
The northern economy is huge – by northern I’m referring
to an area that stretches from North Wales and Sheffield across the North West
and Yorkshire to Newcastle. The size of
this economy is 25% of the UK economy and if the north were a country in its
own right, it would have the 8th largest economy of all European
countries measured through GDP. However,
the economy of the north is growing more slowly and productivity is lower than
other European countries, with the exception of Greece.
The UK has a very large difference between the growth
rate and prosperity of its capital and the other regions, particularly the
North, compared to other European countries. Whilst London is continuing to
grow, there are questions about the limits of this agglomeration and this has
raised the issue about whether it would be better for the country to seek to
rebalance economic growth through encouraging growth across the northern cities
of the UK – the Northern Powerhouse. This
would be a major shift in our approach to regional and industrial policy.
However, there are many challenges facing the north: incomplete
transformation from our historical industrial past; the balance of jobs &
roles – the north is more effected by the hourglass effect on the numbers and
types of skills required; weaknesses in transport and other connectivity issues
and the impact of a London-centric approach to policy making and resource
allocation.
George Osborne’s approach has been three pronged,
encouraging: agglomeration; connectivity – mainly transport related; and
devolution of powers. These have both
been lauded – and also criticised for their party political agenda – as one way
of generating some Conservative traction in the Labour heartlands of the North
and devolution as a way of distancing Westminster from the impact of the
austerity measures.
The
possibility
But this approach to the Northern Powerhouse isn’t the
only one. We could take other approaches
which give much more emphasis on economic growth and prosperity for all.
We could focus on a different understanding of ‘city’ and
rather than the single city approach, as in London, in which all the cities are
subsumed into a single agglomeration and instead adopt a more European approach
valuing the contribution made by a number of medium and smaller sized cities to
a wider city-area ie the North of England.
This would recognise the different strengths of each of the major cities
in the region and also the part to be played by smaller ‘cities’ such as
Warrington, Burnley and Durham – which interestingly seem to be growing more
rapidly than the larger cities in recent times.
It would mean investing not just in improved transport
links, but crucially in education, skills and other measures designed to
increase productivity and innovation.
This is particularly where we in L&D and the wider HR profession
have a part to play. And this is one
of the areas where devolution may have the potential to enable us to exert
influence over policy developments in education and particularly the skills
agenda to more closely meet local and regional needs.
There are many hurdles to
be faced in making the ideas of the Northern Powerhouse anything more
than an appealing phrase, particularly if this wider vision is embraced,
not least the uncertainty over the UK’s
place in Europe. But I think they are
worth tackling. And I think there is a
role for L&D and our colleagues in the wider HR field in this.
Rachel
Burnham
19/6/16
Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D
professionals become even more effective.
I am particularly interested in blended learning, the uses of social
media for learning, evaluation and anything that improves the impact of
learning on performance.
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