Allies not adversaries – London and the North must be partners for growth

Regional divides inhibit progress, and London and its core industries alone cannot fuel levels of growth we’ve not seen since the 90s, say West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin and chair of the NP11 group of Northern LEPs Clare Hayward

London has a great brand and instant global recognition. It is an asset, but not the only one available to investors looking at the UK as a place to build business.

Too often the North and London are framed as two extremes of the national picture. London is seen to be forward thinking, dynamic and a bit flash, the North is beholden to its heritage, earthy and ‘real’.
While London gets preferential treatment, the North is a forgotten child, slowly moving out of the steam age and still smeared in industrial soot.

As always, the reality is somewhere in the middle. The streets of London aren’t paved with gold and the North has always been a forward thinking, almost revolutionary place for free-thinkers and cultural leaders.

Dividing lines inhibit progress and fuel resentment. Competitive bids for piecemeal funding of all kinds eat into productivity and serve to exacerbate existing prejudices when things don’t go to plan. “Of course the cash went to London/the North (delete as applicable)”.

What is becoming clearer is that a disjointed approach is no longer working and the need to grow the economy together has become absolutely paramount.

Politicians and business leaders can see the threat of stagnation is looming and for the UK to remain a superpower, its needs to be empowered as a whole.

The North has not followed the same trajectory as London and the South East. The UK’s transition away from an industrial economy to one that’s service-led has been a boon to the capital – already a powerhouse for finances – and a disadvantage for those Northern towns and cities that relied on people’s desire to ‘Buy British’.

The solution cannot be to continue to hope that the capital and its core industries can fuel levels of growth we’ve not seen since the 90s and 2000s.

We need to untether the North, support ambitions here and invest for the long term. The more we see new sectors and clusters opened up and embraced by the North, the greater the opportunity to partner with the sheer economic might of the capital.

We have the ambition to generate significant economic uplift and to create a major economic centre that can compete on the world stage alongside London. This can only serve to help people in the region enjoy better quality of life and to benefit the UK as a nation by reaffirming its position as an economy to be reckoned with.

As you might expect, the issues and their solutions are best understood locally. NP11 and Transport for the North’s revised Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review (NPIER) found that with the right investment, the region has the potential to undergo transformative growth, and develop into an economy £118bn GVA a year larger by 2050. In 26 years, the North could be supporting an additional 1m jobs.

Our region is home to around 1.1m businesses, and that increased by around five per cent, or 50,000 in real terms, between 2015 and 2021.

Opportunity is rife across the North. Every town and district is home to businesses capable of significant growth. What is needed is coherent and committed investment and greater visibility of the capabilities of Northern enterprises, raising the domestic and global profile of the North.

Improving relations, and enhancing transport links, could be a major boon for sectors already based in the North.

Leeds has blossomed into the UK’s largest legal and financial centre outside of London. Manchester’s profile has grown globally with an embrace of cultural heritage and high-tech industries.

We are seeing a major green revolution happening in Hull and East Yorkshire with investment in offshore wind power and decarbonisation technologies. Cumbria is leading the way with state-of-the-art clean energy generation and Lancashire is becoming a defence and cyber security superpower.

Companies specialising in life sciences and health-tech, a sector in which the government acknowledges that the UK can be a global leader, are finding fertile ground in Leeds, Skipton, Cheshire and Warrington. The North East has the potential to lead the UK into space.

These are just a few examples. There is an appetite to create new opportunities alongside embracing challenges, and the region needs more to make it happen. By working more closely together, there remains the opportunity to do more with what we already have, improving productivity and setting the foundations for future growth.

Transforming the North to create a sustainable, healthy, inclusive, and connected economy will take significant time and effort, and the payoff will mean that there’s a greater diversity in industry and the chance to empower other regions to embrace innovation and new sectors.

The Convention of the North is happening this week and represents the opportunity for lawmakers, stakeholders and business voices to come together and build for a new future. We want to see the organisations invested in the North galvanised and united in their efforts.

The North and London shouldn’t be at odds with one another. The two regions should thrive together and benefit from respective successes. It’s time to end the polarised debate and build the foundations of our future together.