The Northern Way
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
governmental strategy
Strategy
Strategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. In military usage strategy is distinct from tactics, which are concerned with the conduct of an engagement, while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked...
to transform the economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
of the North of England. It aims to bridge a £30 billion output gap between the North and the average for England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
The Northern Way focuses on issues important for the whole of the North—those that cannot be tackled by one region alone, e.g., transport infrastructure and marketing the North internationally.
History
The strategy was first initiated in February 2004, when Deputy Prime MinisterDeputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some counties, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, but is significantly different, though both...
John Prescott
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...
invited the three northern Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), Northwest Development Agency, One NorthEast
One NorthEast
One North East is the regional development agency for the North East England region.-History:It was established in April 1999. The North East receives a lot of government aid for regeneration....
and Yorkshire Forward
Yorkshire Forward
Yorkshire Forward is the regional development agency for the Yorkshire and the Humber region of the United Kingdom. It supports the development of business in the region by encouraging public and private investment in education, skills, environment and infrastructure...
, to show how the North of England could bridge the output gap.
Themes
To lead the delivery of this objective, an independently chaired steering group was established whose members had a range of different publicPublic sector
The public sector, sometimes referred to as the state sector, is a part of the state that deals with either the production, delivery and allocation of goods and services by and for the government or its citizens, whether national, regional or local/municipal.Examples of public sector activity range...
and private sector
Private sector
In economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...
interests. The Steering Group launched Moving Forward: The Northern Way Growth Strategy in September 2004, which focused on four themes:
1) Developing new City Region
City region
The term city region has been in use since about 1950 by urbanists, economists and urban planners to mean a metropolitan area and hinterland which has a shared and formal administrative government...
plans to work across administrative boundaries in the eight major conurbations of the North, namely:
North East England
North East England
North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
:
- Tees ValleyTees ValleyThe Tees Valley is an area in the North East of England. It can be described as "greater Teesside" and consists of the four unitary authorities created by the breakup of the County of Cleveland in 1996: Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland, and Stockton-On-Tees along with the borough of...
- (TeessideTeessideTeesside is the name given to the conurbation in the north east of England made up of the towns of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar, Billingham and surrounding settlements near the River Tees. It was also the name of a local government district between 1968 and 1974—the County Borough of...
, DarlingtonDarlingtonDarlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...
and HartlepoolHartlepoolHartlepool is a town and port in North East England.It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham. A railway link from...
) - Tyne and WearTyne and WearTyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in north east England around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
- (TynesideTynesideTyneside is a conurbation in North East England, defined by the Office of National Statistics, which is home to over 80% of the population of Tyne and Wear. It includes the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside — all settlements on...
and WearsideWearsideWearside is an area of north east England, centred on the continuous urban area formed by Sunderland, Seaham and other settlements by the River Wear. Mackems is a nickname used for the people of Wearside....
)
North West England
North West England
North West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...
:
- Central LancashireCentral LancashireCentral Lancashire is a designated new town in England. The designated area covers the towns of Preston, Leyland and Chorley...
- (Preston) - Liverpool City Region - (LiverpoolLiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
) - Manchester City RegionManchester City RegionThe Greater Manchester Statutory City Region is a pilot administrative division of England, coterminous with the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester...
- (ManchesterManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
)
Yorkshire and the Humber
Yorkshire and the Humber
Yorkshire and the Humber is one of the nine regions of England and formally one of the government office regions. It covers most of the historic county of Yorkshire, along with the part of northern Lincolnshire that was, from 1974 to 1996, within the former shire county of Humberside. The...
:
- Hull and Humber PortsHull and Humber Ports City RegionThe Hull and Humber Ports City Region is the area whose economic development is supported by the Humber Economic Partnership , a sub-regional economic development partnership. This sub-region covers an area of the Yorkshire and the Humber Region and is centred around the primary built up urban...
- (Kingston upon HullKingston upon HullKingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
) - Leeds City RegionLeeds City RegionThe Leeds City Region is the area whose economic development is supported by the Leeds City Region Partnership, a sub-regional economic development partnership...
- (LeedsLeedsLeeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
) - Sheffield City RegionSheffield city region#Sheffield#Rotherham#Barnsley#Doncaster#Chesterfield#North East Derbyshire#Bolsover#Bassetlaw#Derbyshire DalesThe Sheffield City Region is an area of England centred on Sheffield...
- (SheffieldSheffieldSheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
)
2) Key investment priorities were chosen that could exploit economic activity across all three northern Development Agency regions.
These investment priorities are:
- bring more people into employmentEmploymentEmployment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...
- strengthen the North’s knowledge base innovationInnovationInnovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
- build a more entrepreneurEntrepreneurAn entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
ial North - capture a larger share of global trade: key clusters
- meet employer skills needs
- the North’s connectivity
- create truly sustainable communities
- market the North to the world.
3) Working together differently and collaborating to make the most of £100 million public sector
Public sector
The public sector, sometimes referred to as the state sector, is a part of the state that deals with either the production, delivery and allocation of goods and services by and for the government or its citizens, whether national, regional or local/municipal.Examples of public sector activity range...
investment
Investment
Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time...
in the North and equivalent private sector
Private sector
In economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...
investment.
4) Influencing local, regional and national decision-makers to ensure their policies and programmes support Northern Way goals.
Growth fund
The Growth Fund, worth £100 million, was launched in September 2004, and in June 2005 the Northern Way published its Business planBusiness plan
A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals....
, setting out how to spend the money. The eight City Region partnerships published their City Region Development Plans to show how they would work together to grow their economies to address the output gap.