Building the Northern Powerhouse - Re-balancing the UK Economy

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2014

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Advertising supplement.

Re-balancing the UK Economy BRADFORD

WIGAN BOLTON

WARRINGTON

LIVERPOOL

LEEDS

MANCHESTER

HALTON

Stronger together.

In association with…

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Northern Powerhouse

Investment in the North to power return of prosperity Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne explains the vision behind his plans for the creation of a Northern Powerhouse LIVERPOOL is at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse. While our great northern cities are strong, they can be stronger if we connect them together so they can pool their strengths. That requires four ingredients.

First, transport. It’s quicker to travel from London to Paris by train than it is to travel between Liverpool and Hull. So I commissioned Sir David Higgins, who is building the High Speed 2 railway, to look at making east-west connections across the north faster. Following his report, I’ve given the green light to developing High Speed 3.

On the roads, we’ve committed to investing £1.8bn in the North West, including improved access to Liverpool’s ports and upgrading motorway connections to Ellesmere Port and Birkenhead. The A5036 Princess Way will get a major upgrade to better connect Liverpool port to the motorway network and we are making big improvements to the M6, the M62 and the M53.

On the railways, the new franchises for Northern and Trans-Pennine Express will deliver more seats, new and better trains, faster services and upgraded stations. We’re also re-opening the Halton curve, to make it easier to travel between North Wales and Liverpool, and electrifying the line between Liverpool and Manchester.

But it’s not just about transport.

We’re taking action to promote science through a massive £250m investment in a new Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials, with a centre in Liverpool.

●●Cllr Phil Davies

Ready, willing and able to deliver more Cllr Phil Davies, Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Leader of Wirral Council

●●Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne We are also providing £113m towards a cutting-edge Cognitive Computing Centre in Daresbury.

And there is a further £31m for energy research, including at the former Shell site in Thornton.

Then there’s culture. We will create a Great Exhibition in the North – to show off the best art, design and culture from the region.

And we will fund another Interna-

tional Festival for Business in Liverpool in 2016, which will replicate the successful event hosted by the city this year.

And last, but not least, the Northern Powerhouse is about stronger, city-wide cooperation and leadership, with more powers devolved to elected metro mayors.

So I welcome the growth of cooperation between local authorities in

Liverpool, and the approach made by the Liverpool City Region to government to discuss devolution of powers.

Creating a Northern Powerhouse is a key part of our economic plan: it will make people in Liverpool better off, and help Britain compete in the world. That’s why I’m determined to create the Northern Powerhouse, and stay on course to prosperity.

New opportunities for local people Cllr Rob Polhill, Leader of Halton Borough Council AS Leader of Halton Borough Council, I am immensely proud of what we are achieving as a borough and with our partners across the region.

Despite the cuts forced upon us as a result of the Government’s austerity measures, we have made huge progress over recent years.

The physical transformation of our borough, as well as the level of economic and social regeneration

activity in Halton, has been remarkable. This is, without doubt, due to the hard work and commitment of people living and working in Halton and our strong crosssector partnership arrangements.

Halton is delivering initiatives of national, as well as international, importance, like the Mersey Gateway, one of the UK’s most significant infrastructure projects; a world-class centre for ‘big-scale’ science at Daresbury; and a number of other key strategic freight and logistics assets located in the borough.

These projects and others are creating jobs and exciting new

opportunities for our local people, but we know there is even more we can do to improve economic prosperity locally and beyond.

We have identified a number of future opportunities that will bring benefits to Halton, the Liverpool City Region and to the North – they include enhancing science and innovation; growing our already thriving distribution and logistics sector; and supporting business improvement and growth.

As you will read further on in this supplement, in Halton we are ambitious; we have a can-do approach and more importantly, we deliver.

●●Rob Polhill, Leader, Halton Borough Council

IN the last Autumn Statement of this Parliament, we were promised the opportunity to create a Northern Powerhouse, to rebalance our economy and create a lasting legacy of economic growth for future generations.

While some worthwhile progress was made in relation to transport policy, we are extremely disappointed that, apart from Manchester, no concrete devolution policies for any of the Northern City Regions were announced.

We must not, however, let this deter us from driving forward our proposals. We have a duty to the people who elected us to do all we can to bridge the divide between the North and the South of this country.

The Chancellor recognised in his statement that the economy had been ‘too unbalanced for decades’ and stressed that the ‘door was open’ to any Northern cities proposing devolution deals. While this is to be welcomed, we firmly believe that these economic times demand immediate and decisive action.

There are five Combined Authorities acting on behalf of Northern City Regions which are vibrant and dynamic. We are contributing hugely to the UK economy, despite the constraints placed upon us by civil servants and ministers in Westminster.

If we are given the opportunity, I have no doubt we can deliver even more.

The projects, developments and opportunities described within this publication demonstrate what we can do when we work together, speak as one voice, and are free from unnecessary burdens and bureaucracy.

It shows that we are ready, willing and able to transform the Northern economy and create the true economic ‘powerhouse’ that the 15 million people living in our cities deserve.

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Northern Powerhouse

Size matters in the region’s bid to become a more powerful force

By BILL GLEESON Business Reporter

bill.gleeson@liverpool.com @BillGleeson1

CHANCELLOR of the Exchequer George Osborne invented the idea of the Northern Powerhouse in the summer.

It seeks to address Britain’s decades-old North-South economic divide that has resulted in London and the South East growing much faster than places like Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Yorkshire and Tyneside.

The belief is that the North of the country should seek to replicate the single most important condition that causes London to prosper, namely its scale.

Put another way, size matters, more so than ever before.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, a factory would be located where its owners could find raw materials, power and cheap labour. In contrast, today’s businesses are looking for talented individuals to work together.

According to HM Treasury research, there is a powerful correlation between the size of a city and the productivity of its inhabitants. The top 600 cities in the world contain just 20% of global population but create 60% of global GDP. Speaking at the launch of the Northern Powerhouse idea, Mr Osborne said: “Here in the North we have some of the best universities and teaching hospitals in the world, fantastic museums and theatres too, all surrounded by the most beautiful countryside.

“These cities, in a belt that runs from Liverpool to Hull, all have strengths individually –

but on a global scale they are also quite small.”

Greater Manchester’s population is 2.6m, Leeds’ and West Yorkshire’s is 1.8m and Liverpool and Merseyside’s is 1.3m. However, Mr Osborne added: “Together our Northern cities can be more than the sum of their parts.

“The last census found that the average commute of someone who travels into London from outside is 40 miles. If you make a circle of the same distance, and centre it on Manchester, you’d have a catchment area that takes in Leeds, Sheffield and Liverpool, Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire, and contains 10m people. An area containing nearly two million graduates. A huge pool of talent.”

Talented people, so the argument goes, need to work in close proximity to each other to spark ideas that can create wealth.

Tom Cannon, professor of strategic development at the University of Liverpool Management School, warns that before the Northern Powerhouse concept can have any chance of working, the region’s leaders are going to need to discover a sense of mutual cooperation, a quality that has often been in short supply in the past when a sense of self-interested competitive rivalry between cities has prevailed.

Prof Cannon said: “The prospects for the Northern Powerhouse built around the North’s major cities will turn on the extent to which these great, historic rivals can work together.

“There is no doubt that the incentives are there, not just in money for projects like the Northern ‘Crick Institute’ in Science or infrastructure

●●Northern success depends on working together, but we can do it – the recent International Festival of Business in Liverpool was backed by Manchester. developments such as HS3, but for greater devolved powers.

“There is, also, some evidence that the cities and their key institutions can work together. Liverpool and Manchester work together as film locations, while the recent International Festival of Business in Liverpool was

backed by Manchester.

“The North’s most researchactive universities created the N8 Group of Universities to deliver just such a partnership.

“Despite the fact there are problems, best illustrated by the concern in Liverpool that Manchester gets two stations on the route of HS2 and

Liverpool none, while even the talk of HS3 focuses mainly on the Leeds-Manchester axis.

Further afield, there are concerns that the leaders of the more peripheral cities will want ‘a share of the action’ regardless of the economic arguments.

“More fundamentally, the ●●The planned high speed rail link, left, illustrates the continued division between Liverpool and Manchester, according to Professor Tom Cannon, right

centripetal forces that draw in wealth and talent to drive the London economy are hard to discern and may be harder for civic leaders to accept if they don’t centre on their city. It’s easy to endorse the principle that ‘it’s not a zero sum game’ until a neighbouring city gets the jobs or investment.”

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Northern Powerhouse ●●Jodrell Bank, main picture, is to be the centre of a new global project. Inset, George Osbourne visits the University of Manchester for the topping out ceremony of the New National Graphene Institute

Transport and science are crucial

By BILL GLEESON Business Reporter bill.gleeson@liverpool.com @BillGleeson1

Two key planks of the Northern Powerhouse are improved transport links and investment in emerging science.

A series of investments in road and rail improvements will seek to give the impression that travellers are moving around within a single cohesive region.

Proposals for a high speed rail link between Leeds and Manchester is one example of how this might be achieved.

Others include investment in ports, including the new in-river post-Panamax terminal at Seaforth.

When it comes to science, the region is already home to some of the world’s best universities, including Manchester, York and Durham, which have been home to major scientific discoveries in the past.

As for the inventions of the present day, Manchester is home to the development of a new carbon-based ultrastrong nano technology material known as graphene, with a myriad of potential uses. The University of Liverpool leads the way in the development of chemistrybased consumer products such as detergents.

The new headquarters for the Square Kilometre Array – the global project to build the world’s largest telescope – will be at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire. One of the world’s largest and fastest supercomputers is being built at Daresbury, near Runcorn.

The National Biologics Industrial Innovation Centre in Teeside will make it one of the best locations for life sciences.

One local business leader warns that, as well as investment, the region needs more political control and accountability over its affairs, including more devolved

powers for city-region or ‘metro mayors,’ like the scheme proposed last month for Greater Manchester.

Referring to a recent conference on how to boost the economy of the North, Martin Heath, accountancy firm PwC’s senior partner in Liverpool, said: “Decentralisation is critical to rebalancing the UK’s economy. Too much centralisation leads to unbalanced growth and creates economic issues of its own.

“The UK is the fifth most centralised economy in the EU and is almost four times more centralised than the EU average.

“But the demands decentralisation puts on the skills, capacity and vision of local organisations must be recognised.

“That can’t be solved overnight, which is why it is encouraging a clear roadmap is being developed to ensure the right levels of responsibility, delivery and accountabil-

ity are in place for decentralisation to work effectively.

“It is clear the region must start thinking more collectively if we are to become a Northern Powerhouse, and the summit has been a good start to get us talking and thinking collaboratively. We need to come together as one North and not compete as separate regions or cities.

“The proposed improvements to transport links are very welcome and will support this. The fact it currently takes three-and-aquarter hours by train to travel about 130 miles between the two freight ports of Liverpool and Hull is clearly not good enough.”

He added: “Tackling the region’s transport system will enable the region to fulfil its economic potential.

“The UK regions all have an important role to play in driving growth for the whole of the UK, and getting the right investment in our transport systems will better

●●Martin Heath believes decentralisation is critical connect people and jobs, which is crucial if we want to rebalance the national economy.

“But this isn’t just about political devolution, it’s about

giving responsibility to businesses, local enterprise partnerships and the wider business community to invest in what will make a difference to our marketplace.”

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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2014

Northern Powerhouse

●●A new sovereign wealth fund for the North of England has been announced so that the shale gas resources of the North are used to invest in the future of the North

●●The Sci-Tech Daresbury Enterprise Zone site in Cheshire, which is home to fast-growing science and technology firms, will be home to a new £113m Cognitive Computing Research Centre in Daresbury near Warrington

North getting ready to rise again

By BILL GLEESON Business Reporter

commences. Estimates a real challenge to local suggest 1,300 trillion authorities. bill.gleeson@liverpool.com cubic metres of shale “More progress has @BillGleeson1 gas reserves lie beneath been made in Greater the ground in the North Manchester than in CHANCELLOR of the Excheq- of England. other combined uer George Osborne used the Other announceauthority areas.”

Autumn Statement earlier this ments designed to Referring to the plan month to confirm plans for a boost the Northern for a “sovereign wealth wide range of measures to economy include extra fund for the North,” boost the economy of the government money to Prof Harding says new North of England and help replace “ancient and sources of funding are achieve his vision of a unpopular pacer absolutely vital but Northern Powerhouse, capable carriages” used on the also points to the fact of matching the economic Transpennine Express, that it would be scale and dynamism of which runs out of coming to the party London.

Liverpool Lime Street,, late as other, non-BritSome might say you can tell with new and modern ish sovereign wealth there is an election on the trains. funds are already busy horizon.

The Chancellor also investing in the North.

Among the new measures unveiled a range of new Money from the was a sovereign wealth fund investments in science Middle East is already for the North of England that and technology being used to regenerwould use tax receipts from research. Liverpool will ate East Manchester fracking to invest in the be home to a satellite and Chinese money is region’s economy. branch of the new being used to develop The issue of how best to £235m Sir Henry Royce a new business park develop the economy of the Institute for advanced ●●Professor Alan Harding, head of the University of Liverpool’s public around Manchester North of England, stretching materials research and policy think tank the Heseltine Institute Airport. from Liverpool to Hull, has innovation.

One local business risen up the agenda after There will also be a Professor Alan Harding, Prof Harding warned that leader supports the politicians of all parties new £113m Cognitive Comput- head of the University of combined authorities might new emphasis on investment promised greater devolved ing Research Centre in Liverpool’s public policy think find themselves left out on a in the region’s transport powers to Scotland at the time Daresbury near Warrington tank the Heseltine Institute, limb due to austerity. infrastructure and greater tax of its referendum on indethat will tackle big data. said: “There really does appear They may find they are and spending powers. pendence.

As for devolution, the to be cross-party consensus granted extensive new powers Chris Fry, office senior Speaking during his last Chancellor said his door would emerging on the whole notion and responsibilities without partner of KPMG in Liverpool, Autumn Statement before the always remain open to any of economic rebalancing. I being granted the funds they commented: “The last 12 next General Election, Mr cities that wanted to bid for a can’t think of a previous need to carry them out. months have seen a real Osborne said: “We’re similar devolution deal to the national election when this Also, they can be prone to pick-up in the UK economy announcing a new sovereign one awarded to Greater issue had such prominence.” parochial infighting, and find but the challenge now is to wealth fund for the North of Manchester last month. This Former Prime Minister Tony themselves unable to agree maintain the momentum and England so that the shale gas has seen hundreds of millions Blair regularly denied the spending decisions. invest for the future. resources of the North are used of pounds of public spending existence of the north-south He said: “The combined “Here in the North, that to invest in the future of the decisions devolved from divide, preferring to highlight authorities we have emerging means sticking to the commitNorth.”

Whitehall to a combined the socio-economic conditions in the North of England are at ment to invest in our infraThe fund will be created authority led by an elected of individuals wherever they very different stages of structure to better connect our once shale gas extraction mayor. were. maturity and development. It’s major cities, while bringing

forward proposals for fiscal devolution – something that could finally unlock investment in the North to rebalance the economy “Currently, the level of local tax-raising powers in the UK, at just 2% of GDP, is almost pointlessly low.

“Sir David Higgins has recently proposed the creation of a Northern transport body – Transport for the North. This is, of course, welcome but, without the ability to raise taxes and invest, it will be unable to achieve anything of significance.

“If the Government really wants to unlock investment in the North to rebalance the economy, fiscal devolution is key.

“The ball will then be back in the court of local political leaders from Liverpool to Hull to bury the hatchets of long-standing rivalries and work together to build a common vision for a resurgent North.

“Given that identity is so important to all of the cities involved – and particularly so, here in Liverpool – the fact that the Northern Powerhouse concept is already gaining such traction shows that all are ready to put individual differences aside and to help the North regain its historic prominence in the UK economy.

“The objective is clear – a vibrant, successful and integrated northern economy that our children will be proud to inherit.”

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2014

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Northern Powerhouse

Designs on creative office space Matt Lee, Head of Sales at Bruntwood in Liverpool, comments on getting creative with workspaces LIVERPOOL’S commercial district, an area traditionally known as the home of lawyers, accountants and bankers, has defied convention in recent years by attracting scores of digital and creative businesses.

It is no coincidence that this step change has come about following the creation of workspaces designed specifically to fire the imaginations of web designers, digital marketers and architects alike.

Many of these new arrivals have been encouraged not only by this increased supply of refurbished smaller suites for like-minded start-ups, but also a willingness to offer flexible packages that work with the growth plans of ambitious young businesses.

At Bruntwood, we’ve looked to blaze a trail with pioneering schemes such as The Loft and Trading Rooms at our Cotton Quarter development.

making a variety of very distinct spaces that reflect the diverse and unique nature of creative thinking.

For example, The Loft is a collection of six offices which combines industrial finishes with a large communal breakout area, while the Trading Rooms scheme in the very same building offers an entirely different design aspect and user experience, with eight offices for small and start-up businesses and a second phase of nine offices now well under way.

We own seven city centre The first phases of both buildings, including Cotton projects sold out quickly and Exchange, Oriel Chambers and complement a wider multiQueen Insurance Building, million pound refurbishment and have witnessed dozens of at the Cotton Exchange in innovative, creative businesses recent years, during which arriving here during the past time the building has also 18 months, reflecting a real become a core point of change in direction from its presence on the Metronet more corporate traditions.

(UK) high-speed internet As major property owners in network. the area, we have invested a When you consider these considerable amount of time developments against the and money into designing and existing benefits of the delivering workspaces that commercial district – great appeal to creative entreprepublic transport connections, neurs. plenty of parking and countThis strategy could never be less leisure facilities on the about taking a ‘one-style-fitsdoorstep – it’s easy to see why all’ approach but, rather, so many creatives are moving

●●Part of Bruntwood’s reinvention of The Cotton Exchange in the commercial district into the neighbourhood.

Quite naturally, many creative, digital and media firms also wish to be based here as it positions them next to the majority of their customers.

It’s worth remembering that

the area is already home to an established nucleus of creative businesses, such as Trinity Mirror publishing and Ph Creative, and also boasts a number of PR and marketing firms such as Influential and Story, so new arrivals are in

good company.

Results demonstrate that working with customers to deliver bespoke spaces really can reap rewards for all concerned. It’s certainly a strategy we intend to keep following for years to come.

Liverpool’s new creative district The redevelopment of the Cotton Quarter in the heart of Liverpool’s commercial district is gathering pace.

Cotton Exchange on Bixteth Street already boasts a collection of unique offices and events space such as The Loft, The Trading Rooms, The Roof Garden and The Old Hall and further development of the building will introduce a new meeting rooms, bike storage and showering facilities.

With suites ranging from 300 to 10,000 sq ft, the refurbished building is now home to a growing number of creative and digital businesses who can benefit from a £3000 grant towards the fastest internet speeds available in Liverpool.

If you would like to see the transformation of the Cotton Quarter in person please call us direct or visit bruntwood.co.uk

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Northern Powerhouse

Halton – a transformed borough making all the right connections A QUIET revolution has been taking place across Runcorn and Widnes over recent years.

With construction of the Mersey Gateway – one of the UK’s most significant infrastructure projects – well under way; a world-class centre for ‘big-scale’ science, at Daresbury, open for business; and a number of other key strategic freight and logistics assets located in the borough, Halton is making a real contribution to the growth and prosperity of the North West.

The borough may not be the largest, but its ambition, determination and ability to ‘punch above’ its weight is recognised by partners and is delivering benefits far beyond its borders.

Connectivity is pivotal to Halton’s success Halton’s location is its major strength. The borough sits at the heart of the North West’s transport network, with immediate access to the M62, M56 and M6.

Halton has a unique system of 21km of dedicated busway serving the major employment and residential areas.

Both Liverpool John Lennon Airport and Manchester Airport are less than 30 minutes away and

Halton Curve will open up the region Halton welcomed the Summer 2014 announcement of £10.4m funding to reinstate the Halton Curve Rail Link.

Halton Borough Council has, for many years, supported the efforts of scheme promoters Merseytravel and MP’s Derek Twigg and Graham Evans, in convincing Government of the economic and environmental benefits of reinstating the track to two-way working.

Once reinstated, it could allow passengers and freight to move between Liverpool, Chester and North Wales via Runcorn, Frodsham and Helsby.

Work is expected to start in 2016, subject to final scheme approval.

Leader of Halton Borough Council Cllr Rob Polhill said: “The reinstatement of the Halton Curve has been a long standing aspiration of Halton Council. It is a key rail scheme that has the support of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, both the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership and Cheshire Local Enterprise Partnership, and the Welsh Assembly Government. The support of the two LEPs in helping us to achieve our aim demonstrates how the public and private sector can work together in a truly effective way.”

London can be reached in one hour 52 minutes on the West Coast mainline from Runcorn Station.

This enviable location, between Manchester and Liverpool and close to The Port of Liverpool,

means that international markets are within easy reach. With 60% of UK industry and 23 million consumers accessible within two hour’s drive time, local companies are also close to national markets.

Halton’s transport network is being further strengthened by the Mersey Gateway Bridge, together with the recently completed link into 3MG Widnes and junction improvements at Daresbury.

Earlier this month, the Chancel-

lor also announced, as part of major road investment in the North West, provision for an additional junction 11a of the M56 in Runcorn.

The new junction will reduce pressure on the existing Junctions 11 and 12 and provide improved access to the Mersey Gateway Bridge (when it opens) and to businesses and residential developments in East Runcorn, including those at Daresbury Sci-Tech and Sandymoor. It will also improve access to south Liverpool and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Cllr Tom McInerney is Halton Borough Council’s Executive Board Member for Transport. He said of the recent development: “Transport and connectivity is essential for the success of any region. The Mersey Gateway and other network improvements planned in Halton will reinforce the regional network, keep local people moving, provide greater resilience and ensure the free movement of commuters and business moving across the region - supporting the continued economic growth of the Liverpool City Region and the whole of the North West.”

●●A world-class centre for ‘big-scale’ science, at Daresbury is open for business, with fantastic road connectivity to the rest of the UK

Linking the region to the world!

Mersey Multimodal Gateway (3MG) Widnes is already one of the UK’s largest seaport, rail, road, storage and distribution hubs.

Serving the whole of the North of England, North Wales and the North Midlands, 3MG is a hugely successful public/private partnership between Halton Borough Council, the Stobart Group and IDI Gazeley.

The 3MG site in Widnes covers 300 acres, with 750,000 sq ft of existing distribution sheds on site, with planning consent for a total of 2.2m sq ft of new buildings, rising, eventually, to 3.5m sq ft of space.

3MG will enable a number of companies to come together to provide a facility for freight trains to be efficiently connected with warehousing and distribution facilities both locally and nationwide.

The development will also have regional and national significance, shifting an estimated 195 million kilometres of heavy goods vehicle movements from the UK road network and onto the railway every year.

One of the key advantages of this type of operation is that it helps to reduce congestion and, ultimately, is better for the environment, cutting pollution from the transport of goods over long distances by road.

A typical freight train transports the equivalent of around 50 lorry journeys and produces about 80% less carbon dioxide per tonnekilometre.

●●3MG, Mersey Multimodal Gateway, is connecting the North West to the world It is anticipated that in excess of 5,000 jobs will be created at 3MG over the next 10 years, a significant number of these being taken by local people.

David Parr, Chief Executive, Halton Borough Council, said: “3MG is one of the UKs largest, dedicated, multi-modal logistic parks – a unique mix of connectivity, infrastructure and location, with a skilled and willing workforce, in a central position at the heart of the growing north west market.”

Tesco are one of the companies operating from the 3MG site, occupying a chilled warehouse and an adjacent RSU (Recycling Service Unit) to handle all returned loose equipment and packaging from Tesco’s Stores. The company employs 1050 on the site.

Stobart Park offered Tesco a clean slate for a tailored building and unrivalled transport links to maximise the efficiency of its transport network.

Eddie Stobart built strong

relationships with world-class partners to deliver the high quality scheme Tesco needed in just nine months. Now a proven, sustainable supply chain is in place, ready to deliver superior buildings to demanding schedules in this unrivalled location.

Juliette Bishop, Corporate Affairs Manager, Tesco said: “This new, modern facility will allow us to greatly enhance the service to our stores and customers across the North West of England.”

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Northern Powerhouse

●●Construction is well under way of the Mersey Gateway Bridge over the River Mersey between Runcorn and Widnes and, above, how it will look from the Runcorn side

Gateway a catalyst for growth Work is now well under way to build the new Mersey Gateway Bridge over the River Mersey between Runcorn and Widnes.

The new bridge will transform connectivity, both locally for people travelling in Halton, between the towns of Runcorn and Widnes, but also regionally.

The improvements being made to the road network will link the new 60mph river crossing directly to Speke Road, heading towards Liverpool, and to the Widnes Eastern Bypass, heading to the M62, and will link quickly with the M56 to the south of Runcorn.

Both the new Mersey Gateway Bridge and the existing Silver Jubilee Bridge will be tolled once the new bridge opens in autumn 2017, though all local residents in Halton will be able to cross either bridge for free*.

Cllr Rob Polhill, Leader of Halton Borough Council and Chair of the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board, said: “This project shows how important being able to move around the region unencumbered is for businesses and commuters, and how the decision to go ahead is already attracting new jobs.

We’re already seeing significant investment in Halton and the surrounding area.”

Hugh O’Connor, General Manager for Merseylink, the private consortium designing, building and financing the project and which will operate the tolling infrastructure on both bridges for the next 30 years.

He said: “Halton is very well positioned from a regional transport perspective. There is a main line rail station in Runcorn providing quick access to Liverpool, London and beyond, there are excellent connections to the M62 and M56 running east to west, but the traffic queues, congestion and disruption crossing the river has been a problem for years.

“This new bridge will give a long-term, reliable solution which means that commuters, businesses and anyone using the roads will be able to plan their journeys with much more confidence.”

This will all provide major relief for the congested and ageing Silver Jubilee Bridge, which was built in 1961, and is now crossed by over 26 million users every year. It will be transformed back into a local bridge with one lane of traffic in each direction and significantly improved facilities for cyclists and pedestrians.

The economic, transport and social benefits the project will bring to the region include:  470 permanent full-time equivalent jobs on site during construction  4,640 permanent direct and indirect jobs  £61.9 million a year in Gross Value Added from the new jobs by 2030 * Residents of Halton will still need to register to use the bridges and there will be a small charge for this.

What will the bridge look like?

The design of the new Mersey Gateway Bridge is based on a cable-stay structure, similar to the second Severn Crossing, but with three towers. It will be 2.3km long with a river span of 1km.

The main bridge deck will be made from reinforced concrete and the spans will be supported by steel cable stays attached to towers rising up to between 80 and 125m above the river bed.

 If you would like to find out more about the Mersey Gateway, including live feeds from the construction site, visit www.merseygateway.co.uk. You can get the latest updates from the project on Twitter @merseygateway. If you want to find out more about what’s happening in Halton, visit www.halton.gov.uk or follow us on Facebook and Twitter @HaltonBC

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Northern Powerhouse

A golden age for the region? Only if we get infrastructure in place Carmel Booth, Executive Director of Atlantic Gateway, on the importance of infrastructure INFRASTRUCTURE is the economic backbone of any modern society. Without a reliable, functioning system, the things that we all take for granted would fall apart – roads, bridges, airports, schools, hospitals, energy grids, telecommunications and water.

But today, the UK no longer leads the world in infrastructure competitiveness, and it has been falling down the league tables as other countries continue to invest in essential infrastructure.

And there are differences within the UK. Before taking into account the government’s Autumn Statement announcements, Crossrail alone was set to receive nine times more funding than all the rail projects from the North’s three regions combined.

Other projects in the capital including tube improvements mean that £5,426 will have been spent on each resident of London compared to £223 on those in the North East region.

That’s more than 24 times as much. While the North West fares better, London residents still attract more than nine times per head more compared to the North West.

If you think that this is not important to you, it should be.

It drives economic growth, improves productivity, attracts

investment and create jobs.

Infrastructure matters.

But is the UK’s position in the global economy about to change? And what does this mean for people and businesses in the North West?

There have been some notable successes for the North West, with both significant public and private sector investment in a number of high profile game-changing projects including the Mersey Gateway Bridge, Airport City at Manchester, the Port of Liverpool, Sci-Tech Daresbury, the Northern Hub and MediaCityUK. But perhaps one of the most recent significant developments was George Osborne’s call to action in summer, when he announced in Manchester that he wanted to create a

●●An artist’s impression of Port Salford Northern Powerhouse. While this wasn’t completely focused on infrastructure, he talked about investment in transport and science and the need for the North to ‘think big’ and work together to create a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.

While it was encouraging to hear the Chancellor talk about the North’s potential and the

benefit of collaboration, the North West can point to a good track record of working together.

Let’s be clear; this is not about working together on everything. But it is about working smarter and better on the big issues and opportunities that give the North West and the North a competitive advantage on a global scale.

And we are not just talking about the public sector working together. The Chancellor made it clear that the private sector must be at the heart of this revolution and would be critical to success.

While governments can play a key role in kick-starting investment and giving confidence to markets, it is ultimately private sector

investment which will deliver jobs and growth.

For the last few years, Atlantic Gateway has brought the North West’s business leaders and public sector leaders together to inform government policy and thinking on the big opportunities for the region, especially in relation to key barriers to growth and making the best of the North West’s key assets.

Focused on the three Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) of Cheshire and Warrington, Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester, Atlantic Gateway has a strategic focus on infrastructure and innovation, with the single greatest priority being transport and logistics.

Atlantic Gateway is clear that the so-called ‘rebalancing’ of the economy which all political parties have talked about for several years is not just about the North West competing better with the South East. This is not an ‘us versus them’ debate. It is much bigger than that.

A stronger North means that it can compete better against other global destinations, attracting the best people and businesses. And infrastructure has to play a key role in achieving this.

One of Atlantic Gateway’s priorities is maximising the freight and logistics opportunities across the North West. The catalyst for change is the £300m private sector investment to create a new deep-

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●●Atlantic Gateway Corridor water port, named L2, which will enable 95% of the world’s container fleet (including the post-Panamax vessels) to access the port compared to only 5% today. It will provide a multi-modal freight and logistics hub at the Port of Liverpool to compete with other global ports and will open up considerable opportunities across the North West for other hubs. L2 will be the quickest and most costeffective route to market for businesses in the North West and will also provide a low- carbon solution for businesses removing traffic from the region’s road and rail network.

The commercial case for being located in, or relocating to, the North West will be strengthened as a result of L2.

But connectivity is key.

Whilst the private sector continues to invest in the port, transport connectivity to and from it and other key strategic sites is essential to the creation of a Northern Powerhouse.

Transport investment is not just about passengers; freight movement is just as important. Any integrated transport plan should bring both of these together; it should connect people to jobs and businesses to businesses and markets.

One North certainly addresses this point, and provides a strategic integrated transport plan for the North including connectivity with major gateways including

ports and airports. It helps to join up the dots and ensure that infrastructure investment will deliver long-lasting sustainable growth for generations to come. And while the Autumn Statement brought some good news about investment for some of One North’s proposals, there remains a lot to be done and challenges ahead to ensure that the North, and the North West, secures scarce government funding.

The recently published National Infrastructure Plan brought good news for the North West with the announcement that access improvements to the Port of Liverpool is now considered to be a regional priority by government, and it committed essential funding to deliver this.

This is a big step forward, and something that the Liverpool City Regional LEP and Atlantic Gateway have worked together on to make the case for government investment.

The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement wasn’t all about transport infrastructure. He committed almost £400m to two world-class science and innovation developments which will help to create global centres of excellence.

The Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials Research and Innovation will be developed in Manchester and will also have branches in Leeds,

Liverpool, London, Cambridge, Oxford and Sheffield.

The Hartree Centre at Sci-Tech Daresbury will also receive investment to expand its high performance computing capability, which is expected to give UK businesses a two-year head start over international competitors.

This is the government putting its money where its mouth is, using science and innovation as an important tool to create a Northern Powerhouse.

The challenge to the region is to exploit the opportunities that this will create before other global competitors catch up.

But what lies ahead for the region? Is the North West about to enter into a golden age of investment and collaboration?

It is great that there is recognition of the importance of infrastructure, science and innovation in driving growth and that there seems to be cross-party support for prioritising this investment.

But this isn’t enough. We need ring-fenced long-term government funding plans which would provide more certainty and an important signal to the market that the UK is committed to investing in world-class infrastructure.

We also need to find alternative ways to fund infrastructure of all types.

Infrastructure is an expensive business, and we cannot rely

on the government for the scale of investment required.

We need to find a balance of public sector, private sector, investment houses, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds.

The Chancellor’s announcement in the Autumn Statement of a Northern Sovereign Wealth Fund is certainly a step in the right direction, and moves the North towards a more sustainable funding model.

The devolution agenda also opens up new opportunities for funding and for raising finance. Although care needs to be taken to not just look at infrastructure on a local or sub-regional level; the national and international picture will always remain important.

There is certainly a wave of optimism and a sense of momentum in the North West.

There is more agreement than ever before on the big opportunities and an appetite to work together to make things happen.

But we need to remember that infrastructure investment is not what it is all about – we also need to create interesting places to live and visit.

That is why we cannot afford to ignore the importance of culture and the environment.

A Northern Powerhouse in its truest sense needs to find a way to bring all of this together ensuring that the North stands out for all of the right reasons on the global stage.

Get well connected LIVERPOOL2 will allow global shippers ‘ship-todoor’ access to the UK’s major centres via the most economic and lowestcarbon route, and provide northern UK-based importers and exporters with a more competitive route to market.

The Port of Liverpool is already the UK’s largest transatlantic port and Liverpool2 will make it one of Europe’s leading container terminals when it opens in 2015. With container ships becoming ever bigger, the current investment at the port is essential to allow it to host the latest generation of super-sized vessels.

The £300m construction programme includes the building of a new quay wall, dredging the River Mersey, installing new ship-to-shore quay cranes and putting in place a wide range of supporting infrastructure, all backed by the latest automation and systems technology.

This will allow Liverpool2 to accept over 95% of the global container vessel fleet, on 850m of new quay.

The demand for this is clear. More than 60% of the demand for the cargo in containers comes from

the north of the UK but, currently, 90% of containers enter the UK through the south.

Not only does 65% of the UK and Ireland population live within a 240km radius of Liverpool, but the local area has the greatest volume and density of large warehousing of any UK region.

Liverpool2 will also be well connected to other parts of the UK by 10 motorways within 16km, numerous rail connections and the Manchester Ship Canal.

The new terminal and supporting infrastructure at the port and beyond, will help those shipping goods around the world to get closer to their end UK destination. The vision is to also have rail connectivity to the south.

Peel Ports is one of the UK’s largest port groups, owning and operating seven of the UK and Ireland’s most important ports. It handles 70 million tonnes of cargo every year.

It is headquartered in Liverpool and employs around 1200 staff.

Part of the Peel Group, it is one of the UK’s leading infrastructure, real estate and investment companies.

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●●Investing in the future – Burbo Bank Wind Farm from New Brighton, Wirral

‘The people of the North should be able to make their own decisions’ ACCORDING to Phil Davies, Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, the only way to bridge the ever-widening economic gap between the North and South is for Westminster to release its grip and let the people of the North determine their own futures.

In November 2014 the Combined Authority – made up of all six councils within the City Region, and including independent representation from the Local Enterprise Partnership – proposed a series of steps towards devolution that they believe would help rebalance the UK economy, reduce government spending and enhance the growth potential of the City Region and the North of England.

The Government announced the first package of devolved powers and funding for Greater Manchester in early November.

As part of that announcement, the Chancellor invited other proposals for devolved powers and funding, alongside suggestions for the most appropriate model of governance for an area.

The debate has been triggered in part by the Scottish Referendum, leading to all mainstream parties indicating an appetite for some form of devolution. A number of recent

reviews and reports, including the Adonis Review into growth, the RSA Cities Growth Commission and ongoing Core Cities work with London Government, lend more weight and evidence to the potential for the UK’s largest City Regions to drive growth and take control over local powers and taxation.

Cllr Davies said: “To me, it is absolutely clear that decisions which affect the people of the North should be made by the people of the North. We know our communities, our economies and our needs much better than ministers and civil servants in Whitehall.

“As Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, and Leader of Wirral Council, I have been calling for the devolution of powers over employment and skills, transport, business support and regeneration to combined authorities and, where appropriate, to the North. The North of England accounts for almost a third of the total population of England.

“More than 15 million people live in northern City Regions, our economy is twice the size of Scotland’s, and we contribute a fifth of the

UK’s total economic output.

“It is time for the Government to deliver on its promises to the City Region and the North.”

A recent ComRes poll, reported by the BBC in November 2014, indicates that Northern people agree, with a series of compelling findings including:  79% of people living in the North West agreed politicians in Westminster do not understand what is best

remaining 95% going to central Government.

Cities then receive some of that money back through a complicated mix of funding from eight different government departments and more than 61 separate pots, most of which comes with ‘strings attached’, in a staggeringly bureaucratic and sometimes hugely inefficient process.

The UK’s economy is highly unbalanced, with some of the worst regional disparities in the developed world. Rebalancing the UK economy is crucial for future growth; in particular a resilient manufacturing sector and culture must develop, to reduce overdependence on financial services. The City Region must radically change the rate of economic growth if it is to close the £8.2bn economic output for the rest of the UK gap, the deficit of 18,500 businesses,  74% of people in the region the 90,000 jobs gap and the £1,700 per agreed that too much of the country’s capita income gap that was identified resources were spent on London when the City Region submitted its A report last month to the LiverGrowth Deal to central Government. pool City Region Combined Authority Addressing this challenge is vital also highlighted that of all of the taxes for the future of not just the City raised from local people and Region and the North, but the whole businesses, the Core Cities themof the country, believes Cllr Davies. selves control just 5%, with the He said: “The UK operates one of the

most centralised states in the developed world. It hinders, at every opportunity, the ability of cities and city regions to drive economic growth and help create jobs.

“However, despite this, Liverpool City Region partners have been increasingly working together to drive economic growth. With the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), the Combined Authority is already seeing successes through more strategic and regional partnership working across transport, logistics, economic growth and skills.

“Our City Region Growth Deal demonstrated the progress being made, when we secured funding of £232m to help deliver our ambitious plans to grow our economy and re-establish our reputation as a first tier global City Region. Up to a further £700m has since been committed to infrastructure projects that we collectively wanted investment in, and that were included in our Growth Plan ask.

“The focus on freight and logistics, and also Liverpool city centre as a significant employment location, clearly recognises the unique assets that exist throughout the City Region.

By 2021, this Deal will create at least 10,000 jobs and enable 10,000 homes to be built.”

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●●Investing in transport, above – longer term, City Regions would be free to set their own transport policies and direct investments. Left, investing in housing – new housing development at Roby Park, Knowsley. Below, investing in skills – City Regions should be free to develop and commission their own skills and training programmes

While the UK economy remains unbalanced, and the North needs to greatly increase its rate of economic growth, there have been major successes over the past few years.

Cllr Davies continued: “We are the best performing sub national economy over the five years up to 2012. We have also witnessed a net increase of 31,000 private sector jobs in the City Region since the lowest point in the recession cycle.

“Without doubt the Liverpool City Region is a success story compared to other parts of the country; our

growth rates are well above the national average and a key contributor to pan-North growth and will be a significant component to a Northern Powerhouse. We are, however, reaching a glass ceiling in relation to growth which only true devolution will break through.”

The term ‘Powerhouse’, while dramatic, seems appropriate in this context.

The North, collectively, would be the eighth biggest economy in Europe, and the Liverpool City Region is a critically important part of the North’s overall potential. However, the economy is not performing to

its full potential, with productivity 75% that of national rates and a skills deficit at all levels.

An above average reliance on public funding and relatively low tax yields further constrain the potential for the Liverpool City Region to be self-sustaining and have a direct impact on household incomes within the City Region.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has submitted its proposal to Government for greater devolved powers and funding, which outline a series of immediate and longer term

areas of policy which should be controlled locally. These include: Housing – local areas should be free to invest in economic development and housing Skills – decision-making on skills budgets should be devolved to a local level, including adult skills, apprenticeships and study programmes. This should also involve performance oversight and the power to vary course prices based upon local need and demand Employability support – the Department for Work and Pensions should co-commission all activity to support

residents into work with the Liverpool City Region Longer term, the proposal outlines that major areas such as taxation, innovation and research, infrastructure, transport policy, planning, policing, education, fire and rescue and recycling and waste, among others, should be devolved to the City Region level.

Cllr Davies believes that this is the only way to create a true Northern Powerhouse.

He said: “We must seek to unite the North – where it makes sense to do so – to work together to harness our significant economic assets to

create a powerhouse for growth that can be truly globally competitive.

“Our challenge is to ensure that we do not lose sight of the important role our locally and democratically elected representatives have to play as leaders of their distinct and diverse local communities – places and people who define our identity.

“Rebalancing of the economy must embrace not just economic outcomes – but crucially it must rebalance where the political power lays in this country.

“Fifteen million people deserve to be heard.”

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University playing a leading role in enhancing the city’s future Professors Michael Parkinson CBE, adviser to the VC, and Stephen Holloway, Provost for Innovation at The University of Liverpool, on working to create an innovative competitive Liverpool City Region economy THERE is a great tide turning in the UK. The impact of the Scottish referendum and the rise of UKIP have posed powerful questions about the way we run our affairs, the way the state is organised and the powers, responsibilities and resources that different parts of our country have. The genie is out of the bottle on devolution and the major political parties are vying to attract the support of the North.

For example, Government has called for big ideas about the future economy of the North. In particular, the Chancellor has called for Liverpool City Region to tell him what powers and resources they want in return for changes in the way it runs its affairs. So this is a crucial moment, and Liverpool City Region must seize the opportunity to identify a clear long-term economic plan that all the key partners can sign up for and work together to deliver.

The University of Liverpool (UoL) is determined to play a full role in this process.

We already make a huge economic contribution to Liverpool City Region through the research we do, the ideas and innovations we create and commercialise, the 26,000 students we educate on campus from the UK and abroad, the almost 5,000 people we employ and all the

goods and services we buy from city regional firms.

Of course the university is a global as well as a local player.

Our researchers are tackling some of the world’s largest challenges – developing lifesaving treatments and creating new medicines that can be personalised to improve their effectiveness; creating revolutionary materials to combat climate change; producing new foods to tackle obesity; investigating new energy sources and exploring the potential of biological tools to replace damaged tissue.

Our international profile, in turn, helps Liverpool develop international trade and investment.

And, although global, we remain deeply rooted in our local community and want to help make Liverpool become an exciting, innovative and successful 21st century economy.

We are an anchor institution whose own fate is intimately connected to the vibrancy and economic fortunes of the city region.

Liverpool’s reputation helps us attract many of our students, and we are committed to helping improve the city region’s reputation.

We are rooted at the heart of the city centre Knowledge Quarter, and more of our students also live in the city centre. We play a big part in many of the city region’s

●●Michael Parkinson, left, and Stephen Holloway economic development organisations, holding key positions in for example the Local Enterprise Partnership, the Mayor’s Knowledge Quarter Development Zone Board and Daresbury Science Park. And, as a major city centre institution, we make a huge contribution to the overall place quality of the city, and so increase the prospects of national and international investment.

In future the University will address two critical challenges we face in Liverpool and the wider Northern economy.

First, how do we combine research and innovation to create new higher level jobs and enhance our international competitiveness? Second, how do we attract, develop and retain the best global talent to grow our skills base and create the industries, services and jobs of tomorrow?

The University already has some crucial facilities which help. And it has more innovative projects and ideas which link the world of education, research and industry to meet major social challenges.

The Centre for Global Eco-innovation (CGE) The CGE is a UK market leader for SME-led innovation

●●An artist’s impression of the Sensor City in the Knowledge Quarter

and high-level skills development in the areas of low carbon, sustainability and energy, led by UoL, Lancaster University and Inventya Limited.

The CGE is pioneering the development of energy and resource-efficient products and services that will increase the global market share of our SMEs. At its heart is a team of 50 graduate students working on intensive three-year collaborative research and development projects with North West SMEs. The University is involved in three new initiatives which will make similar large contributions to Liverpool’s economic welfare.

UoL, Unilever and The Materials Innovation Factory (MIF) Our strategic relationship with Unilever is an international benchmark for successful HE-business collaboration.

This unique relationship is now creating an unparalleled suite of state-of-the-art, open-access facilities: the Materials Innovation Factory (MIF).

This will co-locate more than 130 university and 130 industry researchers in a £37m building opening in 2016.

The MIF will provide an advanced research environment to facilitate collaboration, networking and knowledge exchange.

Its creation creates a new paradigm for university industry collaboration in the UK. It will significantly extend the UK research base promoting economic growth and providing outstanding facilities for the education of graduate students and young researchers.

Sensor City in the Knowledge Quarter Sensor City was chosen as one of four UK University Enterprise Zones in July 2014 – and one of only two in the North. And it is the only one which is led jointly by two Universities – UoL and our partner, Liverpool John Moores University.

●●An artist’s impression of The Materials Innovation Factory With a £5m award from BIS and additional investment of £10m, Sensor City will establish a unique sensor- systems business incubator at a bespoke facility in Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter, positioning Liverpool as an internationally-leading centre for the development, manufacture and spin-out of new sensor systems.

Over a 10-year period, it will create a cluster of 300 new businesses and more than 1,000 jobs in emerging technologies.

Sir Henry Royce Centre for Advanced Materials Research and Innovation The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement designated the University one of the satellite hubs of this multi-million pound initiative, based in the University of Manchester, designed to attract world-class scientists and technicians to the North.

University Proposals to the Deputy Prime Minister’s Northern Futures Consultation The University also made two innovative proposals to the Northern Futures consultation to improve the innovation and economic competitiveness of Liverpool City Region.

A UK Catapult in Diagnostics for Precision Medicine The University chairs the Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA) – a partnership between eight leading northern Universities, eight NHS Hospital Trusts and four Northern Academic Health Science Networks.

This makes the North a ‘go-to’ destination for cuttingedge research and life-science investment.

The University pressed the government that Government locate the innovative UK

Precision Medicine Catapult in the North.

The Catapult would build world-leading critical mass, deliver a step change in economic opportunity, and enable the North – and the UK – to punch its weight on the global stage. It would act as a rallying point to enable the linkages between biopharma, diagnostics and healthcare systems.

The Innovation Co-operative Keeping talented people is as crucial as creating new firms and jobs. So we also proposed to government that we should develop an Innovation Co-operative to draw in and connect the best student minds and research expertise with business innovators in critical, leading-edge technologies.

Located in the Knowledge Quarter, the Innovation Co-operative would be designed to advance businessled training, encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration and foster entrepreneurship to deliver a step change in our skills base and a rapid flow of talent into the economy.

Working with knowledge businesses across the North, highly-skilled graduates would be embedded within – and enhance – the ‘innovation ecosystem,’ becoming an integral part of a vibrant economy and delivering new products, services and growth.

The University of Liverpool is already a major economic player.

It is determined to contribute even more in future by encouraging innovation, commercially exploiting its research and attracting and retaining talented people. We are excited to be part of this great opportunity for Liverpool City Region.

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North can be better when it works together Geoffrey Piper, chief executive of the North West Business Leadership Team, on the impact of the Chancellor’s vision of a Northern Powerhouse

●●Geoffrey Piper

Twenty five years of promoting the area THE North West Business Leadership Team (NWBLT) recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with an evening at the ECHO’s offices at The Capital, Liverpool.

The NWBLT was launched in 1989 by HRH The Prince of Wales and subsequent Chairmen have included The Duke of Westminster, Neville Chamberlain, Robert Hough (now Chair of the Liverpool City region LEP) and Stuart Chambers, former CEO of NSG Pilkington.

The current Chairman is

Juergen Maier, the Austrianborn CEO of Siemens plc.

NWBLT undertakes strategic thought leadership on key topics of major importance to the future success of business in the North West. Its recent published papers have addressed issues relating to the skills gap; transport priorities for the North West; promoting the region’s excellence in science and technology; and harnessing the area’s resources of energy, food and water.

These documents, which can be accessed online at www.nwblt.com/thought leadership, have all been discussed in the House of Commons and launched by prominent government representatives.

A business manifesto for England’s North West, covering priorities for action in the next Parliamentary term, was recently presented to the region’s Members of Parliament and discussed with the Chancellor of the Exchequer in private session.

THIS year has been a remarkable year for the North of England.

When George Osborne began to unveil his Northern Powerhouse vision at the end of June, some of us found it hard to believe that a Conservative Chancellor – of all people – was putting forward such an ambitious set of Government proposals to promote the economy of the largely Labour-controlled Northern cities.

Less than six hectic months later, in his traditional Autumn Statement, the Chancellor confirmed his total commitment to that vision, setting out the relevant investment proposals on an unprecedented breadth and scale for the North of England and in a manner which is anything but traditional.

Mr Osborne began his original Northern Powerhouse speech by referring to Parliament as a place where he felt the dice had hitherto been “unfairly loaded against the North... with a capital city sucking economic life and talent away to the South.”

His determination to correct this injustice was apparent.

However, the Chancellor was sensing not only injustice but also a deep frustration at the apparent inability of the North to fully exploit its great strengths – its world-class universities, teaching hospitals, its port and airport capacity, manufacturing capability, its digital, media and creative industries, its museums, theatres, sporting institutions – so many individual sector strengths, but spread across different locations and not harnessed together so as to maximise their collective value in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.

The Chancellor had proceeded to lay out his great Northern Powerhouse vision, showing how – through faster and better transport links, more collaborative working and the sharing of world-leading facilities – one great combined conurbation, from Liverpool to Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds, and perhaps other towns and cities, could be much more than the sum of its parts and

hence re-emerge as a truly powerful competitor in the global marketplace – second only to London in UK terms and strong enough to take on the world.

Liverpool has, over the past decade, benefited from the legacy of the North West Regional Development Agency and some strategic private sector investments such as Grosvenor’s very far-sighted Liverpool One development.

And now we are seeing the truly ambitious Liverpool Two ‘SuperPort’ transformation taking shape. But those seeking to attract business investment to the area have had to battle against a woeful lack of modern transport infrastructure, or the kind of really substantial investment in scientific institutions which are likely to attract and create the industries of the future.

Now, at long last, Mr Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse is offering us the prospect of exactly this kind of strategic Government investment. And here, on the banks of the Mersey and elsewhere along the length and breadth of the M62 corridor, we have begun to sense genuine grounds for optimism.

Some argue that this optimism – and a grandiose scheme – is still all that we have. They acknowledge that the Northern Powerhouse represents an exciting vision and has powerful support, most notably from a rare cross-party political consensus, but warn that huge challenges lie ahead before the vision of the Northern Powerhouse can become a reality.

What it does undoubtedly require is the delivery, sooner rather than later, of the promised transport improvements. Whilst we continue to take almost two hours to travel between Liverpool and Leeds or Sheffield, it is hard to imagine the concept of the Northern Powerhouse being translated successfully into an efficient, competitive conurbation.

So the implementation of the Northern Powerhouse vision is critical. In particular the implementation of the One North proposition for

modernised, faster rail links between Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and on to the Humber Ports – now generally referred to as HS3 – is fast becoming, to business leaders just as much as civic leaders, one of the top priorities.

Perhaps at least as important, in some wellinformed eyes, as the HS2 link to London.

And if high quality transport links are one essential ingredient of a successful Northern Powerhouse, the opportunity to share world-leading facilities will be one of its principal benefits.

A prime example is the new quarter-of-a-billion Sir Henry Royce advanced materials Institute which, as the Chancellor announced last week and has since reaffirmed, will incorporate centres of excellence in Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield in addition to its main hub in Manchester and further centres at Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College, London.

One can already see the makings of a Northern Powerhouse, combining with the existing Golden Triangle of Oxbridge and London to create a truly world-class competitive nation.

Northern business leaders, such as those who collaborate and combine their thought leadership through the North West Business Leadership Team, see the huge potential of the Northern Powerhouse to transform the economic fortunes of our whole Northern region from Liverpool to Manchester and beyond.

But the delivery of this great vision has to have top priority. We cannot afford a stop-start process if we are to be serious competitors in the race with other leading global economies. Political and parochial differences have to be set aside in the interests of the whole North.

We can take encouragement from the commitment and leadership already being demonstrated, both by the Chancellor himself and by the leaders of the key Northern cities of Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.

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Revitalised city leading the world Colin Sinclair, director of property marketing at Bruntwood, comments on how a revitalised Liverpool is now a leading destination for business LIVERPOOL is rightly recognised as one of the UK’s leading business destinations, with established connections to global markets, multinational organisations located across the city region and a thriving entrepreneurial core of successful SMEs. However, its key role as the largest seaport to the North of England and the strength of its city brand globally was once overlooked by successive governments.

Like its fellow Northern cities, Liverpool needed to regain its former glory.

Now, following an incredible period of ambitious regeneration, a revitalised Liverpool, with its world-famous skyline, offers a wealth of business locations, from stunning

creative industries, shipping and logistics, life sciences and the motor industry.

Ambitious plans such as Liverpool2, the cruise liner terminal and major road upgrades will only add to that strength.

We also shouldn’t forget the incredible lifestyle opportunities that exist here. Liverpool is a truly cosmopolitan city, boasting some of the country’s finest art galleries and museums, an abundance of public green spaces, highlysuccessful sports clubs, historic buildings to contemtop-class shopping facilities porary new-builds and, what’s and a famously eclectic music more, Liverpool also has the scene. talented people to fill that Liverpool is a city well on the workspace. way to re-establishing itself as In fact, the city’s streets have a northern powerhouse, but never looked so alive, with a we still need HS2 and the sorange of leisure, commercial called HS3. Improved connecand retail space standing tivity and greater capacity to effortlessly side by side to London, as well as west to east, create a place that really works is vital. We should stand and, once again, feels comfort- shoulder to shoulder to prove able in its own skin. the case for those rail improveFamous business names, ments. including Jaguar, Land Rover, With that improved Sony, Maersk and Novartis, are connectivity, investment commonplace now and the opportunities here then city has successfully attracted a become almost endless. For broad range of industry sectors instance, Liverpool already has including renewable energy, an admirable track record of

●●Bruntwood is refurbishing iconic buildings for global businesses at buildings like The Plaza

preserving buildings of cultural and historical significance. The sheer wealth of historic and listed buildings here sets Liverpool apart from almost every other city in the UK and it is crucial, from an inward investment and tourism perspective, that the city continues to follow such a long-sighted approach.

We share that commitment at Bruntwood and have been working hard in recent years to not only preserve but future-

proof iconic city landmarks such as Queen Insurance Buildings, Oriel Chambers and Cotton Exchange, coupled with refurbishing large floor plates for global businesses at buildings like The Plaza.

All of the buildings I’ve mentioned are situated in the commercial district, the jewel in Liverpool’s business property crown and a flexible, vibrant location, perfect for almost any size or type of business with aspirations to

grow or relocate into the North of England.

With a wealth of beautiful listed gems and more quirky, contemporary offices and creative spaces in the likes of The Cotton Quarter, it arguably represents the city’s most comprehensive proposition for investors and is sure to provide the impetus for the city’s growth potential throughout the next decade and beyond.

Exciting times lie ahead for Liverpool.

The Plaza fourth floor: Become part of Liverpool’s skyline We understand how important it is to find workspace that exactly meets the needs of your business.

If you are looking for the perfect workspace with everything you need right on the door step, The Plaza on Old Hall Street at the heart of Liverpool’s commercial district is the place for you.

The 23,000 sq ft fourth floor of has recently received a full refurbishment and the third floor within the building will be receiving the same treatment, meaning we will soon have up to 46,000 sq ft readily available. After that this 365,000 sq ft landmark building will be completely full.

So, If you would like to see The Plaza fourth floor in person please call us direct or visit bruntwood.co.uk