During her visit to the North West today, Prime Minister Theresa May will announce a £556m cash boost for Northern Powerhouse.
Mrs May will use her first regional Cabinet meeting to launch proposals for a Modern Industrial Strategy and announce a cash boost of £556 million for the Northern Powerhouse to help create jobs, support businesses and encourage growth.
This latest award of local growth funding is on top of £2.9 billion of Growth Deal funding already awarded to the 11 Local Enterprise Partnerships in the region – an investment which provides targeted financial support to locally-determined projects in order to unlock growth.
The £556m cash boost for Northern Powerhouse will help benefit the lives of local people across the north. New projects include:
- £10 million for the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Life Sciences Fund to provide capital to local small and medium businesses to drive the growth of innovative young life sciences businesses
- Goole Intermodal Terminal which will mean the town’s existing rail, sea, motorway and inland waterway links into one site, providing an integrated transport facility for business
- A 21st century conference centre and hotel in Blackpool at the Winter Gardens – helping the town re-establish its presence as a leading conference destination.
- Flood resilience measures in Bradford, Calderdale, Craven, Kirklees and Leeds. These will complement existing government investment and help safeguard over 11,000 jobs and 1,300 businesses
- Building the International Advanced Manufacturing Park in Sunderland and South Tyneside – helping to creating an estimated 5,200 jobs.
The 11 Local Enterprise Partnerships in the Northern Powerhouse have been awarded:
- North Eastern £49.7m
- Cumbria £12.7m
- Tees Valley £21.8m
- York, North Yorkshire, East Riding £23.7m
- Lancashire £69.8m
- Humber £27.9m
- Leeds City Region £67.5m
- Liverpool City Region £72.0m
- Greater Manchester £130.1m
- Sheffield City Region £37.8m
- Cheshire and Warrington £43.3m
The Modern Industrial Strategy
This is a vital part of the Plan for Britain set out by the Prime Minister last week. It will drive growth across the United Kingdom, using major new investments in infrastructure and research to drive prosperity – creating more high-skilled, high paid jobs and opportunities. The green paper also sets out plans making it easier for business to access finance outside London and getting a stronger business voice into local government.
The Prime Minister will tell a Cabinet meeting in the North West this morning that a truly modern British Industrial Strategy must make Britain a hive of new industries which will challenge the companies and industries of today.
Mike Cherry, National Chairman for the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said:
“The moves towards a place-based strategy fit well with the UK small business community. Small firms are often the anchors in our local economies – in cities, towns and villages – right across the country. We want to continue to see an emphasis on supply chain respect, which underpins the Industrial Strategy announced today but also the Corporate Governance Green Paper.”
Adam Marshall, Director General, British Chambers of Commerce said:
“Business communities across the UK will be pleased to see that harnessing the potential of our cities, towns and counties lies at the heart of the government’s approach to Industrial Strategy. There are dynamic business communities in every corner of the UK – and it is their future success that will make our country more competitive and more prosperous.”
The Modern Industrial Strategy green paper sets out ten strategic pillars to underpin a new government approach:
- Investing in science, research and innovation
We must become a more innovative economy and do more to commercialise our world leading science base to drive growth across the UK.
- Developing skills
We must help people and businesses to thrive by: ensuring everyone has the basic skills needed in a modern economy; building a new system of technical education to benefit the half of young people who do not go to university; boosting STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) skills, digital skills and numeracy; and by raising skill levels in lagging areas.
- Upgrading infrastructure
We must upgrade our standards of performance on digital, energy, transport, water and flood defence infrastructure, and better align central government infrastructure investment with local growth priorities.
- Supporting businesses to start and grow
We must ensure that businesses across the UK can access the finance and management skills they need to grow; and we must create the right conditions for companies to invest for the long term.
- Improving procurement
We must use strategic government procurement to drive innovation and enable the development of UK supply chains;
- Encouraging trade and inward investment policy
Government policy can help boost productivity and growth across our economy, including by increasing competition and helping to bring new ways of doing things to the UK.
- Delivering affordable energy and clean growth
We need to keep costs down for businesses, and secure the economic benefits of the transition to a low-carbon economy.
- Cultivating world-leading sectors
We must build on our areas of competitive advantage, and help new sectors to flourish, in many cases challenging existing institutions and incumbents;
- Driving growth across the whole country
We will create a framework to build on the particular strengths of different places and address factors that hold places back – whether it is investing in key infrastructure projects to encourage growth, increasing skill levels, or backing local innovation strengths.
- Creating the right institutions to bring together sectors and places
We will consider the best structures to support people, industries and places. In some places and sectors there may be missing institutions which we could create, or existing ones we could strengthen, be they local civic or educational institutions, trade associations or financial networks.