Strategic Priorities and Collaborative Efforts for Regional Regeneration
In terms of overall governance, the North East and Cumbria are currently on different paths. The North East Combined Authority was formed on 7 May 2024. It is led by elected Mayor, Kim McGuinness, and covers the seven local authority areas of County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland.
Cumbria, meanwhile, could not agree a devolution deal and its old county council ceased to exist in 2023. In the local government reorganisation that followed two new unitary councils – Cumberland to the west, and Westmorland & Furness to the east – were created.
Michelle Percy, Director of Place at Newcastle City Council
Michelle Percy, Director of Place at Newcastle City Council was asked to talk about establishing priorities in regeneration.
My background is private sector development. That would always be
about how quickly you can get delivery going. But that's not always the case in the public sector because of the social value contributors. The way we've done it is to prioritise those areas that are going to require the biggest public subsidy, putting our energy into those projects. It may take longer, and be a slower burn, but we're getting the cash up front.
She felt that housing needs to go back to the top of the agenda everywhere.
How do we get to a point where we're really delivering the right housing in the right areas? For me, housing should be at the centre of regeneration. It’s not about commercial, leisure or public realm. It’s about housing and place-making that puts residents first.
Given that Newcastle itself has an ambitious agenda, with a leader in Councillor Nick Kemp who is focused on reform in many areas, she was asked how to bridge the gap between political vision and on the ground change.
Our role as officers is to make recommendations and for the politicians to take decisions. Our recommendations must be so robust that it is difficult to say no. If I've done my job well enough, I should be able to get the economic drivers for skills and jobs, and the asset values, all in the right place, and everybody wins.
She also reflected on the impact of elections where politicians receive “a lot of feedback in a short space of time from what residents want in terms of services” – and the challenge candidates face explaining big picture vision on the doorstep. Selling the idea that, by driving economic regeneration, it’s possible to improve local services is not always straightforward.
Mark Clasper of Ryder Architecture, which has its UK head office in Newcastle, acknowledged that the word vision “gets bandied about a lot” and felt that regeneration professionals, as opposed to the general public, were very conscious of the need for deliverable plans and fundamental change.
Mark Clasper, Partner, Ryder Architecture
I think for the first time in a long time, it seems like the North East has a credible plan.
Having something that aligns with a UK-wide industrial strategy is the bit that's been missing. It must be really difficult for local authorities to drive priorities when the neighbouring local authority is also competing for the same pot of money and seeing what their priorities are. Those things draw against each other with a kind of negative magnetism. That's not good for anyone.
Mark Hall of Place-Based Impact Investing, a non-profit organisation with a vision of transforming capital markets so that they do more to generate positive social and environmental impact, spoke of the importance of timing in any strategy.
It’s important to bring investors into play with local stakeholders at an early enough stage to allow co-design of projects. Doing so improves the chances of securing funding.
He felt that public-private partnerships will play a greater role in tackling the housing crisis.
I think what's changing is the level of interest and the time some investors are willing to put into the process. They see the benefit of long term partnership and things
that could come down the line through building those relationships. It’s a chance to diversify their portfolios and deliver impact.
Mark Hall, Senior Programme Manager, Place-Based Impact Investing
Angela Jones, of Westmoreland Council, was asked to comment on whether five years of Levelling Up has improved awareness of her region. She felt it had, but first made the point that the focus on large city regions has created some nuanced dynamics.
I do feel that as a country we've lost some of that connection and interest in peripheral areas that have a huge amount to offer. I can talk about district strategies, but the strength of the industrial sector in our area is there for all to see in advanced manufacturing, the nuclear sector, and the growing presence of BAE Systems Submarines in Barrow-in Furness. It is a huge opportunity.
As a new authority, she said Westmoreland is working hard to develop and sell the narrative around its economic contribution and how it could grow.
Often people are quite surprised, but we’ve had very positive feedback about what’s happening in Barrow-in-Furness. We want our economy to grow further and support the expansion of the area in the years to come. We know we need to work across the education and skills sectors to enable both people moving here, and our resident population to be ready to seize the opportunity.
Anglea Jones, Director of Thriving Places, Westmoreland Council
In March 2024 the Sunak government committed a top line figure of £200m over the next decade, in part to secure Britain’s defence capabilities in submarines. An immediate grant of £20m will be provided to help complete the A595 Grizebeck Bypass, with a promise of a minimum of £20m a year over the next decade “to unlock Barrow’s huge potential and support a growing workforce”. The rest of the funding will be used to build homes, support schools, and… develop a transport network for the town.
The money will be part of the Barrow Transformation Fund, a new initiative to be overseen by the Barrow Delivery Board – itself a new creation, so new that the funding to set up the board has not yet been approved. The delivery board is meant to be a partnership between the council, central government, and BAE Systems.
It's not devolution, it's something different, but we've worked hard to get to this point. We need to make sure we've got a voice.
She felt one of the unexpected consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was renewed interest in Barrow, with its unique capability, via BAE Systems, in the design, testing and building of nuclear submarines. At the same time, she said there was a need for a “different conversation with government” as whilst investment is coming in, there are still plenty of challenges in tackling high levels of deprivation and social inequality across the region.
We went quite hard at that and made it a collective priority. That doesn't happen just by accident. It happens with all of us, all the private stakeholders, and universities, everybody getting behind that mission. Where could we make the biggest difference? Where should we make the biggest difference? So we've got different assets but it’s also about not being frightened to go knock on the door at Treasury, which is what we ended up doing and saying, ‘We need help here’.
Alex Isted, Area Director - North East & Cumbria, Morgan Sindall Construction
Alex Isted of Morgan Sindall picked up the point that investment is a means to an end.
It's great just to have that additional funding, and presence of BAE is incredibly important as the biggest employer in the region. They need 6,000 extra people on top of the workforce already there. So recruiting all those people is a challenge in its own right, along with bringing skilled people out through the education system. There’s a big job to do making sure the regional infrastructure is there for education, housing, leisure, all that other things required to help regions attract and retain talent.
Angela Jones talked about the implications of having to attract large numbers of working population – such as more housing, and improvements to leisure and culture offering, but also the need to ensure the influx does not take away from towns by swamping its existing housing and the social infrastructure of health and education.
