The Importance of Regional Identity
Mark Clasper of Ryder drew on points he’d heard from Liverpool’s civic leaders, a region that has successfully transformed its brand within a decade from the difficult days of the post-industrial era to a turning point marked by its year, in 2008, as the European Capital of Culture, a milestone from which it has continued to progress.
Liverpool talked about not underestimating power of brand, your influence and making the most of your region’s USPs. You just need to look at what creates a place. What is the identity, its heritage, and you leverage those anchors to the best you possibly can. Newcastle is a place that certainly does that well, but you look at other regions, including
parts of Scotland that have those similar challenges around the density of those areas, but they seem to do well in attracting investment and the place brand makes a valuable contribution.
Angela Jones spoke about Westmorland still grappling with brand and identity issues in the wake of the local government reorganisation – with a different devolution deal still possible at some point in the future.
In terms of the brand: “It’s what a place means to people, what resonates? So we can get hung up forever on brand but what it comes down to how you use what you have and your assets. Yes, we have a focus on Barrow-in-Furness but we are using that as a gateway to other conversations. The whole of that energy coast, nuclear, defence. We have two national parks, three UNESCO World Heritage sites, a huge land base, a rural sector, a visitor economy, and advanced manufacturing, tech and life science side (in Ulverston) that is just growing all the time. People want to badge the region and there’s a lot we can talk about which will help to secure investment in infrastructure and knit everything together. I think you really need to be grounded in what is your overall offer because economic functional areas can be very different.
Very important
Not that important
