Renewed onus on towns in levelling-up our nation
Wayne Butcher
Wayne Butcher, one of our experts, attended the virtual Great Northern Conference last week and has shared the key discussion points and insights from the event.
Whilst the event focussed on the North, many messages apply across England and provided plenty of food for thought. This blog considers some of the topics explored during the conference and considers how towns may need to respond to this as they develop their town investment plans and business cases.
Skills
The speakers discussed fears of job losses and a decrease of GDP in certain areas, with some forecasts suggesting the unemployment rate could rise to 13% of the working population.
In many instances, structural inequalities are embedded, linked to the postcode of where you live, with investment in human capital needed. The threat of automation means that skills need to develop to provide true resilience in the jobs economy with digital upskilling noted as an area that requires urgent attention.
Towns need to create a vision that people can buy into and not to be fearful of what is coming down the track. Going forward this is an area that the towns will need careful planning around to maximise the impact of the interventions. However, they cannot achieve this on their own and need to recognise that an alignment of local and national programmes is required to ensure the outcomes are realised.
Many stakeholders need to work in partnership to deliver what is needed (businesses, SMEs, universities, etc). Devolution provides an excellent opportunity to use powers and funding to push on this, with many metro areas already having city region mayors, and a number of counties/districts exploring new approaches to unitarisation.
Culture and digital inclusion
“Great culture creates great places” - Ruth Pitt, Executive Chair of Leeds 2023
The Cultural Arts sector faces clear pressures in the COVID-19 context, with short-term survival being the first hurdle for many, before then seeking to establish a strong platform to grow in a sustainable manner in the medium to long-term.
The panel believed that the sector needs to drive forward with digital transformation at the heart to bring the reach and impact of these types of interventions closer to peoples’ lives. Interestingly there was some opposition to digital’s importance and that barriers to equal access was a concern, which in turn drove further inequalities.
Sport was used as a reference point in terms of the perceived success of a “pay to view” type operating model. However, questions were raised about whether this could be replicated for cultural events. It is clear that expectations of what “a live punter and a digital punter” requires needs to be understood and towns need to consider this when developing this offering.
If great cultural and heritage assets can be delivered, all agreed that this can support wellbeing, a healthy workforce and ultimately reduces societal costs.
Connectivity to opportunity as well as place
“HS2 is more than just a railway”
A discussion around major rail projects highlighted that it is important to articulate in a clear and evidenced manner the skills, jobs and opportunities that projects such as HS2 can bring.
For many towns, infrastructure around connectivity is part of their plans and whilst their plans may not attract the attention of HS2, value for money remains key. We have seen many interventions presented so far around infrastructure investment to improve connectivity and a focus on active travel structured around walking and cycling routes, tying back to the green agenda that is a core component of Towns Fund.
However towns need to understand that this argument is not always easily won and clearly explaining to residents how they can benefit from the proposed investments and how this can become part of their “everyday lives” is fundamental.
Thoughts going forward
Exciting times are ahead but the conference highlighted that challenges remain and that the towns’ plans need to be carefully constructed to increase the likelihood of success.
Bringing people on the journey with us appears to be the consistent theme here. To ensure that people feel they can genuinely benefit from:
the new opportunities around skills upgrading to access the new jobs they aspire to;
the ability to access the quality infrastructure to make their lives easier; and
being able to enjoy the culture and heritage offer in their spare time at a price they can afford to pay.
Ultimately, creating places where people want to live, work and play. Which is what the Towns Fund ambition is all about.