England’s Northwest
Regional & Inter-regional approach – North
West and Northern Way
Seminar " Territorial Cohesion: what scales of policy intervention?"
Pernille Kousgaard – Director of Policy - NWDA
Brussels 12th March 2010
Overview of presentation
• England’s Northwest & role of Regional
Development Agency
• RS2010 - integrated Regional Strategy
• The Northern Way
• Irish Sea - Functional Economic Area
• Key messages
Key Facts and Figures
England
Land Area (sq km)
Population
% population with no qualifications
Employment rate
Unemployment rate
•
Economically inactive rate
Northwest
130,281
14,106
51,092,000
6,864,300
12.9
15
73.4
70.8
6.9
7.6
21
23.2
• Economic, Environmental & Social + spatial & inter-regional
elements
• Strategy to achieve Territorial Cohesion in Northwest
• Four strands:
– Capitalise on moving to a low carbon economy
– Building on International competitive edge and regional
distinctiveness
– Develop the potential of people and tackle poverty
– Housing and infrastructure
• Evidence base: 19 key themes, role and function of 33 places
in North West
• Closely aligned to Europe 2020
The Northern Way
“A unique initiative, bringing together the cities and regions of the North of
England to work together to improve the sustainable economic development of the
North towards the level of more prosperous regions”
Structure
 formed in 2004
 a partnership between the three northern Regional Development Agencies
 partnership work with local authorities, central government universities, the private
sector and other partners institutionalised through governance, design of strategic
workstreams and implementation
 working across sectoral and political boundaries
Role and functions
 To address shared, pan-regional, and cross boundary economic challenges
- economic legacy, critical mass, co-ordination and/or information challenges, risks
 Co-ordination, advocacy and influencing, capacity building, strategic investments,
evidence development, targeted institutional development
 Peer review, support and challenge
www.thenorthernway.co.uk
Economic infrastructure & pan-northern priorities
Resources
14.5 million people and 340,000 businesses
8 research-led Universities
Key strategic routes
Eight functional economic areas crossing
administrative boundaries
11 key international gateways – air and sea
Structures
 Three Regions & 50 plus Local Authorities
 Central government
 Range of agencies and strategies
Northern Way shared pan-regional priorities
 Transport and connectivity
 Private investment into the North
 Collaborative innovation & critical mass
 Strategy integration – Regions, City Regions,
assets, clusters and supply chains, key corridors
 Economic evidence to promote change
Irish Sea Region
• Functional Economic Area
• Enable Partnership to work together – remove barrier
150km limit in maritime Crossborder Territorial
Cooperation
• Key common issues:
–
–
–
–
–
Maritime Spatial Planning
Climate Change responses
Renewable Energies – wind, tidal
Transport/connectivity with mainland Europe
Tourism – development of marine resources as an ecocomplementary tourism product
Key Messages
• Definition: “Territorial Cohesion is about each of the
diverse regions of Europe having the opportunity to
reach its own potential in a balanced and equitable
way.”
• Regions, through their regional strategies are defining what
they have and what they need
• Regions are right spatial level – linked into local and
inter-regional – to be interlocutor
• Need Structured dialogue between regions, national
governments and European Commission to determine
2013 programme priorities and added value
Key messages (2)
• Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion in Treaty of
EU – Europe 2020 is a strategy to deliver this
• All regions benefit from cohesion policy as all have
specific challenges
• Regional strategies set out what level of interaction is
best and what instruments/funding a region requires from
national and European levels to deliver objectives
• Ability to deliver and scale of delivery has to be at right
spatial level – local, regional and inter-regional