Northern Powerhouse Research Articles

Competition in the ‘body without organs’: an assemblage perspective on the UK’s fast train (HS2) cancellation

ABSTRACT In this contribution, an investigation is made into the abandonment of a very large infrastructural investment by the UK government. It was the HS2 (High Speed 2) train ‘assemblage’ for the 345 miles from Leeds in the North to London. It occurred in the belief that such expenditure would ‘level-up’ the worsening regional economic disparities between the two regions and render the North (dubbed the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ by successive governments) ‘competitive’. In reality, there was no evidence in support of the idea that a faster rail service would have this effect. Critics realized London’s advantage could not be competed against. This was because its advantage as an unregulated ‘tax haven’ had been entrenched since even before William the Conqueror’s invasion in 1066. Our take on this débâcle is that it was caused by hubris on the part of successive governments, culminating in the growth of distrust between politicians and the people, including ‘experts’ who were singled out for special ministerial disdain. The analysis explores ‘assemblage’ theory and its psychological origins, in which desire has come to substitute for thought in the UK political arena. Accordingly, desire has been swallowed up by ‘competitiveness’, meaning mistakes were made due to hubris, narcissism and criminality because of the politics of ‘we know better’ on the part of the political élite. The cost of these mistakes was upwards of £36 billion for the biggest UK rail infrastructure project in a hundred years.

New northern voices: Black British writing and the devolving politics of prize culture

ABSTRACTRepresentations of Black British life have long been concentrated in London. The capital occupies the centre of Britain’s post-imperial imaginary and its literary economy, with Manchester at the fore of attempts to address cultural inequalities, from George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse agenda to regional outposts of the BBC and major publishers. Amidst increasing decentralizing momentum, this article proposes that literary awards are key in what James Procter and Corinne Fowler call the “devolution” of Black British writing. Focusing on Manchester’s Portico Prize for the book that “best evokes the spirit of the North of England”, I trace the award’s approach to “racial diversity” and “the North” since 1985, identifying a creative economy framework in which a “placed” literary northernness exists in tension with the centralized Black British discourse. Overall, this article suggests that literary awards articulate in new ways the spatial imbalances within Britain’s literary and political economies.

Connecting up embedded knowledge across Northern Powerhouse cities

One of the driving rationales behind plans for major transport investment between Northern UK cities is that of connecting labour pools. Integrated labour pools, the argument goes, will give rise to agglomeration economies and subsequent growth. Behind this logic lies the idea that access to complementary skills in neighbouring cities will yield benefits for firms. Yet, at what travel time radius is access to these skills beneficial? Can a better understanding of this inform our assessment of the likely economic impact of proposed transport investments and subsequent reductions in travel times? Here we develop a method to estimate this radius based on the relationship between industry employment growth in a city and the size of employment in ‘skill-related’ sectors. Assuming car or rail travel, we find that for Northern cities the radius is around 45 min while for the South it is around 110 min. Manufacturing peaks around 45 min for the whole UK, including both North and South. Services, however, peak around 110 min in the South but 70 min in the North. A comparison between the UK’s Integrated Rail Plan and earlier proposals to invest in High Speed 2 rail and Northern rail connections uncovers lost opportunities for employment growth in Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield. This study provides a road-map for the deployment of methods from Evolutionary Economic Geography, originally developed to predict regional and urban growth and diversification processes as a function of the local skill mix, to evaluate the potential gains from transport infrastructure schemes.

Uncovering structural diversity in commuting networks: global and local entropy

In this paper we revisit the concept of mobility entropy. Over time, the structure of spatial interactions among urban centres tends to become more complex and evolves from centralised models to more scattered origin and destination patterns. Entropy measures can be used to explore this complexity, and to quantify the degree of structural diversity of in- and out-flows at different scales and across the system. We use toy models of commuting networks to examine global and local measures, allowing the comparison to occur between different parts of the system. We show that entropy at the link and node level give different insights on the characteristics of the systems, enabling us to identify employment hubs and interdependencies between and within different parts of the system. We compute the measures in the commuting networks of the Northern Powerhouse and Greater South East regions in the UK to examine their relevance when studying real systems of cities. Finally we discuss how these can be used to inform planning and policy decisions oriented towards decentralisation and resilience.

THE CHANGING ROLE OF MANCHESTER FROM THE FIRST GLOBALISATION TO THE SECOND

Although Manchester was a small and not very populous market town at the beginning of the 18th century, it experienced a large increase in population both in the 19th and 20th centuries thanks to the growth of the cotton industry attracting labour from the countryside. With the urbanisation brought about by the Industrial Revolution, Manchester achieved to become the centre and the first industrialised city of the world in the First Globalisation Era, which was the late 19th century. However, following the Great Depression of the 1930s and with an increase in foreign competition, textile industry was in decline and thus there was an outmigration of labour from Manchester causing a continuous decline in population as well. Therefore, it can be argued that Manchester lost its centred role in the 20th century. In order to improve the economic situation, Manchester’s economy started to diversify into some other industries such as engineering, chemicals and electronics as well as services. However, it could not catch the requirements of the new era shaped by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Revolution. Meanwhile, the Silicon Valley of the United States emerged as an important centre in the Second Globalisation Era, which was the 1990s. Although having lost its centred role in the second globalisation era, with the 21st century, Manchester has been re-emerging as an important point in the “Northern Powerhouse” as it has both the necessary infrastructure for Research and Development (R&D) and the innovative potential. The aim of this paper is to study the changing role of the Manchester city as an economic centre in the last three centuries, with an emphasis on the major changes taking place in the First and the Second Globalisation Eras. Since it is underlined that “Manchester’s history is more than just the story of a town, it is a contribution to the history of the modern world” (Kidd, 2006), it should be well understood in order to comprehend the present stage that the humankind, industrialisation and the capitalism reached at.

Comparative analysis of transport modes for regional mobility: a case study

Limits to mobility are imposed by geography and the speed, access, energy and ergonomic constraints of travel modes, which cannot be manipulated arbitrarily by design or technology. Achieving ‘sustainable, efficient and sufficient’ regional mobility needs thinking in terms of a ‘nexus’ between transport, human settlement and activity, and geography. A travel mode's characteristics and usefulness are defined by its speed and accessibility in space and time. This paper addresses the practical limits on principal modes of personal and collective land movement in the light of technological advances, urban structure and land and resource constraints. It is concluded that personal road vehicles cannot achieve sufficient connectivity in a city-region like the UK's ‘northern powerhouse’ and conventional and high-speed rail have limitations. However, integrated public transport centred on advanced technology such as magnetic levitation could enable radically improved mobility and, combined with corridor-based intensification, could promote sustainability by avoiding the drawbacks of megacities and car-dependent dispersion.

Regional inequalities and the collapse of Labour's 'Red Wall'

This article seeks to explain the Conservatives' capture of traditionally Labour-voting 'red wall' seats in England and Wales, looking beyond electoral trends and cultural characteristics to place it in the broader context of patterns of regional inequality and regional policy in the UK. It outlines the political attitudes and values of 'red wall' voters in order to assess these areas' future political prospects, particularly in terms of the Conservatives' ability to deliver their 'levelling up' agenda and Labour's future strategy. It discusses the focus of regional policy on cities, seen as engines of economic growth, especially in the Northern Powerhouse (NPh) initiative, at the expense of towns. The idea of 'levelling up' was central to the Conservatives' strategy for the 'red wall' seats, but their approach during the Covid-19 pandemic has tended to undermine faith in this promise.

High Speed Rail in Northern England Tactics and Policies for Implementing Mega Plans by Modular Incrementalism

Britain lags behind many other countries in its provision of high-speed rail. This paper looks in depth at the challenges of providing high-speed rail links, east–west, across Northern England, identi fied as a key issue by former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in his Northern Powerhouse speech in 2014. We ask what can be learned from the politics of Britain's successful motorway programme in the 1960s and 1970s, and from the plan advanced for High Speed North by the late Professor Sir Peter Hall and colleagues, published some weeks before Osborne's speech. Introducing the concept of centripetal urban dynamics, we doubt whether the suppression of public transport demand by the Covid 19 virus will be long lasting. Thus the Hall Plan still has remarkable relevance, especially in its tactics for sequencing investment, which we term modular incrementalism. Some updating is needed, so that the investment strategy focuses on super critical problems for rail investment. We conclude with recommendations for the High Speed North project itself and re flect on wider implications for decision-making processes.

Comparing the development of Local Industrial Strategies across the Northern Powerhouse: Key emerging issues

Will the UK Industrial Strategy deliver anything substantial to the North of England? This article examines the faltering steps taken to develop Local Industrial Strategies by Local Enterprise Partnerships and Mayoral Combined Authorities and argues Place Leadership and Industrial Strategy will both need to be substantially re-galvanised after COVID 19. It is also still not clear if a significant step change can be made by the Johnson Conservative government of 2019, which will have a major impact on Northern economies. Agencies’ capacity to intervene in the Northern economy and deliver is a major issue, alongside stronger leadership. Analytically the paper uses theory on Multi-Sectoral Collaboration and Place Leadership to show how uniqueness of place, past and current interpersonal connections and networks can facilitate or frustrate economic development. Place leaders must create institutional arrangements, seek agreement over visions, objectives and strategies, otherwise the lack of shared information, resources, activities and capabilities lead to ‘contestation’ over space and action. We analyse the levels of cohesion or contestation in four different localities as each develops a Local Industrial Strategy.

Governing uneven development: the Northern Powerhouse as a ‘state spatial strategy’

ABSTRACT Launched in response to widening regional inequality in the UK, the Northern Powerhouse (NPh) initiative is part of a wider international trend towards competitive multi-city regionalism. This paper provides a theoretical and political analysis of the NPh as part of the UK state's efforts to govern and manage uneven regional development. In particular, the paper understands the NPh through the lens of strategic-relational state theory (SRST), seeking to make three contributions to the further spatialization and development of SRST. First, it provides a greater sensitivity to the spatial particularities of state space through an analysis of the NPh as a ‘state spatial strategy’ for the North of England, closely linked to the ‘state spatial project’ of English devolution. Second, it emphasizes the strategic agency of prominent political and business actors working in and through the state. Third, it assesses the temporal development and delivery of the NPh as a strategy in motion, particularly in terms of how it has been affected by changing political agendas and contexts. While the NPh achieved a degree of regional hegemony in 2015–16, it was subsequently undermined by a lack of government commitment and investment following the Brexit vote of 2016.

Donner du sens à la Northern Powerhouse

The Northern Powerhouse (NPh) is a UK government initiative for increasing the economic competiveness of the North of England launched by the former Chancellor, George Osborne in 2014. Informed by the new urban economics and the importance of agglomeration and urban scale and density in fostering competitiveness, the NPh sought to pool the strengths of the Northern core cites, principally Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield, as a kind of transformative urban counter-weight to London. This article aims to assess the nature and wider significance of the NPh, considering its evolution and impact since 2014. It argues that the NPh is a spatial economic narrative that has gained the support of a wide range of Northern interests, but that its coherence and implementation has been undermined by a lack of national government commitment and leadership since 2016.

Can Transport Operator Schemes Deliver Regional Sustainability Benefits? The Case of the UK Northern Powerhouse Region

UK devolved responsibility for planning future transport demands is shared amongst regional and local transport administrations. In Northern England, Transport for the North (TfN) provides a unified transport strategy, encompassing planning for future demand, highlighting the importance of freight transport movements throughout the Northern Powerhouse region. Given the importance of transport in fostering economic growth, this paper demonstrates the applicability of compliance and recognition schemes targeted at the UK’s commercial fleet transport operators for achieving the wider sustainability goals of the Northern Powerhouse. The research investigates the benefits of operator recognition and compliance schemes, and their alignment with strategic agendas, including the implementation of clean air zones. Results explore the extent to which Total Quality Management (TQM) and continuous improvement support regional sustainability agendas through transport operator schemes. This research is based upon surveys and interviews with transport operators from across the UK, including the Northern Powerhouse region. Thematic analysis examined responses relating to the perceived barriers and opportunities around scheme membership and the extent TQM and continuous improvement support regional agendas. Analysis reveals ideal transport operator profiles for deriving the greatest benefit from scheme membership, whilst introducing a set of business readiness conventions for benchmarking transport operator compliance activities.

A case study of new approaches to address health inequalities: Due North five years on.

When local councils took on responsibility for public health in England in 2013, leaders from across the north of England met to consider the scale of the challenge. As a result, Public Health England commissioned the Due North Report which outlined new approaches in tackling health inequalities. This second paper outlines what has been learnt in five years as a case study. This includes influencing devolution deals and new elected city mayors, planning for economic growth in deprived areas and developing community asset-based approaches. The paper outlines a new framework for place-based planning to reduce health inequalities. Data was gathered from annual reports from north of England directors of public health, Office for National Statistics, Public Health England's fingertips database and regional and national publications and strategies such as the Northern Powerhouse. Devolution to English cities and councils as 'places' is a new opportunity to address local needs and inequalities. Due North has supported a new public health narrative which locates health action in the most fundamental determinants-how local economies are planned, jobs created and power is to be transferred to communities and connects reducing years of premature ill health to increased economic productivity. Community asset approaches to empower local leaders and entrepreneurs can be effective ways to achieve change. The north-south divide in health is not closing and may be worsening. Different ways of working between local government, health and business sectors can inhibit in working together and with communities. Place-based working with devolved powers can help move away from top down and silo working, empower local government and support communities. Linking policies on health inequalities to economic planning can address upstream determinants such as poverty, homelessness and unsafe environments. More research is needed on; (i) addressing inequalities at scale for interventions to influence community-led change and prosperity in deprived areas, and (ii) the impact of devolution policy on population health particularly for deprived areas and marginalised group. Commissioning high profile reports like Due North is influential in supporting new approaches in reducing inequality of health through local government, elected mayors; and working with deprived communities. This second paper describes progress and lessons.

Craig Berry and Arianna Giovannini (eds), Developing England's North: The political economy of the Northern Powerhouse

Craig Berry and Arianna Giovannini (eds), Developing England's North: The political economy of the Northern Powerhouse

Writing the Northern Powerhouse: evaluating the Northern Writers’ Awards as a potential model of intervention for addressing regional representation in the ‘London-Centric’ UK literary industry

Despite the UK government’s Northern Powerhouse agenda, the UK literary industry remains staunchly focused on a predominantly London-base. When it comes to Northern writers, representations of the North in contemporary literature and Northern voices on the stage, small and big screens, UK government has suggested that the literary industry is guilty of persistently underrepresenting the 55.4 million members of the public who live outside the capital city. This research adopts a case study approach to the problem, examining one regional creative industry award, the Northern Writers’ Awards (NWAs), as a potential model of intervention for enhancing participation, professional development and talent pipelines of Northern writers to the wider UK literary industry. The research analyses how and why the NWAs: enable career development opportunities for creative talent through partnership-based training and knowledge exchange; retain the economic impact of regional creative talent to improve the economy of the North by developing creative writers within the region; and enhance diversity in the UKwriting industry by addressing issues of representation and by reaching writers from all backgrounds across the North.

Is there a North–South divide between schools in England?

The article is an opinion piece which examines the extent to which rhetoric about a North–South divide in performance between schools in England is justified. Starting with the catalyst, Sir Michael Wilshaw’s final annual Ofsted reports in 2015 and 2016, it traces how the divide rhetoric has been assimilated into popular discourse by the media and subsequent policy reports, notably in connection with the Northern Powerhouse agenda. The article uses regional school performance data to examine whether claims about the divide are convincing, focusing on the North East, which has been recognized as an outlier in both primary and secondary performance. It concludes that the case for a North–South divide is not proven, and with an appeal for more contextually sensitive and flexible approaches to assessing local, regional and national school performance to counter the negative effects of this divisive rhetoric.

Supercharged free ports: Putting Mace’s big idea for the North in the dock

A report published in June this year by Mace argues that by combining free ports and enterprise zones in the North of England’s ports, the UK could boost its economy by £9bn a year, create 150,000 jobs, and add £1,500 a year to every household’s income in the Northern Powerhouse region after 20 years. It proposes “supercharged free ports” at the ports of Grimsby & Immingham, Hull, Liverpool, Rivers Hull & Humber, Tees & Hartlepool, Tyne, and Manchester Airport. Free ports effectively move the customs border inland so that goods can be brought in and shipped out by manufacturers without attracting tariffs. Combining these with enterprise zones offering incentives such as tax breaks creates the “supercharging” effect, according to Mace. The benefits proposed would almost rebalance the economy, which is currently heavily weighted to the South. This article charts support for the idea, and asks whether the modelling is realistic.

International property marketdriven regeneration: A challenge to sustainable urban development?

In Europe, urban regeneration still represents the principal mode in which urban transformation and development happen. The sustainable urban development (SUD) paradigm is based on the holistic concept of sustainability, stemming from the three pillars of environmental, social and economic sustainability. The complexity and multitude of factors affecting contemporary cities, however, challenges the adequacy of this paradigm with respect to the raising issues of identity and place ownership in a globalised world. Where significant international capitals flows become drivers for urban regeneration, it can be difficult to assess whether or not urban regeneration is really yet sustainable. Some key areas of European cities might be influenced by international property developers and management companies, with a potential impact on the decision-making process at local and even national level. Could selling the most valuable estate investments to foreign investors influence the sense of ownership of local communities? Could it undermine urban democracy? After having explored the above-mentioned issues through the literature, the paper proceeds towards its discussion through a concrete example. In particular, insights are drawn from the case study of Salford, a growing city in the heart of the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ UK city region. The paper finally suggests that: 1) the socio-economic impact of urban regeneration cannot be restricted to the mere capacity of the mechanism to rebalance inequalities, but it has to keep in account the wider investment process behind the financial input in itself; 2) a comprehensive assessment framework for sustainable urban regeneration should take into account the interconnections between local economic and international financial flows, estimating how the investment structure influences the long-term socio-economic sustainability of the investment; and 3) a variety of instruments and tools, supporting the non-profit and public actors’ participation, might help to rebalance an excess in speculative promotion.

Regional aid policies after Brexit

This paper examines possible outcomes for regional policy in the UK following its withdrawal from the European Union (EU). It argues that the existing Structural Funds are relatively small, but remain important for some locations. The evidence of their past effectiveness in reducing spatial inequalities or contributing to increased national growth is mixed. Any replacement for the Structural Funds should be aligned with current spatial interventions such as the ‘City Deals’ and ‘Northern Powerhouse’. The evidence for the existence of agglomeration economies suggests that a growth maximizing policy should focus on the development of cities. On the other hand, political economy considerations suggest that reducing regional disparities may trump efficiency, particularly where many of the regions gaining most from European support were also strong supporters of leaving the EU.

The Northern Powerhouse: a commentary

ABSTRACTThe Northern Powerhouse: a commentary. Regional Studies. The Northern Powerhouse is a programme intended to improve the economic position of the North of England, primarily by means of a large-scale investment in transport infrastructure. Consideration is given to various definitions of the Northern Powerhouse area and to the structure of its cities. Attention is directed to some of the underlying economic difficulties of the area. The cornerstone of the programme, which involves the renovation and extension of different modes of transport, is considered from various perspectives. Finally, the discussion focuses on the implementation of the programme and on issues that need to be taken into account.