On 26 June, Insights North East held their annual conference at the newly refurbished Redhills centre in Durham. It is hoped that Redhills will be granted UNESCO World heritage status, giving Durham two such sites along with the beautiful cathedral and the conference itself, while dealing with the nitty gritty of North East life also exuded a sense of hope and promise for the future of the region.
Opening keynote address: Dr Dhamanjayam Sriskandarrajah
Dr Sriskandarrajah opened the conference with a powerful keynote address, in which the CEO of the New Economics Foundation emphasised need to strengthen civil society and social enterprises. It was stressed just how important it was to be thinking about the economy in new and diverse ways and putting people in the centre of it.
There is a need to think through how to bring the diverse economic actors together and how to ensure that people and their needs are put in the centre of it all.
Shifting Gears: understanding the core drivers for North East Challenges
This was a panel discussion, in which many pertinent points were made about how we can ensure that there is economic growth in the region and that it is distributed more fairly. It also examined the benefits of devolution and how it can best benefit those in society who are often seen as being left behind.
Annabel Smith, Director of the Centre for Progressive Policy emphasised that there is a need services to help develop growth and that the North East has the opportunity to show what it is capable of. We should develop cross boundary working, with people from different sectors working together
Beth Russell, Second Permanent Secretary and Head of Darlington Economic Campus, HM Treasury, noted that the plan for growth was only going to work if we address regional inequalities, with big Issues around economic inactivity, which higher in the North East than the national average. Meanwhile our GDP per person is shockingly less than half that of London.
However, we still have many things going for us, including a good clean energy sector, universities and a growing culture of joint working.
Beth also argued that the Spending Review had shown that there was a shift towards thinking differently with spending being devolved. Interestingly Beth also noted that the Treasury Green Book advice for ministers should properly reflect differences between places.
It was said that local growth plans were a very Important part of the way forward, about how collectively we can tackle problems and that over the last few weeks the government had set out a framework for stability and now we must try and get on with it.
Charlotte Carpenter, Executive Director of Skills, Inclusion and Public Service Reform at the North East Combined Authority commented that we should look for opportunities to drive growth forward.
Charlotte stated emphatically that children in the region do have ambition but the social capital and knowledge they need to fulfil these ambitions are missing . We need to move from short term responses to long-term work.
It was stated that the North East has a £54 billion economy, with a number of strengths including our heritage and our growing green Industries. We need to use these strengths to spread economic success and ensure the inclusion of everyone in the region. In this respect the role people play has been overlooked.
There are high rates of economic inactivity, with 46 000 workers missing and a failure to align economic activity with people, Regional devolution presents us with a chance to change this.
We need to build a more diverse skills base and remove the barriers to participation, including the poor provision of public transport, which can lead to people being isolated. Similarly clear pathways in green energy and other new industries are needed, while support is given to those furthest from job market, especially as so many carers and young people are isolated.
Finally, Charlotte commented that we need to work across sectors with Inclusion being a prerequisite for growing the economy.
Next up was Claire Rodgerson, Lead Organiser from Tyne and Wear Citizens UK. Claire emphasised the need to work collectively and in a democratic way, while we still have a crisis of power. To do this, we need to develop the leadership of everyday people, to build trust and help people to get their place ‘at the table’. Citizens UK have been doing work in the region in areas such as transport and housing.
People are angry that they are disenfranchised and they want a voice, but disruption in our institutions is letting people down, so we need to see change with people getting a real seat at the table, not just being consulted.
It was also pointed that there is much work to be done to build trust and as part of this we need to listen to people and find leaders among communities. Claire explained how she had been working with someone who had been learning how to create change, and they had voted for the first time in their lives.
It was argued that people are right to be angry but not right to be rioting or indulging in racism. We must build trust among people who have been siloed and let down for years. Devolution can help with this, but people are still liable to see decisions being made in Newcastle rather than more locally. We need to invest in people and their journeys.
A few questions were then asked of the panellists.
The Bishop of Newcastle, the Right Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley began by asking where is the hope in the North East?
It was noted that the way things can change is through people getting angry and then having the courage to do something about it. When people see opportunity devolution offers hope to business, while it was argued that the Treasury moving out of London will provide hope and Darlington Campus can change the game.
However, it was also maintained that we have a narrow window of opportunity with devolution, to embed more participation and meaning about the role of the state in general. It was also pointed out that we need more fiscal devolution in the future.
Following this somebody asked, how can we move to more fiscal devolution?
It was noted that NECA Mayor Kim McGuinness is considering asking for a tourism tax in the North East and there is always the Mayoral precept, but it is not often used.
It was also pointed out that one challenge is that of making a return to total place working by examining the challenge and looking at working across silos. Very often the place where you need to spend money, needs just one big pot of money, rather than a lot of smaller one. It was argued that combined authorities could pilot sense of place schemes.
It was also pointed out that be tax raising opportunities were often greater in different places, like London and the South East with the example of stamp duty being put forward.
It was also asked if NHS is too centralised?
It was argued that we should not place services in isolation but need to link the NHS with care and so on. Linking to an earlier point there should also be more place based work going on in the NHS. We need the NHS to engage better with local authorities and the voluntary sector
Changing Direction, Sharing Knowledge and Expertise to forge a new path panel
This panel discussion began with the point that we talk a lot about people centred policy, which is easy to say, but in practice how does it actually happen? Following this, the importance of fair and sustained work was also mentioned.
Again, the point was made that it would be better to have total place single pot funding in many areas.
It was also noted that, shockingly, the people in Times’ Rich list have 18 000 times more money than the average British worker, then we need tom look at the ways in which the system is designed. In reality, people are doing amazing work on a shoestring and can’t afford to invest in staff.
Consequently, the tax system needs to be taking more from people on the Times’ Rich list People and invested in single pots in areas of greatest need.
It was also pointed out that no one size fits all and there needs to be clarity about issues, while undoubtedly change is needed.
Significantly, it was also mentioned that many policy makers know nothing of life outside M25. Meanwhile community data is often poor at the moment and needs to be improved.
It was also argued that we need to think about what works and must get ideas being fed up the policy chain form the people the policies are for and there was also a need for more pilot schemes.
A representative of the Durham Business School work talked about how they work with small businesses in the North East and how distribution problem regional issue. It was also pointed out that 10% of the North East population is now engaging in entrepreneurship, which is more than previously, but still below the national figure of 14%.
It was also noted that high growth aspirations are not the norm and there is a need for skills development and leadership programmes, especially among groups of people who have not been to higher education. There should also be more support for social enterprises .
It was noted that in the North East, we have the lowest life expectancy of any region in the country, currently four years lower than in the Southeast. Following on from this, it was stated that health and the economy are treated separately, but shouldn’t be as they are tied together with a close link in the North East between health and economic issues.
There are challenges but we need to show improvements so people can feel them in their lives. National economic growth should not be just for the Southeast. Indeed, inclusive economic growth and green future are very much needed.
It was strongly argued that the gaps in wealth and health can be close. It was pointed out that there was a similar four year gap in Life Expectancy between West and East Germany when Germany unified in 1990. But this was largely closed in twenty years, through investment in hospitals, pensions and so on. We may need different tools here, but it can be done.
To help achieve this, we need to ensure that regional successes are shared out across the region. We were also given the example of the retired man who came to two Refugee Week events to learn more about refugees and asylum seekers and it was argued that that is the kind of person those with influence need to speak to more.
Closing Keynote speech
The closing keynote speech was made by John Austin, Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has led Brookings Institution work in Midwest regarding economic change
He asked the pertinent question: ‘How can NE shape our own narrative? It is important for us to work in participatory self-determination.
Austin recalled how he had grown up with a Presbyterian Minister father in the coalfield area of West Virginia , but now the deep mines are largely abandoned, while strip mining has polluted rivers he knew when he was a child.
His Presbyterian roots help him to feel that he is here to make a difference in people’s lives. He had worked in Flint in Michigan, which was once a vibrant city and full of life, while now the city is only one third of the size it once was.
Austin noted that he learnt the frustrations and anger that people feel and the nostalgia for the past. He also pointed out that some leaders prey on this and tell people who to blame – immigrants for example – and that people vulnerable to lies.
However, there are lots of examples of areas similar to the North East, which are growing again.
So, how do we bring new economic opportunities and hope to people?
Clearly, leaders selling nativist isolation policies can make things a lot worse, but the right wing is growing in rust belt areas across thew western world. Instead of their division, we need to come together and share ideas about how to close economic divides. Then when things get better, people tend to vote differently.
It was maintained that any community can find a way to a better future, but not from the outside, but from history and assets already there. Indeed, there are many examples of successes from around the world of places leaning into their strengths, including heritage, which is so important to us here in the North East.
Finally, it was noted that places that have made it and have done it themselves, with a clear need for leadership from within regions like the North East.
Maeve Cohen
I asked Maeve Cohen on behalf of New Economics Foundation for her thoughts on the event:
“We are at the Intersection between environment, society and economy and we recognise that they feed into each other, and we need systems that feed into all of those and as Danny said this morning, people are at the centre of all those. “
Comment
This was an interesting, thought-provoking event, which touched on both the nitty-gritty of life in the North but also provided hope and pathways to a brighter future for all our people. I agreed with many of the points raised, especially those of playing to our strengths, including our heritage of innovation and the need for strong local and regional leadership. We must reach out to isolated communities and help them to feel part of the region and ensure that not only we prosper, but that that prosperity is distributed fairly.
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