The Northern Powerhouse might have been the brainchild of George Osborne, but the concept has lost none of its momentum in the months since the former Chancellor left Downing Street.
If anything, Osborne has been reinvigorated lately, seeking to deliver a lasting legacy by turning one of his most ambitious ideas into reality. Part of that is the desire to make sure HS2, a cornerstone of the Northern Powerhouse, comes to fruition.
When it comes to connecting the North, Osborne is right to point out that the Central Line in London is almost identical in length to the distance between Manchester and Leeds. That is why creating a cluster of Northern cities driving economic growth is both plausible and necessary.
Getting the infrastructure right across both sides of the Pennines is the key to unlocking the potential of the Northern Powerhouse, especially as we look to grow our emerging tech sector. Without investment to make the North an attractive place for business, we are in danger of businesses looking to elsewhere.
“A big international business might think ‘we don’t have to have to have our headquarters in London, we can have our headquarters in Manchester’,” Osborne told the New Statesman earlier this month. “There’s a great pool of talent there, the property is cheaper, the standard of living can be higher for the same salary […]. At the moment, there’s been a great success in east London with tech startups, but it’s expensive.”
The importance of the tech industry to our economy cannot be stressed enough. In the future every sector will be a tech sector, with breakthroughs in transformative technologies emerging at an electrifying rate, from Google’s driverless cars and Amazons delivery drones to thinking computers, internet-connected household devices and 3D printers. These new products are already redefining our lives, but if we want them to catalyse economic growth across all regions of the UK, we must take a pro-active approach to mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), as this new wave of transformative technology is now dubbed.
One firm which is already taking advantage of new 4IR technology is Leeds-based technology business Sky Betting and Gaming. In the last year they have doubled their workforce, expanding operations into new European markets, all from their Yorkshire headquarters.
But as Chief Executive Richard Flint wrote in the Yorkshire Post recently, they are finding it difficult to “attract the right people” – a problem he attributes to young people from the North starting their careers in London and the South. “When talented graduates realise that they can stay in the cities they love [and] get a well-paid job […], then I’m convinced they’ll start thinking of Yorkshire as a place to build their career,” he wrote.
Part of making the Northern Powerhouse a success is showcasing the excellent opportunities that are on offer – with around 50,000 tech roles available across the region. The other solution to the puzzle is giving more local people the skills to succeed in those vacant jobs, something the current Chancellor Philip Hammond moved to address in his Spring Budget.
His reforms include an extra £500million a year for technical education, as well as an increase of 50 per cent in the amount of training available for 16 to 19-year-olds', to 900 hours a year. Soon more than 13,000 existing qualifications will be simplified into 15 "routes" linked to the needs of employers, helping to build genuine parity of esteem between academic and technical education whilst bolstering the UK's productivity.
While these are certainly welcome announcements, to make the 4IR work for every region of the UK we need strategic vision for our country’s future skills needs. That is why I am calling for a detailed review of the nation’s skills needs to be conducted at the start of each Parliament.
This new, national Future Skills Review (FSR) will help us future-proof our economy by identifying the sectors and skillsets vulnerable to automation, and the opportunities for new technology to drive economic growth. This new FSR should include both regional analysis to identify skills needs and shortages across Britain so Government policy is tailored to meet local needs
Osborne’s vision of a Northern Powerhouse driving economic growth across the country is tantalisingly close to being achieved. The infrastructure is committed to being built and the skills need is being addressed. We just need to convince SMEs and start-ups that Leeds not Lisbon is the place to do business.
To make it happen is in the best interests of politicians from every party representing all parts of the country. That is why All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, of which I am founding Chairman, is committed to support ways of developing regional growth. The group will be launched today by the Chancellor in Parliament, further emphasising the importance of the 4IR to the Government.
By raising the potential of technology to turbo-charge the Northern Powerhouse in Westminster, we set out a bold vision for economic growth across the North powered by new technology and led by a new generation of reform-minded policymakers.