Concept

This pioneering forum led by Northumbria University and Sovereign Strategy will provide an unrivalled opportunity for a fundamental debate among regional leaders and local practitioners about the North-East in the 21st century. The North East is thriving, but further steps are necessary if the region and its people are to fulfil their potential in the future.

The event will provide a platform for celebrating the region’s successes and reviewing achievements by businesses and people in the North East, a focus for discussion of the critical issues facing the region, and of course, excellent networking opportunities. It is intended to be an annual forum rather than a one-off event providing a continuous opportunity for debate about the North East’s prospects.

This conference matters now for three principal reasons. Firstly, as a region with a high dependence on public expenditure, the North East has to decide how to make the best use of investment in strengthening its productive potential. Secondly, in an era of globalisation where jobs are shifting rapidly between continents and out-sourcing in the service economy is impacting strongly on British workers, real-world investment and innovation is required to transform the region’s competitive position. On this foundation, a new social and economic strategy for the North East can then be built; creating, capturing and communicating the distinctive advantages of North East both as a business location and as place to live.

Finally, given the rejection of a directly elected Regional Assembly by voters in the North East in 2004, the region has to ensure its voice is strongly heard nationally, especially at the highest levels of government. It is also essential that local communities are empowered to drive change and improve quality of life at neighbourhood level.

After eight years of regional policy under the present government, and numerous regeneration efforts by successive administrations since the 1960s, it is also time to take stock and to understand just what has been achieved so far, and what lessons can be learnt.

The themes

  • Some challenges facing the North East are familiar - such as lower productivity, fewer business start-ups, poorer rates of business survival, and weaker skill-levels - leading to an estimated output gap in the Northern Way of £29 billion with other regions (HMT, 2004).
  • Other challenges are long-running and structural such as growing demands for transport, insufficient high-quality housing stock, a disproportionate percentage of the working age population who are economically inactive, and a very slow rate of improvement in life-chances among the poorest.
  • It is therefore essential that the forum addresses areas such as reversing the structural decline caused by poor transport and second-class access to the global economy, weak employability, persistent skills-gaps, inactivity rates, the role of higher education in developing knowledge industries, and the creation of an entrepreneurial culture.
  • The Forum will also take on the more testing and controversial issues at the heart of the regional agenda:
  • Is the North-South divide real, or are there merely concentrations of economic and social disadvantage in every region?
  • How can investment in national strategic transport create locational advantage in the North East and also create a globally competitive super-region in the North as a whole?
  • Can regional economic policy make any impact given the failings of strategies in the 1960s and 1970s?
  • Is regional policy too focussed on full employment and growth and excessively orientated to the concerns of the South-East?
  • Does cultural regeneration really drive economic development?
  • Why does the North East lack a passion for enterprise?
  • How can communities be properly involved in regeneration strategies, avoiding the pitfalls of toothless ‘consultation’?

The logistics

The event will take place at Hardwick Hall near Sedgefield, County Durham providing first-class conference facilities. It is estimated that 200 participants will take part in the conference - regional leaders and local practitioners drawn from business, the trade unions, local authorities, regeneration agencies, the voluntary and community sector, politicians, and local strategic partnerships. It will deliberately involve organisations and stakeholders who are not traditionally represented at such regional meetings.