Unlocking Liverpool's potential through industrial strategies
5 min read
MPs joined an expert panel to discuss how industrial strategies can best stimulate local economic growth in the Liverpool region.
On Monday at the Labour Party Conference, KPMG and IPPR hosted a fringe event to discuss how local industrial strategies could be used to transform the Liverpool city region.
This discussion was in the context of the government's Industrial Strategy, published last autumn, where they set out the four Grand Challenges as well as what they called the five foundations of productivity.
“The challenge now is to think about what this means in local areas and how to actually translate this into local industrial strategies in places like Liverpool,” said the event chair, IPPR’s Sarah Longlands.
She was joined by a panel of Liverpool heavyweights: Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson, MP for Garston and Halewood Maria Eagle, MP for Liverpool Riverside Lousie Ellman, and Euan West - KPMG Liverpool Office Senior Partner.
The general consensus of the panel was that Liverpool City Region has many great assets, but central government's economic policies have rarely made full use of them, and many challenges remain.
"The Liverpool cities region has enormous potential,” remarked Maria Eagle MP.
The city had suffered in the recent years of austerity under the current Conservative government, said the MP, but there were still strong industries to celebrate.
“In my constituency 22% of jobs are manufacturing, compared to a 8% national average. Making things and selling them abroad is a tremendous part of the livelihood of this region."
There is a gap between Liverpool region's economic output and the rest of the UK, remarked Maria Eagle.
"That gap there is where good policy can come in and boost regions like this. That means putting money into developing skills."
Louise Ellman MP said strengths can also be found in the creative sectors and digital expertise here already established in Liverpool and a thriving life sciences sector where "very important research” was being conducted.
Ellman said that a key area of investment was in transport infrastructure. She found it ‘disturbing’ that when Channel 4 was looking to relocate outside of London, they did not pick Liverpool as one of the places to go to - blaming lack of transport.
KPMG’s Euan West said that, with the right partnerships, support for its thriving sectors such as tech and life sciences, and a strategy programme of infrastructure investment, the city could meet its great potential.
“Liverpool is the second fastest growing economy outside of London, that is a serious achievement. The business and professional services industry is also thriving with over 107,000 employees in the region,” said West.
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said that local industrial strategies must be rooted in the strengths of the region and led by those who understand their own economies.
“We want real fiscal devolution. Just let us get on with it.”
“What we have now is a model where funding actually shapes the policy and the strategy, but it should be the other way around."
He continued that an example where the industrial strategy falls short is its ability to address the bespoke needs of an area. It fails to recognise the challenges locally. For example, in Liverpool we have a demand for 12,000 houses - probably more - so the demand is there but the Industrial Strategy does not prioritise the housing plight of cities. That is a failure because at the heart of a growing city, a city with a future, we need people to stay and relocate here."
Maria Eagle accused government departments of failing to "join up horizontally" in a way that allows them to work together to implement the policies they come out with.
"Don't just produce papers and tell people to get on with it while saying, 'Oh, by the way there is no money.'," said Eagle.
Brexit
Maria Eagle said the obvious 'elephant in the room' when it comes to the future prosperity of Liverpool was Brexit, particularly when the strong manufacturing sector sells almost half its goods to the EU.
"If we end up in 6 months with a no-deal Brexit...overnight the capacity of those businesses in my constituency, large and small, to continue to sell abroad will be catastrophically impaired," warned Eagle.
Moreover, continued the MP, the GDP of the North West will fall by 4%.
"Now that is not a good way to start doing regional policy."
"The first thing you need to do to ensure you have a good industrial policy is to not have a catastrophic Brexit at the end of March," she declared.
Louise Ellman said EU funding rescued Liverpool, especially thanks to "the way the money was given, the way it forced Liverpool to look at a strategy - to look at what was needed - and to bring together public funding together with other funding."
"It is going to be disastrous for us unless we start thinking about what we should be doing if it all really goes wrong. Manufacturers in this area are already talking about relocation. How are we going to counter that? Also a lot of our high level research that goes on here in our universities is linked with Europe."
"Already some of that is falling off because people are worried that the research will not be able to continue in the future."
The Mayor of Liverpool said the Brexit debate has caused "political stagnation".
"It's the reason why we have a failing health service, a failing education service...Brexit has consumed everyone's focus and time. The devolution debate is absolutely paused."
He said that only through further devolution could local regions drive growth while Westminster suffers from "Brexit inertia".
Euan West agreed saying that over the past few months Brexit has had all the attention, "but, if we want a long term sustainable vision based on our Industrial Strategy it has got to get more airtime. We have got to balance the conversation."
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