North West

The North West is a region of stark contrast, which combines some of Britain’s most vibrant cities with traditional seaside resorts and where the heart of the country’s nuclear industry sits alongside some of its most dramatic and breathtaking scenery. There are five sub-regions: Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Greater Merseyside and 46 local authorities.

The region has a population of 6.7 million people and can boast a regional economy larger than that of a number of European countries. It has the second largest concentration of graduate level workers outside London and the South East, and a major representation of world class manufacturing sectors (especially chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nuclear and aerospace). The region’s Gross Value Added (GVA) stands at approximately £97bn per annum (9.9 per cent of the UK’s economic output).

The North West’s economic trends are varied. Latest figures for GVA per head show that some parts of the region lag far behind the national average, with a particularly sharp contrast between people living in the north and south of Greater Manchester. Manchester and Liverpool Airports and the Port of Liverpool are major international gateways for the North of England. The region’s two large core cities,  Manchester and Liverpool, are enjoying strong economic growth. There has been growing recognition of the importance of the ‘city regions’ of Manchester, Liverpool and Central Lancashire and of the benefits of inter regional co operation through initiatives like the Northern Way.

The region performs poorly on important social indicators like health inequalities, including life expectancy, and low demand housing. On these measures the region is respectively ranked eighth and ninth out of the nine English regions.

Environmental data presents a relatively mixed picture of performance in the region. The North West emitted 61 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2004, the second highest region after the South East. However, taking population into account, this equates to 9.1 tonnes per resident, just below the average rate for England.

The Regional Minister for the North West: The Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP

Children and Learners

• In June 2007 the Learning & Skills Council (LSC) announced the national roll out of the Adult Learning Grant. The grant, which is designed to help adults studying full time with the costs of learning, will make a significant contribution improving the North West’s skilled workforce
• Blind or partially sighted young people will grow in confidence to become more independent as the Big Lottery Fund invests close to £746,000 in awards to seven innovative youth projects across the North West. The new regional grants from the Young People’s Fund will support projects in Greater Merseyside, Cheshire, Rossendale and Lancashire (announced February 2007)
• St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council (MBC), Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council and Lancashire County Council have all received Beacon status for their work on healthy schools. The 3 authorities will share £3m of government funding with other winners to enhance their work in sharing best practice and driving forward further innovation
• The Government is to spend tens of millions reconstructing crumbling school buildings in St Helens and Halton. Ministers are also allocating a one off lump sum to Wirral and Sefton to allow 1 new secondary school in each area. This marks the latest stage in the BSF programme (June 2006)
• Liverpool and North West teenagers from deprived homes benefit from the Lottery’s Awards for All programmes. Announced in August 2006, 25 groups across Merseyside will share over £103,000 from a total of 98 groups in the North West, benefiting from a total award of nearly £490,000
• Grants totalling over £1.1m have been awarded to 208 groups across the North West. Also 6 innovative projects to support disadvantaged groups in the North West will share close to £2m from the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities Programme. Community groups across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cumbria and Liverpool will share the award
• Plans to create a ‘super college’ have received government approval. The creation of a single institution, which will be known as Trafford College, will mean better facilities and a wider choice of courses.  The college will receive extra cash to upgrade and build state of the art facilities (June 2007)
• The quality of religious education at Little Hoole Primary School, Preston has been judged as outstanding with enthusiastic, innovative teaching by the Office for Standards In Education (June 2007)
• Developments in the Higher Level Skills Pathfinder have lead to more than £826,000 being secured by North West institutions

Health and Well Being

• 3 major private financed schemes totalling over £500m are under development in Greater Manchester. They are the Manchester Royal Infirmary, the Hope Hospital site in Salford and the Tameside Hospital site
• 2 NHS Lift projects to provide refurbished and new GP, primary and community care facilities are progressing in St Helens, Knowsley, Halton, Warrington, Liverpool and Sefton. Funding through public private partnership with the Department of Health - the first phase of each is costing around £23m
• A £230m project delivering the expansion of hospital sites at Whiston, St.Helens and Newton and the development of 4 primary care resource centres. The St Helens and Knowsley Health Community progressed project is funded through private finance, NHS Lift, and some Strategic Health Authority strategic capital. The facilities will start to come on stream from 2005 with completion due during 2008-09
• In 2004 £1.25m was allocated  from BERR (formerly DTI) North West to Help People with Mental Health Conditions Become Entrepreneurs – four projects in Liverpool, St Helens, Burnley and Rochdale to receive over £370,000 supporting people through mentoring, training and support

Crime

• Of the 40 priority Respect Action Areas recently announced by the Government, 10 councils are located in the North West. They have been chosen because of their strong track record in tackling anti-social behaviour, and a willingness and capacity to do more. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) is also backing the scheme with £6m of funding in 2007-08 for parenting classes in the 40 areas
• The recent Local Government User Satisfaction Survey showed that perceptions of anti-social behaviour across local authorities in the North West had decreased in all but 2 cases, between 2003-04 and 2006-07. The largest reductions were in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, Blackpool and St Helens
• The Local Area Agreements currently in place will continue to reflect the national Home Office PSA1 target to cut crime by 15 per cent, and more in high crime areas. Home Office and Communities and Local Government funds will be used to tackle the priorities set out by Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships and Local Strategic Partnerships in their Crime and Drugs/Sustainable Communities Strategies over the coming years
• The Prolific and other Priority Offenders strategy is a three strand multi-agency initiative to reduce crime by targeting those identified as prolific offenders and all partnership areas in the region have implemented a Prisons and Probation Ombudsman scheme which continues to be successful in highlighting persistent offenders and dealing with them through a multi-agency approach
• Courts in Halton, Wirral, the City of Salford, Wigan and Leigh, Lancaster and Merseyside have been chosen by the Home Office and Department for Constitutional Affairs as pilot areas for the roll out of Specialist Domestic Violence Courts. Funding will be made available to develop an approach that situates the court system and the criminal justice system as part of the community wide response to Domestic Violence. IDVAs (Independent Domestic Violence Advocates) have also now been appointed to these areas.

Transport

• 18 schemes totalling almost £523m are expected to be funded in the next three years, from 2006-07 to 2008-09
• Over £213m has been allocated to improve local transport in the region. The investment is part of the 2007-08 Local Transport Capital Settlement given to local authorities each year to help them deliver transport improvements in local communities. This will fund a range of improvements including new road safety measures, better street lighting, road maintenance, park and ride facilities, and cycle lanes
• The Northern Way is focussing on improving surface access to Manchester Airport; improving access to the ports and better-integrated public transport within and between the City Regions, particularly between Manchester and Leeds.  2 North West projects are likely to benefit from £10m set aside for early win interventions
• Department for Transport (DfT) has also identified a £7m scheme to reinstate the Olive Mount Chord as showing strong potential to provide significant benefit to national productivity and asked for further work to be done
•  Announcements made on 6 July 2006 broadly accepted North West advice regarding Regional Funding Allocations. DfT expect to fund 36 major road and public transport schemes in the North West up to 2015-16 totalling nearly £1.3bn. Approvals were also given for 4 new schemes totalling over £301m, including £244m for planned extensions to Manchester Metrolink system to Oldham, Rochdale and Chorlton

Social Inclusion and Regeneration

• £803m of Neighbourhood Renewal Funding (NRF) up to 2008 is improving services in the most deprived neighbourhoods, helping to meet PSA targets in Crime, Health, Education, Employment & Housing
• £330m has been awarded from the New Deal for Communities to bridge the gap between the poorest communities in the North West and the rest of Britain
• Neighbourhood Renewal Community Participation Programmes in 2005-06 have provided over £9.7m to support the participation of the voluntary and community sectors in the 21 NRF- Local Strategic Partnerships throughout the region. This is via their local Community Empowerment Networks. For 2006-07 there will be a minimum of £3.3m available within the Safer and Stronger Communities Funding block to support the core functions of these networks
• £47.2m in Neighbourhood Element funding has been awarded for 2006-08 to support neighbourhood management arrangements in the most deprived areas
• £19.7m has been allocated for 6 Neighbourhood Management Pathfinders at Hattersley in Tameside, Great Lever in Bolton, Blacon in Chester, Poulton in Lancaster, Tranmere, Wirral and in East Blackburn to ensure services are more responsive to local needs and deliver results on the ground
• £33.6m has been allocated from the Cleaner, Safer, Greener fund for 2006-08 to improve liveability and sustainability in deprived areas
• Under the Housing Market Renewal Initiative (HMRI), 4 Pathfinders have been established in Manchester & Salford, Merseyside, East Lancashire and Oldham & Rochdale to tackle housing market issues within the region and create sustainable communities for the future. The Government has committed £1.2bn to the Housing Market Renewal Fund across nine Pathfinder areas nationally
• Under the Coalfield Regeneration funding from the Communities and Local Government an extra £35m will help accelerate the revitalisation of former coalfield communities. Wigan, St Helens, Salford, Knowsley and Copeland could benefit from the new money announced November 2004
• £1.5m of Home Office Connecting Communities funding was made available to eight projects between 2003-06, to help promote race equality and build a safe, just and tolerant society
• £7.2m has been allocated through the Home Office ChangeUp programme was provided to the North West until March 2006, to help develop the voluntary and community sector capacity to deliver services to customers

European Funding

• In the Objective 1 area, Merseyside, European Funds of over £900m was invested between 2000-06, as part of a total investment package of £2bn, delivering 34,000 new jobs and provide support to get nearly 14,000 new businesses off the ground
• Over £800m of EU funding (excluding Merseyside) has been allocated to strategic capital regeneration and business support initiatives, and to employment skills packages, under Objectives 2 and 3 since 2000
• £58m European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) has been allocated to the New East Manchester URC towards the comprehensive regeneration of this area of the city
• A Virtual Economic Development Zone has received £14.4m of ERDF funding to link major Higher Education Institutions in the region allowing businesses electronic access to knowledge
• £26m ERDF contribution to the Business Investment Scheme, managed by North West Development Agency, providing investment grants to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises across the North West. The scheme has received recognition from the European Commission as a model of excellence
• Merseyside Special Investment Fund (MSIF) is providing £80m to assist new business start-up and growth in Merseyside - backed with £36m of European Union Funding. A further £20m EU funding has been approved for a new £26.7m Seed Fund managed by MSIF to provide access to finance for high risk/reward and early-stage businesses
• Work is well underway on a new £145m conference/exhibition centre and 10,000 seat arena at Kings Waterfront which has been backed with £50m of EU funding and will create 2,200 new jobs, bringing in £51m in additional visitor spend each year
• European Capital of Culture 2008 - £950,000 ERDF was invested in the bid for Capital of Culture. A further £12.63m ERDF has been allocated for activity in 2008 and the lead up to it
• Work on development of a regional operational programme for 2007-13 for Competitiveness Objective has started. There will be one Operational Programme for the region, but with Merseyside’s position respected in view of its special status as a ‘phasing-in’ region