North West

Introduction

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.

There is major public investment in the region: public expenditure stands at more than £47bn Gross Domestic Product.

Recent Visits

8th January – Cabinet Office event in Liverpool. The PM and his Cabinet spent two hours taking questions from stakeholders and members of the public, before holding a full Cabinet meeting in the afternoon.

29th January - Jacqui Smith met with young people representing the Regional Youth Forum, and drawn from Young Parliament members from across the North West

2nd February - Beverley Hughes visited staff and customers at Job Centre Plus in Newton Heath on 2 February following the third meeting of the Joint Economic Commission for the North West

9th February - Beverley Hughes visited Tate Liverpool to see the success of a Creative Apprenticeships scheme

19th February – Lord Mandelson attended the Cumbria Economic Summit 2009 at Sellafield Visitor Centre

Demographics for the North West

Mid-2007 Population Estimates

Figures updated annually. Last update February 2009. Source: Office for National Statistics.

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

Children and Learners

• in June 2007 the Learning & Skills Council 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, 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 Building Schools for the Future  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

• the North West Strategic Health Authority (SHA) was established on 1 July 2006 from a merger of Cheshire and Merseyside, Cumbria and Lancashire and Greater Manchester SHAs. National Heath Service (NHS) North West is the second largest SHA in England
• the NHS North West covers 14,165 sq km, with 4/5 of the region being rural. The area has a population of 6.8 million, with 60 per cent of people living in the two core urban areas of Greater Manchester and Merseyside. The region has 29 Hospital Trusts (13 of which are Foundation Trusts), 24 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), 1 ambulance trust and 9 specialist trusts providing mental health and learning disability services (4 of which are Foundation Trusts)
• the North West performs poorly on important social indicators like health inequalities, including life expectancy, and low demand housing. Although life expectancy continues to increase, the poor health of the North West population is reflected by the fact that both male and female expectation of life in the region remains significantly lower than the England average. Progress towards 2010 life expectancy targets shows 5 spearhead local authorities improving and 5 deteriorating - main causes of premature avoidable death are cardiovascular disease and lung cancer
• the North West has the highest rate in the country for early deaths from cancer. Men and women in the North West have the second highest rates for early deaths from circulatory disease. The North West also has the second highest death rate from smoking related illnesses and there is also an increasing trend in preventable deaths under 75 years in both men and women from cirrhosis
• Liverpool Women’s Hospital and Salford Royal achieved ‘excellent’ both for services and for Use of Resources
  One organisation, Cumbria PCT, received ‘weak’ ratings for both Quality of Services and Use of Resources
  In the North West SHA, £456m has been invested in 9 Private Finance Intiatives and public hospital schemes now open to patients. 4 further schemes are under construction with a value of £1bn. Additionally 37 Local Improvement Finance Trust schemes have opened to patients, with a total cost of £201.6m with more under construction
• On 1 October 2008 the North West SHA launched a programme called Advancing Quality, to reward hospitals and clinicians not just for quantity of work but for the quality of care provided. It is hoped that this scheme will help develop quality performance measures, which will enable patients to make an informed choice about where and how they want to be treated. 
• In May 2008 the North West SHA launched the Big Drink Debate, which is a regional survey to better understand people’s attitudes to alcohol.  It aims to find effective ways of promoting safer and more social drinking in the North West, which currently performs poorly on alcohol-based health indicators.
• Equitable Access in Primary Care: Next Stage Review – Interim Report announced a commitment to increase GP capacity with new practices in the quartile of PCTs most poorly served and the provision of a GP-led health centre in every PCT in England.  All PCTs across the North West are required to procure a GP-Led Health Centre and in addition 37 new GP practices are to be procured. 
• In February 2008 the North West SHA launched the Our Life programme, a social enterprise to encourage healthier lifestyles and provide a more supportive social environment to do so. The over consumption of alcohol and food will be the initial focus of the Our Life programme.
• 58 CT scanners, 37 MRI scanners and 30 Linacs installed in the North West SHA area (July 2008) - the vast majority of these have been installed since 1997.

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 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 Public Service Agreement 1 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. Independent Domestic Violence Advocates (IDVAs) have also now been appointed to these areas.

Transport

• In 2006, following submission of Regional Funding Advice (RFA1),  DfT announced plans to fund 34 major road and public transport schemes (subject to assessment of the business cases) out of £1.34bn provisionally allocated for the period 2005/06 to 2015/16. By January 2009, the RFA was 36% overprogrammed, largely due to cost increases on four HA schemes. Revised RFA advice was submitted in February. If the Secretary of State accepts the submitted advice and defers the Mottram-Tintwistle scheme then overprogramming in RFA1 is reduced to 117% and in RFA2 it will be 119% overprogrammed, which is within the 20% overprogramming envelope acceptable to DfT.
• 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.
• Manchester MetroLink 3a extension to Rochdale, Oldham and Chorlton granted full approval on 16 May 2008 with a Government contribution of £244m
• Phase 1 track replacement of £32m works completed summer 2007, Phase 2, £25.7m announced for non track renewals in February 2008
• Announced £85.3m refurbishment of the Blackpool and Fleetwood tram system on 1 February 2008, Government contributing £60.3m.This is additional to the £11m already allocated to emergency works for the tramway
• 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. Work is underway to improve the third Platform at Manchester Airport. Network Rail also undertaking a study looking at potential improvements to Manchester Rail Hub
• The reinstatement of the Olive Mount Chord was identified as a priority by the Department for Transport (DfT), with the potential to provide significant benefit to national productivity by moving freight in and out of the docks more quickly and easing road congestion. The £7.9m project, jointly funded by DfT, Merseytravel Network Rail, the Northwest Regional Development Agency, Merseyside’s district councils and the European Regional Development Fund has now been completed.
• 103 expressions of interest were received as part of the 2^nd round of Community Infrastructure Fund (CIF 2) which were carefully assessed against strategic fit, transport impact and deliverability.  The North West Region submitted 41 schemes of which three were initially rejected.  8 North West schemes (out of 27) have now been invited to submit full business cases.

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, 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 Department for 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 European Union (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

Source: Office for National Statistics. Last updated 26 June 2009

Internet links

• Neighbourhood Statistics
• Regional Snapshot