Helen Godwin tells UK regeneration conference that region needs to talk itself up
West of England Mayor Helen Godwin, with microphone, pictured at the UK Real Estate Investment & Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) in Leeds(Image: Reach plc)
The West of England needs to bring its swagger and shout about its success as the country’s fastest-growing economy – that was the message from West of England mayor Helen Godwin at regeneration showcase UKREIIF. And she also asked businesses to help the region develop its skills strategy to make sure the area can develop a skilled workforce for the future.
The mayor led an all-female panel at the event to promote the region’s economic success in a week when it launched an investment prospectus with £17bn worth of economic opportunities from Bristol Temple Quarter to Brabazon & the West Innovation Arc new town in South Gloucestershire and north Bristol.
Delegates were offered tote bags declaring the West of England is “the fastest-growing regional economy”. The mayor began by highlighting the region’s track record of economic growth. She joked: “I know that others are claiming that title but we are having it!”
Ms Godwin emphasised that the region had always been successful, with a diverse economy that contributed strongly to UK GDP, but that the West now needed to make more of that success.
She said: “We find ourselves in a really good spot. But what we haven’t been so good at… is that we are relatively laid back and relatively humble.”
And she added: “What we haven’t done is gone out there with swagger and talked ourselves up like others have”.
The West has “got away with it” so far, Ms Godwin said, but faced with competition from other dynamic city regions it now needs to push its success in areas including innovation, invention, national security and food security. She said it was a region with a skilled and divers population where people wanted to live, and that: “We are really important to this country’s story.”
Other panellists echoed the mayor’s call for the region to do more to promote itself.
Jessica Lee, director of policy and strategy at the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), said the region’s stakeholders in the public, private and voluntary sectors were now working together and had a clearer strategy for success than in the past. And she said: “Everyone else is talking themselves up so we should do the same thing”
Annabel Smith is leading the development of those partnerships between sectors in her new role as director of strategic partnerships and stakeholders at Weca.
She said that by working together, organisations throughout the region could help turn “the West of England plc” into a “globally significant brand”.
Panel host Jo Dally, chief business officer at NCC and co-chair of the West of England Business Board, praised the way people had come together to promote the region’s success. And she said “the vibrancy and the difference in this room is a testimony to how far we’ve come” as a region.
Later, Ms Godwin talked about the importance of making sure all people in the region had the opportunities for work, and said sectors such as care and education should not be neglected. She said there was still much work to be done to tackle child poverty, and said she wanted
Ms Lee talked about the development of the region’s skills strategy, which will include a focus on helping people access skills training throughout their working life to enable them to switch careers.
The panel discussed how people in the West needed to be able to access opportunities created by economic growth, which would also need to include improved transport links. Ms Smith said there had been a “significant shift” in conversations about potential mass transit for the region.
The panel also talked about the success of the West Innovation Arc, and about companies ranging from innovative SMEs to global giants including Airbus and Rolls-Royce.
A Shaun the Sheep outside the West of England pavilion at the UK Real Estate Investment & Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) in Leeds(Image: Reach plc)
The mayor said the region also needed to see more commercial space developed to house its success stories. She said the area was good at producing university spin-out firms, “but what we’re not so good at is keeping them in the region”
She said there was also a need for more housing, with “ridiculous” high prices in places such as Bath making it hard for people to move to those areas.
Asked how businesses could help her and the combined authority to deliver growth, Ms Godwin said employers and businesses could “get on board” with the upcoming skills strategy.
She said employers were coming to Weca to say young people were not “work ready” after leaving education, so the authority needed businesses to detail what those skills gaps are so providers can make changes to create a “workforce of the future”.
She said she as mayor had a good relationship with cabinet and government and could push for change. And she said: “Talk to us about what you’d like to see”.
Panellists later returned to the theme of promoting the West’s success. Ms Smith talked about the power of building a consensus, and of going to government with a unified message. And she said the region can’t build that narrative “if all our partners aren’t pulling in behind us and sharing that narrative”.
Ms Lee added: “We’ve got a really strong story here… and we all need to be sharing it consistently.”
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