Investment could bring billions for the North

A transformed economy in the North could unlock £118 billion a year by 2050 and produce an extra one million jobs. 

But this will require “long-term, patient investment of scale”, says Transport for the North Chairman Lord McLoughlin. 

The headline findings from TfN’s updated Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review (NPIER) were revealed to 220 delegates at TfN’s fourth annual conference in Newcastle on March 6. The previous review had been published in 2016. 

The next stage is for work on the outline draft NPIER to be reviewed by the TfN board, possibly at its March 23 meeting. Publication is planned during the period September to December. 

Under the theme ‘Transform the North’, TfN’s fully booked conference heard that the review examines how poor investment in infrastructure is holding back the Northern economy, and how it could be “refitted to help power the UK economy” in the decades ahead. The key findings are: 

■ Weak productivity growth in the North since the global financial crisis is estimated to be costing the economy £100bn gross value added (GVA) per year.

■ If the North could be transformed through investment across a range of policy areas, it could mean an additional £118bn GVA per year and one million extra jobs by 2050. 

■ Average earnings could be over 25% higher than today, adding circa £10,000 to average wages at 2019 prices. 

“The challenge to rebalance the UK economy is a work in progress. To achieve this, we must transform the North of England’s economy,” said Lord McLoughlin. 

Read this article in full in RAIL issue 979 here

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