‘My aim is to back what we’re already good at and take it further by getting key projects moving at pace’
Luke Campbell, Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire(Image: Getty Images)
Northern mayors including Hull and East Yorkshire’s Luke Campbell will today come together to push a new plan that they hope will lead to thousands of new jobs being created.
The Great North Investment Summit, taking place in Leeds at the Royal Armouries, will launch a prospectus of nine projects around the North that has been brought together by a cross-party group of mayors and other leaders. One of those projects is the East Coast Cluster across the Humber and Teesside areas, which aims to provide a £5bn boost to the UK economy as well as providing a huge boost to the country’s net zero efforts.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has thrown her weight behind the summit, while a number of Government Ministers are set to appear. It comes after the Government targeted the North as one of the main areas for economic growth in the UK through recent announcements on rail improvements and funding to accelerate job-creating developments.
Hull and East Yorkshire mayor Luke Campbell said: “The North has always been built on hard work, industry and people who get on with the job. We know the North has the potential to make a real difference to the country’s future, and by working together we can bring more investment and better jobs into our communities.
“Hull and East Yorkshire has a huge part to play in that. Our region has a real strength in industries that matter, not just locally but nationally. My aim is to back what we’re already good at and take it further by getting key projects moving at pace so residents here can benefit from those opportunities.”
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Ms Reeves, an MP in Leeds, said: “The North of England has waited for far too long for a Government that matches warm words with concerted ambition. This pipeline shows the huge opportunity across the North – from thriving cities to world-leading industries that can bring in investment and support the jobs of the future.
“Stronger growth in the North means stronger growth for the country. That is why we are working with mayors and local leaders to unlock investment, create jobs and put more power into the hands of local communities.”
The prospectus for investors has been developed in collaboration with the Office for Investment (OFI) and includes projects which Northern leaders say are worth more than £14bn. Alongside the East Coast Cluster, projects in Manchester, Liverpool, Cheshire and the North East are included, in sectors such as advanced manufacturing, urban regeneration, science, and energy.
It includes York Central, one of the UK’s largest brownfield city-centre regeneration sites adjacent to York Station, and the Don Valley Corridor in South Yorkshire, a major advanced manufacturing, defence and innovation corridor linking Sheffield and Rotherham.
Organisers of the summit – which has been timed to take place the day before the UKREiiF investment summit, which attracts big players in global investment communities to the North – say the event marks a shift in how the North sells itself to the world, presenting the region as a united force and working with the Government to unlock national renewal and long-term growth.