Festival of Flourishing Regions Wrap-Up

What can we learn from Bristol, Cambridge, and Manchester about regional growth? Rather a lot it appears…

Last month’s Festival of Flourishing Regions, which took place in Bristol, brought together national journalists, local and national politicians, economists, academics, industry leaders and the general public, to debate how regions can drive the government’s growth agenda.

As Professor Palie Smart noted, the private, public sector and the community must work together. “Only when we get together can we tackle complex challenges.”

Timeliness

As I said in my opening speech; this event would have been timely at any point, but it felt particularly pressing now: The Labour government has placed economic growth at the top of its agenda, and the Chancellor has committed to going “further and faster” to kick start the economy and that "Investment in all regions is given a fair hearing by the Treasury I lead."

There’s also a greater commitment to devolution, with the Government’s recent white paper, and we have the West of England Mayoral elections fast approaching (and we were pleased to see all four currently-declared Mayoral candidates attend the festival).

On the morning of the event, the Growing Together Alliance also released its report on Connected Clusters, which outlines a bold and comprehensive strategy for the Chancellor to encourage interconnected, inclusive economic growth across the UK. 
Our keynote speaker, Lord Jim O’Neill, Chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, was also interviewed on Radio 4 shortly before the event, responding to the Chancellor’s growth speech.

Key themes

There were many themes that ran throughout the event. Firstly, that regional growth is not a zero-sum game. This was also a core theme of the Growing Together Alliance’s Connected Clusters report. In that spirit, we had panellists from across the country attend. They gave valuable insights into their experience of pitching their region to private and public investors.

Harriet Fear, Chair of Cambridge Ahead, spoke about her experiences of being in a competitive pitch process to win investment against other regions. She explained how, rather than pit regions against each other, it would be better for government to be clearer about what regions can offer and present a united front.

Any company looking to invest will need assurance that there is the current, and future, workforce they require. Those in government should be aware of what each region has to offer, so they can direct investors to the best place for them to do business.

The topic of skills came up a lot during the debate, including in relation to Artificial Intelligence. While AI has the potential to boost productivity, concerns were raised about how it could cause people to lose their jobs. Investment in skills and training to support workers displaced by the technology was therefore highlighted as crucial.

Another central theme was the need to ensure flourishing regions provide opportunities for everyone, and are ultimately pleasant places to live – with culture, decent transport connectivity, and quality housing developments.

Finally, one thread that ran throughout the day was the need to better ‘promote ’ our region and how important it is to get the narrative right. As Stephen Peacock said “We are sat in a building [Watershed] that was the result of a wave of regeneration…We need to build on the excitement about Temple Quarter. This region has so much more going on than the outside world knows.”

What next?

What does all this mean for Futures West? Well, we are committed to putting our region and the best of our business stories on a national stage. We want to unlock investment for regional growth that is sustainable and inclusive. This means working with partners to champion the positive story of our region and its businesses.

To do this we need to underpin our case with evidence and data. We are excited that we shall be working as core partners with the newly formed Brunel Centre to provide and promote that evidence from key academic leaders, economists and data analysts.

We are also working with the Productivity Institute, and other partners, to develop a South-West Productivity Forum later this year. This will stop the South-West being coupled with the greater ‘South’. Our needs are unique.

As our Chair, Sir Iain Gray said on the day, “we need to focus on picking races rather than winners”. So, through our work with universities and businesses, we will be identifying what our priorities should be; the levers we need to pull to drive growth. We need to be focused on the long-term, and beyond political cycles.

Futures West has many business partners already on board, if your company would like to join please do contact me.

The Festival of Flourishing Regions is run by Futures West in partnership with the Growing Together Alliance. I’d like to thank our Futures West partners; Renishaw, University of Bath, University of Bristol, UWE Bristol, Business West, Airbus, National Composites Centre, Hargreaves Lansdown, Graphcore. Our speakers; Thomas Aubrey Chris Curtis Jo Dally John Denham Tony Dyer Harriet Fear MBE Peter Foster Iain Gray Sarah Gordon Hannah Hickman Henri Murison Jim O-Neill Stephen Peacock Nick Pearce Marvin Rees OBE, Helen Simpson, Professor Palie Smart Prof Katy Shaw Annabel Smith, Peter Stephens Dan Thorp Andy Westwood and Jennifer Williams. I’d also like to thank our audience, many of whom asked excellent questions and ensured we remained focused on the issues that really matter. Finally to Andrew Kelly, Matt Griffiths, and Kate Sim Read, for all their hard work.

Photo credit: @JonCraig_Photos