NATIONAL > Forging strong links in the supply chain
Published: Tuesday, 10 Aug, 2010
With the reappointment of key non executive members to the board of Yorkshire Forward and with the first conference in the West Midlands to address the shape of economic development and investment after the RDAs have departed the stage, we can already see a degree of realistic purpose spreading across the inward investment and regeneration sectors. Of course there will be
With the reappointment of key non executive members to the board of Yorkshire Forward and with the first conference in the West Midlands to address the shape of economic development and investment after the RDAs have departed the stage, we can already see a degree of realistic purpose spreading across the inward investment and regeneration sectors. Of course there will be change - that is the avowed intention of government policy - but change for a purpose and change that is not conducted at such a pace or with such vigour that the strengths of the old system are consumed in the flames of the bonfire of its bureaucracies. And it is no criticism of the RDAs to say that there is merit in a separation of the tasks of economic and infrastructure development from the attracting, securing and settling of inward investment.
Life changes and, in economically straightened times, there will not be as much state money available to fund large scale infrastructure projects and so local control through LEPs will ensure that businesses can express their own priorities and, where they really believe that a development will add value to their proposition, can consider how they might contribute to it or how it might be commercially funded.
On the other hand, inward investment is going to be increasingly sector focused with incoming businesses likely to be more interested in where they can best tap into one of the UK's increasingly sophisticated supply chains (and sections of global supply chains) than about the demographics, environment or other attractions of a particular region. From an economic point of view, regions might do better in future to define themselves in terms of those supply chains than as simply a jolly nice place to live and do business.
There are sectors, such as Aerospace, in which the UK has always lead the way and there are sectors, such as the emerging Renewable Energy sector, where our applied engineering skills have put us in a pole position to lead in a new market. But these will not do so well if the focus remains too local. In this issue of Invest Britain we record the funding arrangements for a renewable energy technology test facility in North East England. However, a facility with a not dissimilar purpose but employing different technology is also being funded in South West England with the Wave Hub in St Ives Bay. It's not that I claim to know which is best or whether one is complimentary to the other; it's just that it is impossible to avoid the possibility that working together rather than apart, these two schemes could either share resources and accelerate their acquisition of knowledge or determine that one path was better than the other. As things stand, they are two separate parts of a discontinuous supply chain which is really no chain at all. If managed together within one UK renewable energy sector, they would surely support the kind of integrated supply chain which, in Aerospace and Automotive, has always attracted inward investment to this country.
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