4 PUBLISHER’S VIEW
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Ged Henderson, editor
ged.henderson@lancashirebusinessview.co.uk t: 01254 295585
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Richard Slater, publisher
t: 01254 297870 e:
richard@lancashirebusinessview.co.uk www.lancashirebusinessview.co.uk
Much has been said about the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda and the need to turn rhetoric into real action.
Big ticket infrastructure projects sit at the heart of much of those discussions. The new £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund has been set up, the government says, to “invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK”.
Improving our road and rail links is to be welcomed, so too any support that we can get for our beleaguered high streets.
The Towns Fund cash that Preston and Leyland have secured is a good start. We can only hope support for the game-changing Eden Project North in Morecambe is forthcoming soon.
However, as the audit of Lancashire’s economy that we feature in this edition highlights, if we are to truly level up the process must go much further and much deeper.
It reports that health, education and skills, poverty and deprivation are all major issues impacting on our economic performance, and it warns: “The ‘levelling up’ challenge in Lancashire will not be met until many of these outcomes are improved.”
Poor health is of particular concern. It is having a direct impact on our economic wellbeing and the pandemic, which has hit Lancashire hard, will only make things more difficult.
That is why we echo the rallying call from Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, the county’s director of public health, speaking at the 2021 Lancashire Health and Wellbeing Conference, organised and hosted by Lancashire Business View.
He told delegates the pandemic had “magnified” the need for those involved in health and in wealth creation to really work together.
And he said that it was vital for the government to recognise the real links between the economic and health agendas, with poor health costing the economy billions of pounds each year.
There’s another aspect of levelling up that we address in the pages of this issue. Devolution, or rather the lack of it, for Lancashire.
In a report last year, the Institute of Fiscal Studies think tank declared that local government reorganisation as well as funding should be part of the levelling up agenda.
Its researchers said: “Devolution of significant economic power to the regions could be as important as, or more important than, decisions made in Whitehall”.
We couldn’t agree more. And the lack of movement in that direction is building mounting frustration.
Speaking at a Lancashire Business View roundtable on clean energy, Northern Powerhouse Partnership director Henri Murison spelled out clearly how the county is in danger of being left behind.
Putting the blame firmly on its “political leadership’ he laid out in stark terms how other parts of the North West, including Cumbria, were stealing a march on us.
He doesn’t think that is “good enough” and frankly, neither do we.
Stephen Bolton, commercial director
stephen@lancashirebusinessview.co.uk t: 01254 295583
Rachael Norris,
head of marketing and events
rachael@lancashirebusinessview.co.uk t: 01254 295582
Abbey Leeke,
operations manager
abbey@lancashirebusinessview.co.uk t: 01254 295586
Kath Bell,
LBV Hub manager
kath@lancashirebusinessview.co.uk t: 01254 297870
Holly Martin,
marketing and events executive
holly@lancashirebusinessview.co.uk t: 01254 295587
01254 297870
www.lancashirebusinessview.co.uk
Editorial: Ged Henderson, Tim Aldred Principal photography: Clive Lawrence Artwork and layout: Magnificent Studio Printed by Peter Scott Printers, Burnley
Lancashire Business View is written, designed and produced by Northpoint Publishing. Lancashire Business View and LBV are registered trademarks. The views expressed by our columnists are not necessarily shared by Lancashire Business View.
Northpoint Publishing: East Park Lodge, East Park Road, Blackburn BB1 8DW. t: 01254 297870 | f: 01254 295581 e:
info@lancashirebusinessview.co.uk
ISSN: 1757-479X
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