88 DEBATE
Jane Cole
John Chesworth
Mark Rawstron
Paula Gill Continued from Page 87
Rachel W: It is really important in terms of the ambition and opportunity that we have but, for me, the whole point of the whole growth plan and the industrial strategy nationally has got to be a third word, which needs to be ‘momentum’. It needs to build and we are seeing that momentum build.
Q: How important is it that we represent the thinking behind the document as the voice of business collectively?
MB: What I am looking forward to most from devolution is a long-term investment strategy and investment input from government because we’re able to communicate that ambition and that growth.
We need to make sure that we own this plan because unlike Manchester and unlike Liverpool, we are likely to see a mayor that changes political colour every four plus years.
So, we must make sure the plan is clear and long term, so whoever comes in every three, four, five years says, “This is Team Lancashire, this is my plan, this is the plan that we’re all on.’ That is vital.
MR: What this document should be and is doing, and it is helpful in the narrative, is saying, ‘Actually, Lancashire is one big public- private partnership that if we all work together, we can get X, Y and Z out of it.’
AW: The business board has expressed a really strong desire not just to be receivers of policy and improvers of our ideas but, also, to be active ambassadors, to be out there winning deals and winning investment for Lancashire.
Part of the reason that Lancashire has maybe not played as strong a hand in inward investments as it could have, is that we need businesses out there telling other businesses why it’s good to invest in Lancashire.
Rachel Westray
Q: Lancashire businesses face many challenges. How will this document help and what opportunities are there?
PG: This document is going to help identify where we can be stronger. We’re already strong, it’s where we can be stronger.
Funding is a big issue. When there’s a huge manufacturing base like we’ve got, with a huge number of employees, that next set of opportunities that comes is going to require new equipment. Just having that capital investment would help massively.
AW: There’s a danger in these documents that we try and be all things to all people, and what we’ve tried to do with the growth plan is to pick on some very specific things where Lancashire can win, where Lancashire is world class.
They are established industries and technologies to a certain extent, but they are industries and technologies which face change.
Miranda Barker
challenges. Net Zero, the way autonomous flights and autonomous vehicles will develop, these are all things that Lancashire is hugely well placed to act on, and where if we grow, the nation will grow as well.
This government’s mantra of, ‘Growth, growth, growth,’ is where we need to make our pitch and we need to show that the return on investment for monies that go into Lancashire is going to be significant.
That’s where the projects sit, that’s where the things that the University of Central Lancashire is doing around autonomous flights, what’s happening at Westinghouse, at Blackpool with the whole energy coast and the development of AI and data centres. The growth plan provides a nest in which that collection of projects sits.
John C: The sectors that are front and centre of the growth plan are pretty
This document is going to help identify where we can be stronger. We’re already strong, it’s where we can be stronger
We are fortunate to host BAE Systems, now in the midst of developing a global combat air programme. That is world-leading technology happening here in Lancashire.
We are fortunate too to have the only UK producer of nuclear fuels in Westinghouse. And although we talk about it a lot, the £10bnn investment of National Cyber Force coming to Samlesbury is also transformational.
The county as a whole, from that industrial base, is responding to a whole series of
clear. We’ve got to speak to the whole of business, there are lots of SMEs who say, ‘I don’t build planes, I don’t contribute towards nuclear, so what’s in it for me?’
Answering that is really important if we are going to connect with the whole of the business community and particularly the SME community.
We need to shout really loudly to the private investment community about the opportunities that we have and talk their language.
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