in the wake of a raft of recent bids for central government funding for major regeneration projects across Lancashire.
Speakers welcomed those bids as a starting point but repeated the message about the need for a county-wide strategy and unified leadership.
Tom Higgins, director at construction giant Laing O’Rourke, which is currently working on the new Everton football stadium in Merseyside, said that culture, vision and focus were vital for success.
Culture drives innovation,
innovation drives growth and growth drives economic prosperity
He said: “Lancashire should have a joined-up approach. And as for a mayor – I think from a construction industry perspective, if you don’t do that, you are dead in the water. Everyone around you is doing it, there’s only so much in the pot, if you don’t have it, then someone else will.
Tom added: “Culture drives innovation, innovation drives growth and growth drives economic prosperity.”
He said that Lancashire had areas where the cultural approach could be driven and a 30-year vision presented to central government and investors, but it had to be part of an overall strategy.
John Chesworth, executive chairman at Harrison Drury, echoed his views. He said: “What a good way to summarise how everything must link together to drive prosperity.
“We have pockets of plans here, in Blackpool, in Preston, Blackburn with Darwen, Lancaster, but the county needs an overarching strategy,
an overarching direction and leadership and we need to have a real pulling-together.
“The built environment plays a part as a catalyst in levelling up, it is a means to an end, but the outcomes must be better lives for people across Lancashire.”
Frank McKenna, from Downtown in Business, said: “Lancashire is in a fantastic place in terms of its location, its natural assets, but what we don’t have, which we have seen in places like the West Midlands, Liverpool city region and Manchester, is that co-ordinated approach, that prioritisation of the things that will make a massive difference strategically.
“There still parochialism. That is not a progressive way of approaching a levelling up agenda, it has to be a strategic, co-ordinated approach.
“In terms of a mayor, you can either do it or decide it’s too hard and you’ll take what you get left after Andy Burnham (Manchester), Andy Street (West Midlands), Steve Rotherham (Liverpool) and Ben Houchen (Teesside) have taken what they want off the table. They are two Conservative and two Labour mayors who are extremely aggressive at this.”
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