How do we give old industrial cities a new sense of purpose?
A very good question. It would seem from research that the most important catalyst for regeneration is finding a purpose - to reach full potential, old industrial areas need purpose and to be forward and outward looking and in a nutshell that basically comes from sharing ideas and working together. Once the purpose is established, working in conjunction with government, local government, business, charity and communities then that purpose can become a reality. What is very exciting about this is that there are many success stories - too many to cram into the 8 minutes available to us now - so I have selected just a few examples to show how it can be done.
It is not just the old industrial cities, but all communities in the UK should have purpose. Finding purposes, making sure that these purposes are sustainable and helping places make the transition to new purposes is vital to the economic and social success of the UK.
In answer to Harry’s question, basically the cities need to work out for themselves what their new purpose should be and it is worth remembering that the city would never have existed in the first place without a purpose.
MANUFACTURING
Most of these old cities were built on industry and manufacturing and manufacturing still plays a very important role today - it is still a major part of our economy (outside London) and its impact on prosperity is far greater than its share of employment, as it brings income to the local economy that then recirculates through supply chains and wages to support other local jobs. It also lends itself well to areas that have lost their old manufacturing base, as housing is cheaper in these cities, competition and labour is generally relatively cheap and they are a long way off full employment so these areas are ideal for businesses needing employees.
Sunderland is a good example. Was shipbuilding and coal mining – all gone now. In 1986 Nissan opened there and now employs 7,000 people plus many more in local suppliers, and is now one of the most productive and efficient plants in Europe. In partnership with the Sunderland City Council ,on 150 acres it is building a new International Advanced Manufacturing plant which should create an extra 5.000 jobs by 2027.
What has become apparent to me in researching ‘how do we give old cities a new sense of purpose’ is that although the cities themselves have to work out the new purpose, they also on the whole require certain policies to be in place, and indeed these policies need to be improved. Possibly one of the most important of the policies relates to manufacturing, as we have seen with Sunderland, and especially modern manufacturing. To help rekick their economies these old cities also need investment in new technology, easier finance available for business growth, to address the skills gap and place more emphasis on quality jobs, target funding at areas that need it the most, increase investment in local transport and infrastructure (not just prestige projects like HS2 and 3), invest in digital capacity, improve cultural facilities and even to distribute lottery funding and arts council grants more fairly. Most of the above is out of the hands of the deprived cities and regions and at present requires central government and also the banks to change their habits but it is incredible what can be achieved with people of vision and purpose in these deprived areas that we are talking about.
It strikes me that the success stories all have something in common and that is human communication. Frequently it is an enlightened council with a purpose that works with local businesses or a charitable foundation to put their purpose into action.
A good example of working with business is Preston which uses public procurement as a development tool.. Preston’s past was cotton which of course is long gone. Preston Council has worked with local partners to develop its ‘anchor institution’ approach – all major local organisations came together to reconfigure their spending patterns and procure more in the local area. Preston’s public services now source GBP74m more from businesses in the town than they did in 2013, with another GBP200m more from businesses across the rest of Lancashire.
The prime purpose of the ‘Preston Model’ is community wealth building – making sure local communities and businesses prosper and are more resilient to downturns. Preston is now exploring regional banking to boost local businesses and the wider development of cooperatives and other models of local public ownership and economic democracy.
A very good example of working with a charitable foundation is Longannet in Fife which is now a training and enterprise hub. Longannet thrived on coal until the Longannet colliery was closed in the 1990s and then the its coal power station was closed in 2016. The Coalfields Regeneration Trust (which has given a huge boost to many hard hit regions in the UK) engaged with the worst hit areas in Fife and Clackmannanshire pulling together a number of local communities to produce a 5 year plan. One of the biggest achievments initially was creating a training and enterprise hub in a former Bank in Kincardine providing a flexible working space to bring together lone workers, to combat social isolation and to encourage social entrepreneurship. It acts as an innovation hub, a business incubator and as a community centre. Since then, obviously with a fair wind, plans for a new train factory on the old power station have been given the goahead by the Scottish Government. The Spanish lightweight train manufacturer Talgo will employ 1,000 people, supporting a further 5,000.
It is just worth mentioning here Tredgar (much further down the country and further behind in its development) which really repurposed itself to tackle disadvantage as its priority, and again the Coalfields Regeneration Trust helped.
Tredgar was steel and coalmining – all the jobs gone now. Cardiff is 30 miles away and there is no rail link – deprivation is widespread in the town.
In 2016 the Coalfields Regeneration Trust took over Aneurin Bevan House, did it up and the first priority was to set up a Credit Union to begin to offer an alternative to illegal and high interest rate moneylending which had of course increased the misery in the area. Further work is underway to address the impact on indebtedness from the roll out of Unviersal Credit.
A new town centre forum has been created to establish a vision of what Tredegar could become. One emerging priortity is to tap into the town’s rich industrial heritage and culture and to promote Tredegar as a Health heritage Town – the home of the NHS. I think Tredgar is a shining example of what can be done from the depths of despair. Their purpose is just being formulated but it has started to make an impact.
Another very good example of re-purposing through heritage and culture is Wakefield. Wakefield was coal, and lost 20,000 jobs with its collapse.
The council and local partners have worked for the last 20 years to re-purpose and re-brand Wakefield with culture and heritage at the heart of the new vision.
Wakefield is now home to the internationally renowned Hepworth Gallery bringing in GBP5m a year from visitor spend and has become the anchor site for the development of Wakefield’s inland waterfront. Wakefield now also has the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and National Mining Museum for England.
Culture and leisure have helped to re-purpose the economy – Backstage Academy , is the largest rehearsal space in Europe attracting major artists from around the world and delivering degree-level courses in performing arts management and in lighting and sound technologies.
Wakefield also holds a number of annual festivals including festivals for food, drink and, can you believe it, a rhubarb and the Pontefract liquorice festival – all attract international attention and have been instrumental in raising the profile of Wakefield and its environs to inward investors and employers.
So for me, what has been very heartening in looking into research on deprived industrial areas is that much of the regeneration has begun with individuals with a vision. So in answer to Harry’s question ‘How do we give old industrial cities a new sense of purpose?’ we do all we can to support those individuals in councils and local businesses to formulate their purposes. The councils and local businesses can do much of the work themselves but we also need central government and banks to help get funds where they are needed.
Sources: ‘Places with purpose - the future of industrial cities, towns and communities’, Centre for Towns, Coalfields Regeneration Trust, Industrial Communities Alliance, and Key Cities Group. Fife Regional Council. BBC.