News - Midlands
Never before have I been privy to quite such a transition of power over a burger and chips. However, the day I meet Martin Briggs and Jeff Moore for a hearty lunch at Nottingham’s Living Room restaurant there is a definite taste of change in the air.
In a few hours Moore will step up to take official charge of the regional development agency for the East Midlands, a post that not only carries with it a £156m budget but one that takes its owner into the very highest corridors of power.
It’s a role that has grown in significance too since the government first launched regional development agencies (RDAs) in nine UK regions back in the late 90s to help drive, manage and oversee their economic growth. At the time there was widespread cynicism about what true powers the RDAs would have. Those sceptics are now eating their words. The agencies are getting ever more powers precisely because New Labour is still desperately trying to work out how to bridge the ever-growing economic gap between the South East and the rest of the country.
But just as 50-year-old Moore now has to brace himself for a hectic few years, so in a few hours time Briggs will be saying goodbye after five years at the helm of the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA), a widely lauded tenure not least because of the infamous double act he made with his chairman, the well-known businessman Derek Mapp.
Unofficially, as I later learn, Moore has more or less been in charge since Christmas, but there is no doubting the significance of the official handover. Indeed, Briggs appears to be already relishing his new found freedom. After exchanging pleasantries one of the first things he does is to ask our waitress what beers she has in stock. He is visibly disappointed when his favourite tipple isn’t available.
Undeterred he plunges straight into the business of the day and for Briggs, Moore and EMDA there is a lot to talk about. Although now free from the ties of one of the most demanding civil service jobs, Briggs remains a leading intellectual voice in the wider debate about where the East Midlands – and wider Midlands – economy is heading.
The point is illustrated the day after we meet when he’s off to Manchester to address the Sustainable Communities Summit and launch the Midlands Way initiative.
“Regenerating our cities is not just about the north and the South East. It is about capitalising on the vibrancy of cities in the East Midlands too,” Briggs proclaims, before succinctly adding: “If there is a north and south then there must be a Midlands too.”
Indeed, the Midlands’ chattering classes would view that the region has been rather forgotten by New Labour over the past eight years, given ammunition by the fact that an unhealthy percentage of its Cabinet occupy northern parliamentary seats, and that time and again the Midlands has lost out when it comes to major projects (National Stadium, Capital of Culture bid, general transport infrastructure...).
Briggs’ own concern was raised higher when proposals for a Northern Way stole many column inches last year – a £100m project championed by deputy prime minister John Prescott that sees the three northern RDAs working far closer together to improve their economic and social prosperity.
Prescott’s personal influence (he is a Hull MP) made for some enlightening discussions when Briggs later caught up with him. “We had a good chat about it. The end result was that Prescott said to us that if we wanted to assert the Midlands as a big part of the UK then it was up to us to decide what issues needed addressing most, so that’s what we did.”
The result is the Midlands Way document on which Briggs and Moore worked closely with their counterparts in the West Midlands to compose. The premise underlying the whole project is essentially that closer collaboration between the two regions will create a critical mass in certain business areas, as well as better planning, and thereby improve economic competitiveness and – crucially – productivity.
“The biggest challenge we face is to find a way in which we can accelerate the pace of growth to close the gap between the Midlands and better performing regions,” adds Briggs. “The two Midlands regions have much in common and boast unique strengths, which can be jointly built upon to deliver added value.”
Briggs points to collaboration in areas such as the motorsport and aerospace sectors as proof that the model isn’t just hot air. Look too, he adds, at the success of combined efforts to attract overseas investors via the British Midlands network of offices in North America and Asia Pacific.
The plan also singles out specific goals such as exploiting innovation and joint research and development potential far better. Briggs says: “The business incubation centre Biocity, here in Nottingham, is just the sort of thing we need to be doing more of and doing more quickly.”
There is also a strong focus on infrastructure and higher education in the document too. With regards to graduates, there is a focus on the potential of large numbers of overseas students in the Midlands and the continued net outflow of students from the region. “We still see too many graduates who study here leave the region. We need to see a step change,” bemoans Briggs.
This is all eminently sensible stuff, but can the region actually get where it wants to head? Briggs is pragmatic enough to know that massive obstacles stand in its way, most of which are still historical.
I mention that his evidence before the House of Commons Treasury Committee last summer in many ways went to the crux of the problem when he told MPs that East Midlands productivity lagged behind the rest of the UK by four per cent, the gap was growing, and that the biggest problem remained a lack of highly qualified workers due to its manufacturing heritage.
The result was that many highly skilled people continued to leave the East Midlands, meaning that the overwhelming number of those who stayed were less qualified and the jobs had less of an impact on productivity. As Briggs critically remarked: “If you do not have skills in a workforce or if you cannot retain the skills you have, the business community will shape what they do around the fact that skills are not there in the workforce”.
Briggs accepts those remarks are still as relevant today but refuses to be defeatist. “When you think about urban policy the first thing you think is headache, problem. This last generation we have been coping with the legacy of the success that our great cities had in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But what made those cities great then can make them great again in the 21st century.”
Briggs’ continued use of the royal ‘we’ and his hogging of the conversation shows his passion for the subject. So much so that Moore has been able to get on and eat most of his meal in the meantime, though he has frantically nodded at regular intervals to stress he is fully signed up to the agenda.
But now it’s time to find out more about the man. A Nottingham man through and through, Moore’s rise through the EMDA ranks has been impressive. After a career in local government finance he joined EMDA as director of finance in 1999. He fondly recalls how within four weeks Briggs made him an inward investment director (“thanks for that Martin”), while by 2003 he had become Briggs’ deputy. Moore has now become the first person in the country to get the top job at an RDA from within.
Cynics said he only got the job because Briggs and Mapp (who reached the end of his fixed tenure) ended up stepping down within a few weeks of each other and the agency needed continuity. But both strongly scotch the suggestion. “If you think I was given the job for continuity it is wrong. I wanted it because I was the best person for the job. I did not get the job just because I already had my feet under the table,” retorts Moore.
OK, so now that he has his feet under the chief executive’s table what can we expect? While the Midlands Way is clearly a long-term partnership (and Briggs intends to keep up the debate in his new role as special professor at Nottingham University Business School), Moore’s focus will inevitably be on more short-term issues as he works with new incoming chairman Bryan Jackson, former managing director of Toyota in Derby. “An outstanding catch,” adds Briggs.
Moore’s immediate priority is to rewrite the Regional Economic Strategy for the region. Yet, I propose, isn’t this the very last thing that the region needs – another visionary document full of well-meaning targets and objectives? Precisely the kind of document that – from whisperings – so dismays the business community for instance?
Moore counters in two ways: “Firstly let’s get it straight, we are obliged by law to rewrite the plan. But secondly, it is good to look at where you are going. For me personally it is an opportunity to take stock and evaluate what is working well and not working well. We can see where intervention has worked and where it hasn’t. It is the right time. Besides, what business doesn’t judge itself against a plan?”
OK then, will it be readable? “I accept the point. We want to make the document as lucid and as clear to everyone as possible. Want to make it as relevant too.”
Moore stresses that the consultation process over the next few months will be crucial. And the business voice will be as important as any. “Businesses will get their chance to have their say via the CBI and the Chamber network for instance. We also want to make full use of our business champions network of some 600 individuals.”
Engaging with business and the wider public will clearly be a cornerstone of formulating longer term EMDA policy, and as we order coffee I suggest that EMDA should be doing more to open up its inner workings to help build those bonds and perhaps create less suspicion from a still sceptical business audience. In particular, I point to recent debate that EMDA should open up its board meetings to the Press.
Moore is particularly defensive on the issue. “Does any business open up its board meetings to the press and public? No they don’t, there is no reason why we should be different.”
Taxpayers who fund EMDA may disagree, while the introduction this year of the Freedom of Information Act may make moves to open up RDA business in general more inevitable in the long run.
What about councils, I add. They open up almost all meetings to the Press. “Yes, but where are real decisions made in town halls. Behind closed doors in party meetings, that’s where,” snaps Moore.
As if to simmer the debate somewhat Briggs chips in: “We are a hugely open organisation in terms of the stuff we put on the website for instance. We do not identify with this closed organisation tag that some give us.”
However, Moore is prepared at least to be quite public with me on some of his big new ideas. One of the most important is the launch of an Employment, Skills and Productivity Partnership – a crucial plank in EMDA’s attack on the region’s poor productivity – that will better bring together the work of Learning and Skills Councils and Job Centres. In a similar vein he also wants to build on the success of the agency’s ‘Get on with a graduate’ scheme where employers can take on graduates on a trial basis. “With everything we do we need to be more imaginative,” he stresses.
The point is highlighted by Moore’s efforts to set up an East Midlands Property Investment Fund, the first of its kind run by any RDA. While the government has dithered over the launch of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS) to the wider public, Moore has been busy building a framework for a fund specific for East Midlands projects. As for now he wishes to remain tight-lipped on the specifics as he is “hoping to complete legals” over the next few weeks, but what he can say is that he is hoping to have an available fund of £80m to £100m. “We want to bring forward our regeneration sites quicker. We are going through the preferred bidder status for the fund as we speak.”
In terms of wider targets Moore also avows to keep the ‘top 20 region by 2010’ tag, an ambitious target that aims to make the East Midlands a top 20 region in Europe against a range of economic and social indicators.
The target was originally spearheaded by Briggs who admits that 2010 “isn’t so far off now”. But he adds: “We have already come a long way. We were 35th at the turn of the millennium and are now 28th. But it is going to be a damn sight harder to get from 28 to 20. To be a top 20 region in Europe by 2010 is still a big proposition. Also, a lot of the rise from 35 to 28 has been based on the relatively poor performance of other European regions, especially in Germany and France, so there is no room to be complacent.
“But we fully stand behind our initial target. It made us stand out from other RDAs. It gave us something very specific to aim for, something people could judge us by.”
Moore is looking further ahead. “What are we going to be talking about in 2015 or 2020? In no way are we going to lose our 2010 tag and it remains our aspiration to get there. But we need to consider what the region wants to look like in 2020.”
Finding a middle way
Never before have I been privy to quite such a transition of power over a burger and chips. However, the day I meet Martin Briggs and Jeff Moore for a hearty lunch at Nottingham’s Living Room restaurant there is a definite taste of change in the air.In a few hours Moore will step up to take official charge of the regional development agency for the East Midlands, a post that not only carries with it a £156m budget but one that takes its owner into the very highest corridors of power.
It’s a role that has grown in significance too since the government first launched regional development agencies (RDAs) in nine UK regions back in the late 90s to help drive, manage and oversee their economic growth. At the time there was widespread cynicism about what true powers the RDAs would have. Those sceptics are now eating their words. The agencies are getting ever more powers precisely because New Labour is still desperately trying to work out how to bridge the ever-growing economic gap between the South East and the rest of the country.
But just as 50-year-old Moore now has to brace himself for a hectic few years, so in a few hours time Briggs will be saying goodbye after five years at the helm of the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA), a widely lauded tenure not least because of the infamous double act he made with his chairman, the well-known businessman Derek Mapp.
Unofficially, as I later learn, Moore has more or less been in charge since Christmas, but there is no doubting the significance of the official handover. Indeed, Briggs appears to be already relishing his new found freedom. After exchanging pleasantries one of the first things he does is to ask our waitress what beers she has in stock. He is visibly disappointed when his favourite tipple isn’t available.
Undeterred he plunges straight into the business of the day and for Briggs, Moore and EMDA there is a lot to talk about. Although now free from the ties of one of the most demanding civil service jobs, Briggs remains a leading intellectual voice in the wider debate about where the East Midlands – and wider Midlands – economy is heading.
The point is illustrated the day after we meet when he’s off to Manchester to address the Sustainable Communities Summit and launch the Midlands Way initiative.
“Regenerating our cities is not just about the north and the South East. It is about capitalising on the vibrancy of cities in the East Midlands too,” Briggs proclaims, before succinctly adding: “If there is a north and south then there must be a Midlands too.”
Indeed, the Midlands’ chattering classes would view that the region has been rather forgotten by New Labour over the past eight years, given ammunition by the fact that an unhealthy percentage of its Cabinet occupy northern parliamentary seats, and that time and again the Midlands has lost out when it comes to major projects (National Stadium, Capital of Culture bid, general transport infrastructure...).
Briggs’ own concern was raised higher when proposals for a Northern Way stole many column inches last year – a £100m project championed by deputy prime minister John Prescott that sees the three northern RDAs working far closer together to improve their economic and social prosperity.
Prescott’s personal influence (he is a Hull MP) made for some enlightening discussions when Briggs later caught up with him. “We had a good chat about it. The end result was that Prescott said to us that if we wanted to assert the Midlands as a big part of the UK then it was up to us to decide what issues needed addressing most, so that’s what we did.”
The result is the Midlands Way document on which Briggs and Moore worked closely with their counterparts in the West Midlands to compose. The premise underlying the whole project is essentially that closer collaboration between the two regions will create a critical mass in certain business areas, as well as better planning, and thereby improve economic competitiveness and – crucially – productivity.
“The biggest challenge we face is to find a way in which we can accelerate the pace of growth to close the gap between the Midlands and better performing regions,” adds Briggs. “The two Midlands regions have much in common and boast unique strengths, which can be jointly built upon to deliver added value.”
Briggs points to collaboration in areas such as the motorsport and aerospace sectors as proof that the model isn’t just hot air. Look too, he adds, at the success of combined efforts to attract overseas investors via the British Midlands network of offices in North America and Asia Pacific.
The plan also singles out specific goals such as exploiting innovation and joint research and development potential far better. Briggs says: “The business incubation centre Biocity, here in Nottingham, is just the sort of thing we need to be doing more of and doing more quickly.”
There is also a strong focus on infrastructure and higher education in the document too. With regards to graduates, there is a focus on the potential of large numbers of overseas students in the Midlands and the continued net outflow of students from the region. “We still see too many graduates who study here leave the region. We need to see a step change,” bemoans Briggs.
This is all eminently sensible stuff, but can the region actually get where it wants to head? Briggs is pragmatic enough to know that massive obstacles stand in its way, most of which are still historical.
I mention that his evidence before the House of Commons Treasury Committee last summer in many ways went to the crux of the problem when he told MPs that East Midlands productivity lagged behind the rest of the UK by four per cent, the gap was growing, and that the biggest problem remained a lack of highly qualified workers due to its manufacturing heritage.
The result was that many highly skilled people continued to leave the East Midlands, meaning that the overwhelming number of those who stayed were less qualified and the jobs had less of an impact on productivity. As Briggs critically remarked: “If you do not have skills in a workforce or if you cannot retain the skills you have, the business community will shape what they do around the fact that skills are not there in the workforce”.
Briggs accepts those remarks are still as relevant today but refuses to be defeatist. “When you think about urban policy the first thing you think is headache, problem. This last generation we have been coping with the legacy of the success that our great cities had in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But what made those cities great then can make them great again in the 21st century.”
Briggs’ continued use of the royal ‘we’ and his hogging of the conversation shows his passion for the subject. So much so that Moore has been able to get on and eat most of his meal in the meantime, though he has frantically nodded at regular intervals to stress he is fully signed up to the agenda.
But now it’s time to find out more about the man. A Nottingham man through and through, Moore’s rise through the EMDA ranks has been impressive. After a career in local government finance he joined EMDA as director of finance in 1999. He fondly recalls how within four weeks Briggs made him an inward investment director (“thanks for that Martin”), while by 2003 he had become Briggs’ deputy. Moore has now become the first person in the country to get the top job at an RDA from within.
Cynics said he only got the job because Briggs and Mapp (who reached the end of his fixed tenure) ended up stepping down within a few weeks of each other and the agency needed continuity. But both strongly scotch the suggestion. “If you think I was given the job for continuity it is wrong. I wanted it because I was the best person for the job. I did not get the job just because I already had my feet under the table,” retorts Moore.
OK, so now that he has his feet under the chief executive’s table what can we expect? While the Midlands Way is clearly a long-term partnership (and Briggs intends to keep up the debate in his new role as special professor at Nottingham University Business School), Moore’s focus will inevitably be on more short-term issues as he works with new incoming chairman Bryan Jackson, former managing director of Toyota in Derby. “An outstanding catch,” adds Briggs.
Moore’s immediate priority is to rewrite the Regional Economic Strategy for the region. Yet, I propose, isn’t this the very last thing that the region needs – another visionary document full of well-meaning targets and objectives? Precisely the kind of document that – from whisperings – so dismays the business community for instance?
Moore counters in two ways: “Firstly let’s get it straight, we are obliged by law to rewrite the plan. But secondly, it is good to look at where you are going. For me personally it is an opportunity to take stock and evaluate what is working well and not working well. We can see where intervention has worked and where it hasn’t. It is the right time. Besides, what business doesn’t judge itself against a plan?”
OK then, will it be readable? “I accept the point. We want to make the document as lucid and as clear to everyone as possible. Want to make it as relevant too.”
Moore stresses that the consultation process over the next few months will be crucial. And the business voice will be as important as any. “Businesses will get their chance to have their say via the CBI and the Chamber network for instance. We also want to make full use of our business champions network of some 600 individuals.”
Engaging with business and the wider public will clearly be a cornerstone of formulating longer term EMDA policy, and as we order coffee I suggest that EMDA should be doing more to open up its inner workings to help build those bonds and perhaps create less suspicion from a still sceptical business audience. In particular, I point to recent debate that EMDA should open up its board meetings to the Press.
Moore is particularly defensive on the issue. “Does any business open up its board meetings to the press and public? No they don’t, there is no reason why we should be different.”
Taxpayers who fund EMDA may disagree, while the introduction this year of the Freedom of Information Act may make moves to open up RDA business in general more inevitable in the long run.
What about councils, I add. They open up almost all meetings to the Press. “Yes, but where are real decisions made in town halls. Behind closed doors in party meetings, that’s where,” snaps Moore.
As if to simmer the debate somewhat Briggs chips in: “We are a hugely open organisation in terms of the stuff we put on the website for instance. We do not identify with this closed organisation tag that some give us.”
However, Moore is prepared at least to be quite public with me on some of his big new ideas. One of the most important is the launch of an Employment, Skills and Productivity Partnership – a crucial plank in EMDA’s attack on the region’s poor productivity – that will better bring together the work of Learning and Skills Councils and Job Centres. In a similar vein he also wants to build on the success of the agency’s ‘Get on with a graduate’ scheme where employers can take on graduates on a trial basis. “With everything we do we need to be more imaginative,” he stresses.
The point is highlighted by Moore’s efforts to set up an East Midlands Property Investment Fund, the first of its kind run by any RDA. While the government has dithered over the launch of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS) to the wider public, Moore has been busy building a framework for a fund specific for East Midlands projects. As for now he wishes to remain tight-lipped on the specifics as he is “hoping to complete legals” over the next few weeks, but what he can say is that he is hoping to have an available fund of £80m to £100m. “We want to bring forward our regeneration sites quicker. We are going through the preferred bidder status for the fund as we speak.”
In terms of wider targets Moore also avows to keep the ‘top 20 region by 2010’ tag, an ambitious target that aims to make the East Midlands a top 20 region in Europe against a range of economic and social indicators.
The target was originally spearheaded by Briggs who admits that 2010 “isn’t so far off now”. But he adds: “We have already come a long way. We were 35th at the turn of the millennium and are now 28th. But it is going to be a damn sight harder to get from 28 to 20. To be a top 20 region in Europe by 2010 is still a big proposition. Also, a lot of the rise from 35 to 28 has been based on the relatively poor performance of other European regions, especially in Germany and France, so there is no room to be complacent.
“But we fully stand behind our initial target. It made us stand out from other RDAs. It gave us something very specific to aim for, something people could judge us by.”
Moore is looking further ahead. “What are we going to be talking about in 2015 or 2020? In no way are we going to lose our 2010 tag and it remains our aspiration to get there. But we need to consider what the region wants to look like in 2020.”