The North West is navigating a year of political change with its usual stoical and pragmatic attitude. The get up and go of the private sector continues to punctuate the flow of news, with large corporates showing signs of recovery and optimism again, along with an appetite for the high quality offices to let in the North West. But the public sector, like so many others in the UK, is staring down the barrel of a gun.
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While most agree that the cuts need to take place, they are still going to hurt in a region where nearly a quarter of the economy relies on the public purse. The abolition of the Northwest Regional Development Agency is just one in a series of cuts that will wash through in the coming years.
But good news came in October with the approval of four local enterprise partnerships for the region. Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester, Cumbria and Cheshire and Warrington were given the green light by the government but Lancashire’s bid has been rejected. It remains to be seen what powers these alliances will have.
High points from the Comprehensive Spending Review include government investment in transport infrastructure with £80m for a second Mersey crossing at Runcorn and the electrification of the Liverpool-Manchester rail line. These announcements come as Network Rail prepares to submit its Northern Hub plan to ministers in order to improve connectivity across the wider region.
The market for commercial property for sale in the North West has been slow with major developments few and far between but Manchester received a boost by climbing four places in Cushman & Wakefield’s league of the Best Places to Locate a Business. Work on a new headquarters for the Co-operative Group provides a positive story for the city’s expansion, as do relocations such as internet success Laterooms.com.
ors of the future include logistics, nuclear and bioscience. The private sector continues to lead the charge in developing the port and airport infrastructure with haulier Stobart Group and developer Peel Holdings bringing forward overarching plans to further integrate what the region can offer across road, rail and sea.
Cheshire’s Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus, which is one of the positive legacies of NWDA intervention, has signed a joint venture with developer Langtree to further expand the site offering much needed offices to let in the North West. The partnership will see the development of around 1 million sq ft of space for science and innovation facilities, high-tech businesses and supporting infrastructure, bringing more than 6,000 new jobs to the area over the next 30 years.
And Cumbria’s nuclear industry, which is well placed to service any future renaissance in the sector, sits alongside Britain’s Energy Coast, which is a £2bn package of regeneration projects to establish the West Coast of Cumbria as a major national hub for low carbon and renewable energy generation.
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