I’ve had time to reflect on Andy Burnham’s first speech as MP and front (likely only) runner for Prime Minister not especially from a political perspective but from one of place. thinkingplace is twenty years old this year and as the leading specialist in creating place led approaches over that time we have seen an ever-increasing emphasis on place from Government via policy and funding pots. However, in the Burnham speech place seems to have reached its zenith as it formed the basis and foundation for his entire ‘rewiring Britain’ agenda. It anchors two of his biggest and most important policy pillars; Place-First Government a move away from traditional, centralised politics setting out the case for ‘place first’ not ‘party first’ approach to national wellbeing and Place-Based Investment pledging to consolidate public and private investment at a place based level to fund growth around the country without the need for Whitehall approval.
Of course, ‘No 10 North’ hit the headlines as it was intended to, partly in the context of criticising Westminster calling it a ‘fragmented and disjointed place’. However, this is not a simplistic let’s redeploy resources to the North and Midlands at the expense of the South it is a reflection there is far too much inequality in places right across the UK and that the growth UK plc desperately needs will not occur ‘unless every single postcode in the land is set up to contribute to it’.
Sitting behind this are two fundamentals thinkingplace has been championing for many years, the first is ‘fuzzy geography’ which means looking at places as customers see them e.g. investors, relocators, visitors; not an artificial boundary which relates only to political governance but a place defined by assets. The only boundaries to this approach are what things can be justifiably linked to a particular city or town which usually relate to accessibility.
The second is the ‘collaborative influence’ of place which supersedes insular and narrow perspectives about a location by considering how it is benefitting the rest of the UK; for example the University of Oxford and the University of Liverpool have a strategic partnership designed to deepen collaboration in innovation-led growth supporting the national industrial strategy. In fact, when thinkingplace created the Oxfordshire place narrative we emphasised how the area acts as a ‘thinking hub’ fuelling economic growth and job creation across the UK. Its talent, entrepreneurial spirit, research and pioneering DNA is opening up opportunities that are helping transform UK plc. These are as varied as Spaceport in Cornwall, the Innovation and Technology Centre in the North-East, Green Port on the Humber, the Fusion Technology Centre in South Yorkshire and Motorsport Valley in the Midlands and Oxfordshire; this is collaboration in action. As we have long argued and this speech highlights we cannot have a norm of places competing on what is a small, economic island ecosystem they must act together!
And, collaboration is just as important for rural and coastal communities to ensure they are influencing their Strategic Authority; these places are supporting national resilience via agriculture, green energy and more and need appropriate skills and affordable housing to deliver in these areas. Their voice needs to be heard via themed coalitions such as Action with Communities in Rural England to build guidance at a national level and sectoral collaborations for delivery at a regional level as seen in the South West Net Zero Hub which brings regional government, community energy groups, private finance and public assets to create green infrastructure bypassing traditional urban centric frameworks; place based innovation.
What will help in that understanding is the concept of ‘place layering’ developed by our very own Martin Reeves, OBE, Strategic Associate Director of thinkingplace and CEO of Oxfordshire County Council. He makes clear we all live and work in a multiplicity of places at the same time, a street, a neighbourhood, a town or city, a region and a country. The relevance of which are used in promotion, policy and conversation is entirely down to which audience they are addressing. Without ignoring our own place, as it’s critical to understand its assets and opportunities we need to think much more about relationships, complementarity and collaboration.
thinkingplace is clear that properly resourced local powers in a place led context is the best way to deliver growth by people and partnerships that really understand the ‘art of the possible’ in their place, whether that is through Strategic Authorities or re-organised Councils ‘if councils can’t fix potholes, what chance do they have of bringing forward major regeneration schemes to get growth going’. Whatever the politics place and local people first has the best chance of success and this will be far easier to achieve if it comes from the top.
John Till, CEO, thinkingplace
