Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Looking for the northern power house

We take a look at the territory.

When we previously referred to the 'Northern Power House' as being a 'vision', it prompted the thought that a visit might be useful to have a look at things on the ground and seek the green shoots of growth of this new era of northern power.

Historically the region played a major part in England's Industrial Revolution -1760 to 1840. The damper climate of Lancashire worked best for cotton mills, while Yorkshire mills produced wool. Huddersfield located midway between Leeds and Manchester is actually only 190 miles north of London and Huddersfield was where we located. The mills that generated the wealth were not without problems, with early labour troubles instigated by the Luddites who smashed mill equipment and where at least one mill owner was shot dead. But that was over 2oo years ago. The town today is much like many other English towns with its national chain stores brands, supermarkets, pound shops, charity shops and vacant shops. The area also has a number of museum celebrating the past industrial successes and many fine buildings remain as a legacy of past wealth, not least the much admired railway station facade.

Presumably in the Industrial Revolution, first the canals and then the railways were built to ship out the mill goods to markets further afield. The HS2 railway however seems to be presented as the driver for the Northern Power House vision and not its servant. Down south there are plenty of protest posters in leafy Buckinghamshire against HS2 which will  run through this pleasant area, but here's a thing. HS2 doesn't actually go to the north at all. It kind of bypasses Birmingham and runs out of steam somewhere north of Tamworth. It is described as a London to West Midlands railway. Phase 2 is still vague with spurs to Manchester and Leeds suggested. HS3 is even more of an illusion dreamed up to to improve east west links, but a map suggests a series of spurs linking various northern towns and hopefully built by 2033! And it all seems to hinge on Chinese investment.

So is there any evidence of a Northern Power House in meaningful terms yet? Or is it a political thing to create an autonomous region and prevent demands for independence, not by Scotland, but for England? From a marketing point of view there seems to be no unique proposition from a group of northern cities and towns being bundled together as an English sub brand. The geography  doesn't help and fast trains a couple of decades away might instead offer a faster exit from the area.

No comments: