Northern Way

The Northern Way Growth Strategy aims to establish the North of England as an area of exceptional opportunity, with a world class economy and a superb quality of life.

The Growth Strategy aims to tackle the £30 billion output gap between the North of England and the rest of the UK by building on the assets  of the three regions to transform the North's economy. It aims to do this by:

• Producing greater impact by doing important things together across the North
• Demonstrating how existing national programmes can be even more effective across the North
• Preparing a strong evidence base for new investment and specific policies that will meet the requirements of the North

The initiative is being led by the three Northern Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) - Yorkshire Forward, Northwest Development Agency and One NorthEast. It will not replace existing regional strategies, such as the Regional Economic Strategy (RES) and the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS). It will contribute to the strategies as they are developed and reviewed by looking at the opportunites for the three northern regions to gain the most by working together on specific actions.

The Northern Way is focusing on the eight City Regions where 90% of the economic activity in the North takes place. The City Regions are:

• Liverpool
• Central Lancashire
• Manchester
• Sheffield
• Leeds
• Hull and Humber Ports
• Tees Valley
• Tyne & Wear

The City Regions each produced a development programme in June 2005 that describes their strategy for development which will contribute to closing the £30 billion output gap.

The Northern Way Growth Strategy identified ten investment priorities which it is tackling through eight workstreams:

Each workstream has its own set of objectives that will contribute to closing the output gap. In many cases the workstreams will benefit the City Regions. For example, ‘Bring more people into employment’ will build on government’s efforts by exploring the best ways of returning the long term unemployed in the North to the workplace. The findings will lead to actions that will benefit all eight City Regions.

The Growth Strategy sets out how these aims will be achieved by 2025. The Northern Way Business Plan 2005-2008 was published in June 2005. Both the Strategy and the Business Plan are available by clicking through to the Northern Way website or you can download the business plan below.

Northern Way Business Plan 2005-2008