Columnist

Post No vote in Scotland, where does this leave the North East?

It’s been an interesting debate since we received the news regarding the Scottish independence referendum. There have been many suggestions put forward regarding English devolution and more local power in the North East.

There has been renewed discussion about going back to the Regional Assembly – I don’t think we need this, what I do think we need is strong leadership. We are lucky that a Combined Authority is already in place in the North East. Having this infrastructure gives us a head start, and a vehicle to enable us to take on additional spending powers and move those forward relatively quickly.

The three key business areas for the North East, as I see it, are economic development – we have a strong economic offering but it’s a competitive market out there, both nationally and internationally. We need to get the message out in a clear and confident manner.

Skills are crucially important; we have great universities and students coming through the system, both at university and at school level. It is a great string to our bow that the North East’s GCSE results are the highest in the country and have been since 2008 – that’s a statistic we need to get out there. More companies are realising the ready-made talent pool in this part of the world and are helping to retain that talent in the region.

The final area is major infrastructure investment. We know the statistics about how this part of the country has been under-serviced in terms of infrastructure spend. That needs to change. We can grow the economy if the investment is there to reduce transport times. We also need to ensure that we are much more integrated with the Scottish cities. Upgrading the A1, providing better train connections and business links will all form part of this.

We are at a moment in time when the relations between the North East and Scotland and other regions is in the national eye. We need strong leadership to make sure we get the powers and investment we need to make a difference, and to attract the next round of job creating projects. So will this be via an elected Mayor for the Newcastle City Region or from more presence and visibility from the Combined Authority leadership? Either way, we can’t let the opportunity pass, particularly when a stronger Scotland is likely to emerge immediately next to us.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Fergus Trim .