Member Article

North East Northern Powerhouse insight: Mike Matthews, MD at Nifco

In an ongoing series, Jamie Hardesty is talking to North East business leaders in an attempt to understand the region’s feelings towards the government’s Northern Powerhouse initiative.

The next regional entrepreneur to take part in our investigation is Mike Matthews MBE, managing director of Nifco UK and European operations officer, also the current president of the North East Chamber of Commerce.

What does the Northern Powerhouse mean to you?

To me, the Northern Powerhouse signals hope for the future; an economic boost for our region. This is the opportunity that is needed for the North East to join forces with the wider North to be able to achieve more, attract more investment, and to become a louder, more authoritative voice.

Are there signs of the northern Powerhouse starting to bear fruit in the region?

I don’t believe we’re seeing any great progress with this yet, we continue to hear a great deal about Manchester, Leeds and the like, and not enough about the great contribution the North East makes, or could make, to the Northern Powerhouse.

Has the government done enough to convince you of its commitment to Osborne’s vision?

I do believe the government is committed to the Northern Powerhouse, but there is much more to be done.

There is talk of the North’s ‘people power’ that will be unified with the proposed stronger transport links, which could become a collective force fit to rival that of London and the South East, but too much time is being spent focusing on boundaries rather than ensuring that enough investment is being fed into the skills of our people to ensure the continued growth and success of the North.

Transport improvement is intrinsic to the Northern Powerhouse. Do you believe that spending billions on infrastructure will improve Northern productivity?

I would say yes and no – as the region that is furthest away from potential markets, both domestically and internationally, it will benefit many businesses. However, I certainly don’t want to talk down the excellent links we already have via our strong regional ports, excellent airports and direct rail route into the heart of both the English and Scottish capitals.

Nifco ships plastic car parts to almost 300 plants around the world using our existing transport networks and we have continued to see growth. We have great links here, but the possibilities are huge if we were to make improvements to the connections we already have.

Are there any other areas which you believe money should be spent on, ahead of transport?

Education. With the looming skills gap this is absolutely vital to the success of not just the North but the whole country.

All industries and all sectors are facing skills shortages as we suffer from 20 years of insufficient cross-sector investment in the right skills and training, this is evident not only in engineering and manufacturing but is also having a huge impact on trades such as painters and decorators, plumbers and welders - the list is endless.

Somehow we appear to have slipped into a national attitude of training only when funding is available instead of seeing training, education, growth and succession planning as a business imperative. Subsequent to this, we have seen several sectors seriously underinvest in skills development and poach from other sectors, this has done nothing for the overall capacity of our national economy which we so desperately need to grow.

This is not a UK unique problem, I have experienced the same issues first-hand in Germany, Spain and Poland. If we are not careful, companies in Europe will attract our, already thin on the ground, skills to go and work abroad in their countries. Essentially to prosper as a nation we need to achieve a level of skills that means we never have to turn down any contract or business opportunity, and sufficient that we can be seen as a “Skills Oasis” in order that we can attract further investment from home or abroad.

I also believe more should be spent on careers guidance in schools, as so many young people are leaving school without the skills they need because they haven’t had the guidance on what opportunities are available to them.

I would like to think that with the force of the Northern Powerhouse behind us, this is something that the North can drive, leading by example.

That is not to say that transport isn’t important – it is vital but we need to look beyond the traditional road, rail air and sea and think about digital connectivity. We live in the digital age and the North has a great reputation for digital talent and business.

Finally, I would like to see investment in the image of the North – a brand which attracts people and business to visit, to study, to work and to invest here. So many people hark back to the Passionate People, Passionate Places campaign which was launched in 2005 by One North East, that’s because it worked. It gave the North East a collective brand to attract tourism and we seem to be missing that now – the Northern Powerhouse has the opportunity to capitalise on this good work and group tourism and business together under the same banner.

Does the North East need a mayor? If so, who should it be?

I believe so, yes. I think we need a face of the North East, someone to pull everything together and represent the North East within the greater North, ensuring our contributions to the Northern Powerhouse are recognised.

We have many strong, knowledgeable, well-connected business leaders in the North East and a number of them would be fitting regional mayors.

Will the Northern Powerhouse be realised in the North East?

The North East is already contributing so much to the Northern Powerhouse, our automotive, digital and pharmaceutical industries are all forces to be reckoned with, but this contribution is often unrepresented beyond our region.

We need to be pushing the successes of the North East to ensure they’re recognised by the wider North and that we play a key part in driving the movement towards One North. If we fail to collaborate as a region in enabling growth, then we will fail to see the North East taken seriously as a key player in the Northern Powerhouse – collaboration is key, and more businesses need to be taking note.

Thanks Mike.

To get involved in this series, contact Jamie at jamie.hardesty@bdaily.co.uk.