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North East Northern Powerhouse insight: Tim Bailey, xsite architecture

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 North East business leader to have their say is Tim Bailey, founder of Newcastle-based xsite architecture.

Tim has been an architect since 1992 and has been involved with a diverse range of realised projects with contract values between £50k and £6m throughout the region and London.

A proud North Easterner, Tim pulls no punches when it comes to when it comes to sifting through rhetoric surrounding government promises and actions.

Hi Tim, what does the Northern Powerhouse mean to you?

As a phrase it hasn’t got any meaning, it’s all guess work. There is within some of the rhetoric an attractive notion of the greater north rallying around one goal of creating a muscular economy in the collective interest of the whole geography against the south.

That isn’t going to happen because if northerners were predisposed to that way of behaving it would already be a reality and being oppositional is futile. We are already internationalists in trade and outlook, we are realistic about the uneven way the UK has developed its economy over the last 60 years and we are patient enough to realise that with digital technologies dominating change in all sectors there is quite likely to be some near term gains towards rebalancing those effects by playing to our strengths, creativity and tenacity.

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

No, not that I have seen but that is because nothing has started yet under that banner. There is an interesting side effect of groups coming together to discuss the what, how and where of a potential Northern Powerhouse, though, which is an increasing awareness of the need for identity and what that might be.

From what I have read of the extent of promised funds, the proposed capital projects and the likely timescales for starts to be into the next Parliament there won’t be any fruit at all to speak of in the next three or four years.

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

I perceive that the government has largely left Osborne to hang out to dry on this. If they were serious about this initiative the investment of time and money would be significantly greater than what has been talked about and it would be much sooner. I do get a sense that the Conservative Party have realised that they need northern seats at the next General Election to be returned and the Powerhouse will be the electoral promise to try and win them.

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

No. It will improve the speed of connectivity but not to the extent that significant growth in inter regional trade would affect overall economic outputs. Better links might encourage trade routes but increases in productivity are going to come from a more uniform investment pattern across the UK, an increase in population and their spending power and better trade outside the region.

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

In developed countries it is quite normal to see that the second and third largest cities in the nation are around half the size or greater of the first. This factor acts as a balancing condition for populations, investment decisions, economies and ultimately spreads growth more evenly around those centres and the country.

In the UK the largest city area, London (Greater London), is approximately four times the size of the next two, Birmingham (West Midlands built up area) and Manchester (Greater Manchester built up area), creating a magnetic pull from other centres that exacerbates the uneven nature of economic growth and wealth retention. We should address this factor first, then education and then perhaps transport.

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

This is a vexed question. I favour a mayoral system but think that the North East is too large an area to ever have a single mayor be effective. I would favour though a mayor for each of Northumberland, Tyneside, Wearside, Durham and Teesside that acted together on certain regional matters in a supra-cabinet forum.

The detail would need to be worked through but each mayor would have a five year term, with one of those as Chair of the joint cabinet forum. Urban and rural concerns, housing, planning and transport or similar would be portfolios at regional level that carry responsibility across political boundaries.

Who should it be? If she was up for it Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson would get my vote.

Will the Northern Powerhouse be realised in the North East?

No. If there is any traction at all it will manifest itself between Leeds and Manchester then there will be a change of heart, government or both and the next big antidote to inequality will be spun out. Cynical? Yes I guess so but isn’t that all our reactions to political rhetoric these days?

Thanks Tim.