Columnist

We must create a new pathway to growth

There was much positivity at the recent VISION 31 event in London, which was hosted and driven by NET and Bdaily.

We heard from businesses that have started and grown successfully in the North East.

We also heard from Rob Hamilton, interim strategic leader for economic growth and regeneration at the North East Combined Authority, and the need for collaboration between the public and private sectors, with change being delivered by the private sector along the path created by the combined authority. 

The target is to leverage £7 of private investment with £1 of public investment.

I have learned the resilience of fellow North Easterners from the late 1960s to date, and how to adapt to change and rise to the challenge. 

We have achieved great strides to become such a diverse economy; the challenge now is to diversify in new directions. 

A phrase I borrow is that there is such fast change in digital technology that a 15-year-old today will not yet be aware of the type of job available when leaving education in five years.

There is much emerging from the region, such as the collaboration of our five high-quality universities through the Northern Accelerator Programme, and the vision and innovation from research and development that is emerging in new businesses.

We require much needed investment to help start-up businesses progress and grow – a task the North East Business Innovation Centre, of which I am a director, has grasped by taking the lead to form partnerships and collaborate to bring much-needed support to encourage start-ups and stimulate growth.

We need to ensure a public-private investment fund is established to lead on investment. 

The message from the VISION 31 event was loud and clear; we are a region that grows successful businesses. 

We need City financiers and funders to take greater interest to gain the benefits the region offers.

There is ambition and willingness from businesses to collaborate in support of the work of the wider region’s two combined authorities. 

Each is open for businesses to set the path for growth, to lend support to remove barriers and reduce hurdles that will delay progress and delivery.

This is most important when attracting investors to develop property that supports the economic growth of the region. 

We need demand from the growth of businesses to increase, rents to rise and returns to improve, to attract investors that will deliver much needed development.

Kevan Carrick is co-founder and owner of JK Property Consultants LLP. He is a member of the RICS Land & Natural Resources Professional Group Panel that consulted on the National Planning Policy Framework, and a director of the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC).

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