Summit sparks debate about Cumbria’s economic future

Cumbria is facing ‘exciting and challenging times’ according to the man leading the group charged with drawing up an economic plan aimed at boosting the county’s economy.

Flanked by the leaders of Westmorland and Furness and Cumberland councils, David Beeby, chair of Enterprising Cumbria’s delivery board, urged over 300 delegates at today’s economic summit to ‘be part of the conversation.’

With devolution now a real possibility the pressure is on to show how the county would benefit from being able to make the kind of decisions that could bring more investment into an area, delegates heard, has missed out for decades.

“The more decisions made by Cumbrians, the better,” Mr Beeby told businesses and councillors at the opening of the day-long summit looking forward, he said, to more collaboration and a streamlined approach to decision making and delivery of the kind of changes that could encourage more investment in Cumbria.

Last week it was announced that Cumbria’s councils have agreed to progress discussions with the Government on devolution for the county.

The change would enable more powers and decision-making over what happens on matters such as transport, employment support, planning, and housing.

Welcoming the move towards devolution for Cumbria Mr Beeby said it would help the county attract the kind of investment that others areas are able to draw down.

“There are meetings taking place and the only people invited are mayors so they’re at the table and we’re not even at the table!” Mr Beeby told Business Crack.

Yet getting the right devolution deal for Cumbria is a priority, according to Jonathan Brook, leader of Westmorland and Furness Council. “We would be the smallest population size in a sparsely populated area and we have to get a settlement that works in Cumbria and take time to get it right,” he said.

Cumberland Council leader Mark Fryer agrees adding devolution represented a pivotal moment and that standing still was no longer an option.

“The shake-up in council services has brought real and significant change,” he said, adding: “We need to foster an environment where business can thrive.”

Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster Group has a shadow group made up of 13 young professionals aged between 18 and 30. The group’s chair James Harrison told delegates how his colleagues felt that while Cumbria is beautiful it’s not enough to encourage young people to stay in the county. More affordable housing and entrepreneur hubs to foster new businesses were among two suggested.

“We need to sell ourselves,” James said and urged delegates to consider the views of young people today who could be living and working in Cumbria in 20 to 30 years time warning if they didn’t the workforce would ‘move to an area where they will.’

The summit will help specialist economic consultancy Metro Dynamics who have been commissioned to develop the county’s employment strategy by Enterprising Cumbria to establish the level of support for key changes.

Aims – or ‘missions’ – for the county include becoming the UK’s natural capital, delivering higher productivity to raise living standards, improving ‘population health’ to support people back into work, increasing the working age population to meet the needs of a growing economy and make Cumbria the UK’s first carbon neutral county.

“Cumbria has one massive asset which you can see from the window,” Ben Lucas, the company’s founding director, told Business Crack as he looked towards the lightly-snow covered fells. “What we do need to look at is place-shaping, making towns that people live in that have a range of amenities and access to them.”Better connectivity with mobile phone coverage, a refurbished west coast rail line and dualling of the the A66 could be ‘easy wins’ the summit heard.

Positive developments such as a halving of carbon emissions in a decade and the fact that 40% of businesses are active in the field of innovation in Cumbria were statistics that may be welcomed.

The timescale for what happens next is tight. Initial results from today’s meeting will be discussed by Enterprising Cumbria before Christmas with an overall plan shared next spring.