The Northern Way was a collaboration initiated in February 2004 between the three northern regional development agencies (RDAs), Northwest Development Agency, One NorthEast and Yorkshire Forward at the instigation of the then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to focus on issues important for the whole of the

North of England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

with a dimension larger than could be tackled by one region alone — for example, transport infrastructure, or marketing the North internationally. The body was tasked to address the £30 billion output gap between the North and the average for England as a whole. Although originally intended to have a twenty-year lifespan, the initiative's activity came to an end in March 2011, when its parent regional development agencies were wound up by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

Themes

To lead the delivery of its objective, an independently chaired steering group was established whose members had a range of different public and private sector interests. The Steering Group launched ''Moving Forward: The Northern Way Growth Strategy'' in September 2004, which focused on four themes:

Developing new City Region plans to work across administrative boundaries in the eight major conurbations of the North, namely:

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...

: **

Tees Valley Tees Valley is a mayoral combined authority and Local enterprise partnership area in northern England, around the River Tees. The area is not a geographical valley. The LEP was established in 2011 and the combined authority was established i ...

- ( Teesside,

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

and

Hartlepool Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...

) ** Tyne and Wear - ( Tyneside and Wearside) *

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

: ** Central Lancashire - (

Preston Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to: Places England *Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement **The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement **County Boro ...

) ** Liverpool City Region - ( Liverpool) ** Manchester City Region - ( Manchester) * Yorkshire and the Humber: ** Hull and Humber Ports - ( Kingston upon Hull) ** Leeds City Region - ( Leeds) ** Sheffield City Region - ( Sheffield)

Key investment priorities were chosen that could exploit economic activity across all three northern Development Agency regions.

These investment priorities are: * bring more people into

employment Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

* strengthen the North’s knowledge base innovation * build a more entrepreneurial North * capture a larger share of global trade: key clusters * meet

employer Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

skills needs * the North’s connectivity * create truly sustainable communities * market the North to the world.

Working together differently and collaborating to make the most of £100 million public sector
investment Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...
in the North and equivalent private sector investment.
Influencing local, regional and national decision-makers to ensure their
policies Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an organ ...
and programmes support Northern Way goals.

Growth fund

The Growth Fund, worth £100 million, was launched in September 2004, and in June 2005 the Northern Way published its Business plan, setting out how to spend the money. The eight City Region partnerships published their City Region Development Plans to show how they would work together to grow their economies to address the output gap.

References

External links

The Northern Way official site
(Dead link), internet archive image (2004-11-26) https://web.archive.org/web/20041126015635/http://www.thenorthernway.co.uk/
Yorkshire Forward Website

The Northern Way Transport Compact
*
The Economic Case for Transport Investment in the North
- retrospective review of activities 2006-2011
Evaluation of The Northern Way 2004-2008 (summary)

Evaluation of The Northern Way 2008-2011 (summary)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Northern Way, The Local government in England Defunct organisations based in England Innovation in the United Kingdom Northern England