Liz Truss urged to deliver on five-point plan to unleash North's potential

The NP11 group of Northern Local Enterprise Partnerships has written to the new Prime Minister urging her to recommit to the levelling up agenda.

The organisation is calling for the PM to back plans to make the North the UK’s “green energy powerhouse”, arguing that helping the region to lead the way on efforts to reach net zero by 2050 could create 100,000 new jobs and create £2bn a year in economic growth.

It also wants Government support to create a Northern Life Sciences Supercluster to build on the region’s existing strength in this area, with one-fifth of life sciences jobs already based in the North.

The letter also calls for additional devolution; providing every home in the North with full-fibre broadband by 2030 to assist digital businesses and supporting more northern businesses to export and attract more overseas investment.

Sir Roger Marsh OBE DL, Chair of the NP11, said: “Too often the North is presented as a problem child, when in fact it holds the solution to addressing many of the challenges – and indeed the opportunities –the UK faces.

“Prime Minister Truss has a full in-tray of issues needing urgent attention, which is why we have written to her to set out practical ways in which the North can help tackle national concerns such as energy cost rises and the imperative to develop secure, green domestic energy supplies in response to the Russia-Ukraine war, while also unlocking new sources of economic growth that will improve opportunity and living standards for people and help build a competitive, Global Britain.

“With the right, targeted investment and by working collaboratively with northern elected and business leaders, we can unlock this huge potential, not just for the benefit of the North but for the whole country. Our offers and asks are well-developed and based on solid evidence about what the North really needs to prosper, so we can help the Government bring forward plans at pace that will realise the promise of levelling up set out in its 2019 election manifesto.”

South Yorkshire businesswoman Dame Julie Kenny CBE DL, said: “There is so much opportunity in the North across all of the five key offers we are making to the Government, which will help to not just provide opportunities but to tackle the challenges the country currently faces.

“We now need our new Prime Minister to reaffirm support for the North – firstly with their words but then more importantly with their actions. We have so much we can offer, from Gateshead to Grimsby and Carlisle to Crewe – all of the North can play its part – but for our impact to be felt to the fullest, we need the Government to play their part as well and work with us to ensure we have a thriving North of England.”

Hannah Davies, from the Northern Health Science Alliance, said: “For Britain to be a success in the years ahead, innovation is going to be key. The North has the ability to drive much of this innovation and the boost it can bring to the economy and to productivity.

“The potential of the Life Sciences sector in the region is uncapped, with world class innovators, universities and hospitals working together. By capitalising on these strengths we can help drive opportunities and enhance the competitiveness of a Global Britain while levelling up and tackling health inequalities in our own region.

"With a fifth of the country’s life sciences jobs already here, we are ready to go but we need the new Prime Minister to reaffirm their commitment to spending 2.4% of GDP on R&D and to make the North the testbed for new models of government innovation and investment to allow us to make the most of these opportunities.”