Dr Hakim Yadi: Health and strengthening the pillars of the Northern Powerhouse

DURING the Industrial Revolution, it was roads, then canals, then railways that moved raw materials from mines to mills to factories and quaysides.

What was forged in those crucibles of industry was then transported (by rail or water) to traders, merchants and consumers across the country and around the globe.

The North of England is now experiencing another zeitgeist moment, where once again it is pioneering ideas and invention as it did so unequivocally during the Industrial Revolution – but this time applied to the knowledge-intensive sectors of the future. Pre-eminent in that is the North’s global strength in the health and tech sectors.

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Two things that were true in the 19th century remain just as true today; first that none of our world-changing ideas, inventions and discoveries would exist without the pioneering individuals, and human ingenuity behind them, and second, as is so often the case, the best ideas tend to happen when innovative minds work together. Where once our trade was in textiles and machinery, we are now in the business of ideas; truly transformational ideas that could help address humanity’s biggest problems.

The success of the Northern Powerhouse will be driven by the richness and connectivity of our relationship networks.

What we need now is the infrastructure to support human connectivity; principally fast, reliable commuter transport and freight links linking our Northern city regions, superfast broadband across the North and collaborative digital platforms to enable open information sharing.

The organisations we lead – bringing together our world-leading health strengths (eight Northern research intensive NHS hospitals, eight of our best university medical schools, four Northern Academic Health Science Networks), our leading tech entrepreneurs and businesses, and our strategic transport executives – are united in the view that enhanced connectivity and infrastructure is the key to unlocking the latent potential of the Northern Powerhouse and to securing prosperity, wellbeing and sustainable growth.

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Much of this is already coming together. In the last Budget, the Government committed £20m towards the “Health North” initiative, which the Northern Health Science Alliance will deliver and which will set up the world’s first partnership using large-scale data to drive public sector reform in health and social care covering a 15 million strong population across the North.

This programme of work will assemble data, experts and technology in secure locations to generate new information that shapes health and social care services to deliver better outcomes for patients and communities. By analysing integrated information and feeding this back to NHS practitioners, service managers, commissioners, public health professionals, local authority planners, researchers and policy makers, the teams will identify variations in care and needs.

In tech, the Government has committed funding to Tech North, part of the Tech City UK network, to accelerate the development of digital entrepreneurship in the North. By championing, providing insight, connecting and piloting new initiatives Tech North will attract further investment and talent to the Northern tech ecosystem and support greater numbers of digital start-ups, scale ups and digital employment.

And in transport the Government has committed itself to the creation of the Northern Powerhouse and the rebalancing of the UK economy. Transport for the North is a unique partnership between the Northern city region authorities, Government and the national transport agencies which will drive economic growth in the industries of the future through investment in transformational transport infrastructure.

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This ambitious vision is outlined in a joint report created with Government – ‘The Northern Powerhouse: One Agenda, One Economy, One North’, which sets out the case for a new TransNorth rail system that will radically reduce travel times and complement the investment into HS2; major improvements in the North’s strategic road network through greater resilience, strategic planning, investment and technology; a simple to use pan Northern smart ticketing system with improved customer information; and better connections to ports, airports and key economic centres.

The prize of getting this right is great. An HM Treasury analysis has shown that rebalancing the UK economy would be worth an additional £56bn to the Northern economy, or £44bn in real terms on top of the £290bn the region already generates, rivalling the best trade centres in Europe.

What matters now is establishing a consensus that these three areas – health sciences, tech and transport – are the three pillars on which the Northern Powerhouse is built, and smart, strategic State backing continues after the UK after Wednesday’s Spending Review.

* Dr Hakim Yadi is chief executive of the Northern Heath Science Alliance. He has written this piece with Dr Jon Lamonte, chief executive of Transport for Greater Manchester, and Claire Braithwaite, Head of Tech North.

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