How we can unlock the North of England’s true potential as a global leader in life sciences - Richard Stubbs

Alone, this suggests the North of England is already a health and life sciences powerhouse. However, we know there are still key challenges and barriers the region must overcome to unlock its true potential and offer even more to the region and cross national and international boundaries.

Twinned with this untapped potential are long-standing regional health inequalities. For example, life expectancy across the North of England can vary by as much as 3 years in comparison to the South.

There’s always been an intrinsic and unbreakable relationship between the economy and societal health: a strong economy is paramount to supporting people to be healthy, whilst a healthy population is a critical part of a productive economy.

This is all too clear to see through the region’s productivity, which is on average 39 per cent lower than London and the South West. However, this productivity gap alone doesn’t explain why the North is yet to reach its true potential. So, the question remains ‘what is needed for the sector to reach its true economic potential and better contribute to improving health outcomes internationally?’.

I was pleased to lead a debate on this topic at the recent Convention of the North, which brought together senior leaders to discuss potential solutions. I led a panel discussion entitled ‘How can the North be a global leader in life sciences nationally and tackle health inequalities in our communities?’. The group co-developed three propositions for the region to focus upon independently and in partnership with government over the next year: Become a Northern ‘supercluster’ in health and life sciences, retain a focus on manufacturing and create locally tailored approaches to supporting employment.

These propositions echo the policy recommendations within the ‘Life Sciences’ and ‘Health’ policy papers drafted by local government, businesses and think tanks from across the North in advance of the convention.

They also firmly echo the YHealth for Growth work I have been leading in partnership with Yorkshire Universities and NHS Confederation since 2019. Through promoting the intrinsic link between health and economic prosperity we seek to unlock the region’s inclusive economic potential and tackle long-standing societal challenges.

For example, one of our recommendations aimed at local leaders suggests “Development bodies and anchor institutions should align strategies to deliver inclusive growth”.

It is now more important than ever that our Northern towns and cities work together for improved societal impact. The Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA) and NP11 estimate that a Northern health and life sciences ‘supercluster’ would bring £16.52bn a year to the UK’s economy.

To create such a ‘supercluster’, crucially we need to strengthen collaboration between Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and combined authorities, universities, NHS trusts, Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs), and other stakeholders.

However, it’s even larger than this, the region’s 15.6m citizens and their collective economic output also plays a key part in this growth. Crucially, if we get this right, the region not only has potential to leverage societal impact across its own geographical bounds, it also has potential to improve health outcomes by driving levelling up and tackling inequalities across the whole country.

To achieve this ambition, we also need to invest in the region’s skills, building upon our industrial and manufacturing heritage, but ensuring we equip ourselves with the skills and capabilities to support the growing industries of the future. We also need to recognise that by growing the supercluster and creating jobs in the health sector we are not only directly contributing to the region’s health and economic output, every new job also positively contributes to the health of the population.

We have a genuinely exciting opportunity to boost the North’s life sciences ‘supercluster’ and grow its offer locally, nationally, and internationally. If we can address some of the region’s structural and societal challenges, we will maximise the North’s contribution as a vital component to the UK becoming a global research and development superpower.

Richard Stubbs is chief executive of the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network and chair of the South Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership.