Over a decade ago, I led the Cities Growth Commission, which helped make the case for the economic opportunity represented by the corridor of Northern cities of ‘ManSheffLeedsPool’. This was coined the Northern Powerhouse, and since then much of the discussion about regional growth has understandably focused on Greater Manchester.

The city-region has achieved impressive results and there are important lessons to learn from its success. But there is another place in the North that deserves more attention than it gets.

Research from the Northern Powerhouse Partnership released today shows that productivity in Rotherham has increased by 63.9 per cent since 2004, faster than any other major town in the North.

It concludes that the Advanced Manufacturing Park and wider Don Valley corridor have become the principal drivers of economic growth in the borough, supporting around £2bn of economic activity.

Advanced Manufacturing Park in South Yorkshire.

placeholder image — Advanced Manufacturing Park in South Yorkshire.

At first glance, that might seem surprising. Unlike Greater Manchester, Rotherham does not benefit from mainline rail connectivity, nor from being a major financial and professional services hub or the brand visibility that Manchester enjoys from having hosted the Commonwealth games and two Premier League teams. Yet when we look more closely, the reasons for its success become much easier to understand.

I first got to know South Yorkshire when studying economics in Sheffield, long before my time spent as an investment banker or as a Minister in the Treasury. One of the developments that most impressed me in later years was the emergence of their Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC).

The AMRC always struck me as something more reminiscent of the United States than Britain. Universities, businesses and the public sector working together around a shared economic purpose. In America we would celebrate that sort of model and build around it.

That partnership has helped create one of Europe's most significant advanced manufacturing clusters on the former Orgreave site, bringing together businesses including Boeing, Rolls-Royce and McLaren Automotive alongside world-class research capability spanning the border between Sheffield and Rotherham.

The result has been a remarkable economic transformation for Rotherham more broadly.

What I find particularly interesting is that this success did not come from trying to recreate the past. It came from building something new. That is exactly what has happened around the Advanced Manufacturing Park.

One of the North's greatest strengths is its concentration of world-class universities and research institutions. From Sheffield and Manchester to Leeds, Liverpool, Durham, Newcastle and Lancaster, we have assets that many countries would envy.

Yet innovation still plays too small a role in much of the debate about economic growth.

We know infrastructure plays a role, that skills matter and for regions like the North, devolution is an important part of the mix. But long-term productivity growth ultimately comes from innovation and the successful commercialisation of new ideas unlocking up to £206bn in the next decade as shown by previous research by Northern Powerhouse Partnership.

We should be thinking much more ambitiously about how we connect our innovation strengths to economic growth. The story of Rotherham demonstrates what can happen when those assets are combined with investment and stable leadership with a clear long-term strategy.

Lord Jim O'Neill is co-president of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership.