The Northern Way

Chair: Paul Jagger MBE
Members: Frank Carter, Cllr Philip Dobson, Cllr Shelagh Marshall, Professor Christopher Malcolm Taylor

The Northern Way is a collaborative project between the three northern RDAs - Yorkshire Forward, ONE NorthEast and the Northwest Development Agency - and aims to exploit economic and transport links to boost the North as a business force in Europe. It is backed by a £100m fund for practical action. It came under the spotlight to ensure money spent on economic development was well targeted.

Comments and information were sought on the three priority areas of the initiative: Connectivity, Innovation and the Marketing of the North to the World. The panel’s recommendation included:

• The Northern Way should reduce the number of initiatives to avoid saturating the market;
• research should assess the capacity of the Region’s support for innovative businesses and demand for premises; and
• a regional communications strategy should be developed to describe how public, private and voluntary sector organisations are informed of progress.