As many IET Members will be aware, the Government has produced the Northern Powerhouse (NPH) Strategy document (attached) that outlines the Government’s vision for building a strong economic North that would benefit the whole of the UK.

 
The IET Manufacturing TPN Executive committee are organising an evidence gathering session with industrialists to provide the Government with a conduit to industry, which will assist in developing the strategy.

 
We have an event scheduled at the University of Liverpool on October 19th that will take the form of an evening workshop that will allow invited delegates to review and provide comments and feedback on the Government Northern Powerhouse Strategy as published in November 2016. The aim is to invite delegates to achieve a representative response from across the North from University, Government, Local Enterprise Partnerships and Manufacturing perspectives. The strategy contains five pillars: Connectivity; Skills; Enterprise and Innovation; Trade and Industry; and Engagement. It is intended to provide a framework for delivery of the Northern Powerhouse. This is an important opportunity to elicit broader consultation and input from a range of interested stakeholders to ensure that the Northern Powerhouse can be built.

 
The discussions will be driven around the pillars, and will be led by the same three questions for each:
1)     What is the applicability of the pillar to each sector?
2)     What can the sector do to overcome / help with any barriers?
3)     What can be done to enable the pillars?    

 
The workshop will take the form of an introduction and overview of the NPH from the IET, followed by parallel sector breakout sessions where the pillars and questions outlined will be discussed. Our intention is to have a chair, from the respective sector, facilitating the session for their sector. The chair would then provide the wider group with a summary of the discussions had.

 
The aim is to collate the feedback and communicate this back to the Government and NPH strategy chair, George Osbourne.

 
Through this blog, we would like to ask interested members to let me know if they would be interested in participating in the event.

 
Please RSVP to Chris Proudfoot (chris_proudfoot@btinternet.com) including a brief statement of your interest in NPH Manufacturing Strategy.

 

 
Kind Regards,

 
The IET Manufacturing Executive