Levelling up the regions

 

Great Yarmouth (photo: John Fielding)

There's been a lot of talk about 'levelling-up' the regions. As Bono once said, 'maybe, maybe too much talk.' It was there in last year's election, and it was prominent in the recent R&D Roadmap. 

Not surprisingly, this is an issue that affects the regional research consortium that I direct: Eastern Arc. Eastern Arc is in a slightly odd position when compared to consortia in other regions: it's in the 'rich' East/South East. Therefore, it follows, there's no reason to level up our region. If anything, it should be levelled down. 

But the narrative of being a 'rich' area of the UK is misleading.

Yes, there are pockets of wealth, strong investment and affluence; but equally there are areas of real deprivation and poverty, particularly around our coast. Our region is home to some of the most deprived communities in the country, including Great Yarmouth, Tendring, Castle Point, and Thanet.

As such, the government needs to tread carefully and be very granular and nuanced in how it assesses and implements any levelling up interventions. This is a point I made in Eastern Arc's response to the R&D Roadmap.

Yes, we welcome the government’s intention to ‘examine how R&D funding as a whole can best be distributed across the country to help level up every region and nation of the country,’ and we agree with the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) that ‘public investment is likely to be even more crucial’ after the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, I'm somewhat concerned that it appears to define the ‘Golden Triangle’ regionally rather than institutionally as ‘London, the South East and the East of England’, not the six institutions that traditionally make up the triangle.

Although R&D expenditure is, in global figures, highest in London, the south east and east of England, this is heavily distorted by the location of the Golden Triangle within these regions, which are all within the top ten richest universities in the UK.

The Eastern Arc universities lie within the shadow of the Golden Triangle, and tend to be overlooked when ‘levelling up’ regional discrepancies is discussed. They are not alone in this. Many of the former 1994 Group universities are in a similar position. 

The need to be more granular in its examination was recognised by Nesta in its report, The Missing £4 Billion: Making R&D work for the whole UK, which broke UK R&D funding down into subregions. 

Within regions of prosperity, there are areas that need additional investment. Conversely, within regions of relative under-investment there are areas (or institutions) that don’t need any further funding, and are as prosperous as the most affluent elsewhere.

As with the Research Excellence Framework, the government’s place agenda should ensure ‘that excellent research continues to be well supported wherever it is found,’ and not just in the larger institutions. Thus, we endorse CaSE’s recommendations that ‘investment should be focussed on R&D excellence that already exists – even if it is small and nascent’, and that ‘places should clarify their distinctive strengths and sectors.’

The government should work with Research England and Innovate UK, together with local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), to undertake a comprehensive study on a subregional basis to identify areas that are underperforming in terms of investment, but are punching above their weight in terms of excellence.

In parallel with this, it should work with the University Partnerships Programme (UPP) to further understand how universities connect with their cities and their regions, and how they can be the catalyst for regional development and growth.

Universities are crucial to regional economies. In 2017/18, the Eastern Arc universities collectively secured £35m in funding from businesses and other external organisations for consultancy, continuing professional development and other services. In the same year, our three universities hosted more than 2.3m visitors for public lectures, performances and exhibitions.

As an example of the benefit brought by our universities to the region, independent consultants calculated that the gross value added (GVA) generated by UEA, Essex and Kent was over £2.4bn.

So I would hope that the government doesn't rush into ‘an ambitious new Place Strategy in the autumn after the Spending Review’, but rather take time to understand the needs and potential of the subregions before putting in place a structured framework of support.

For more information on this and other Eastern Arc positions, go to our dedicated 'Position Papers' page.