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The North East LEP seeks evaluator to uncover learnings from the delivery of the North East Strategic Economic Plan and partnership working

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP) is looking for an organisation to undertake some evaluative research to uncover and explore key learnings in relation to the delivery of the North East Strategic Economic Plan.

Emma Ward, Evidence and Evaluation Programme Manager, explains why this is an exciting project that is looking to extract learning and insights that could help inform the transition to a new mayoral combined authority in 2024.

At the North East LEP, evidence and evaluation is at heart of everything we do – together, they help us learn and improve, and live our values to think bigger and make a difference. Over the last five years we have invested in embedding reflective learning and evaluation practices across our organisation. Part of our work in this area involved the completion of an interim evaluation of the North East Strategic Economic Plan in 2021.

As the Plan is now in its final year, we are looking for an organisation to work closely with us to uncover and explore key learnings in relation to its delivery, and the role of the North East LEP in facilitating this activity. We want to explore and capture learning around our added value to the regional economy, reflecting our role in terms of programme delivery, coordination and convening, and partnership working.  

Find out more and apply here

This project should not only reflect on the Plan’s effectiveness and impact where possible, but also explore organisational learning and capture what has worked well or not so well in areas such as systems and processes, delivery models, governance, and culture.

This evaluative project provides us with the opportunity to reflect on the North East LEP’s journey over the last 10 years, whilst generating new insights and knowledge that can help to inform the transition into a new mayoral combined authority. The project’s outputs and recommendations will need to be forward-looking and considerate of this emerging context.

We will work closely and flexibly with the appointed contractor throughout this project to ensure the highest quality and valuable outputs are generated. These will be shared amongst regional stakeholders and be something we can disseminate broadly via the North East Evidence Hub and other networks, contributing to our regional evidence base.

The opportunity to apply for this project closes on Wednesday 19th July 2023 at noon.

Find out more and apply here
Home / North East strategic economic plan

Understanding the impact of the Local Growth Fund and Enterprise Zone programmes on the North East economy

By Ray Browning, Programme Manager at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership

Central to the delivery of the North East Strategic Economic Plan is the region’s access to infrastructure funding, and importantly, how that funding is managed and invested across the region to create more and better jobs.

The Local Growth Fund and Enterprise Zone programmes represent two of the biggest funding schemes managed by the North East LEP. Since 2014, more than £270m has been invested through the Local Growth Fund and £69m through the Enterprise Zone programme.

To help us understand how effective both programmes have been in delivering their objectives, and those set out in the North East Strategic Economic Plan, we appointed Steer Economic Development (Steer-ED) to carry out an interim evaluation of both the Local Growth Fund and Enterprise Zone programme.

The resulting report highlights how two of the North East LEP’s biggest capital programmes are making a visible difference to key development zones  across the region, and how they are improving the economic prospects of the North East.

The interim evaluation demonstrates how both programmes’ alignment with the Strategic Economic Plan, and its areas of strategic importance –  Health & Life Sciences, Digital, Advanced Manufacturing and Energy & Low Carbon – have helped strengthen key employment sites across the region and attract significant public and private sector investment.

A good example of this is the performance of NETPark in County Durham, which received £25.2m from the Local Growth Fund. The investment helped create two new national research centres (CPI’s National Formulation Centre and National Healthcare Photonics Centre), the NETPark Explorer lab/office buildings, business incubation space, and opened up 26 acres of developable land through the creation of a 1km new highway, Rosalind Franklin Way.

Investment by the Local Growth Fund has helped Durham County Council and its partners firmly establish NETPark as one of the UK’s leading science, engineering and technology parks. It has also positioned the North East as one of the UK’s leading health and life science clusters, a key objective of the Strategic Economic Plan.

Another area of strategic importance that has seen significant growth due to investment from the Local Growth Fund and Enterprise Zones programme is in advanced manufacturing. No more so than on the 150ha International Advanced Manufacturing Park (IAMP) that has been taking shape since 2018, in a partnership development between Sunderland City Council and South Tyneside Council.

This nationally important employment site is supporting the region’s expanding advanced manufacturing and automotive sector, and is receiving  £41m from the Local Growth Fund and £33m from the Enterprise Zone programme. Phase 1 has so far attracted three major manufacturing investments by SNOP UK, Faltec Europe Ltd, and most recently, Envision AESC, which will build a £450m Gigafactory on IAMP as part of a £1bn partnership with Nissan UK to create an electric vehicle hub in the North East.

As well as looking in-depth at some of the projects funded by the Local Growth Fund and Enterprise Zone programmes, Steer-ED’s interim evaluation also highlights some of the more qualitative, strategic added value impacts of the programmes in the North East LEP area, including, driving the low carbon agenda and supporting community impact.

The North East has gained a reputation as one of the UK’s leading destinations for advancements in green, sustainable, low carbon energy. Investment from the Local Growth Fund and Enterprise Zone programmes in schemes like the District Energy Centre at Newcastle Helix and Northumberland Energy Park have been central to growing the sector and attracting business investment.

Similarly, both programmes have supported projects that deliver huge benefits to local communities in the North East. The iconic Beacon of Light in Sunderland, the Vertu Motors Arena in Newcastle (home to the Newcastle Eagles), and the Nexus Learning Centre in South Shields are all great examples of projects that help deliver real benefits to their local communities; be that through training, apprenticeships, Further Education, or access to employment.

To date, the Local Growth Fund programme is ahead of its original target of 4,752 jobs by March 2021, having helped attract 6,300 jobs – 33% above forecast by this stage. Whilst the programme is ahead of schedule on job creation, we recognise there is still work to do to meet our 18,500 jobs target by 2025/26.

The Enterprise Zone infrastructure investment programme continues to be being rolled out across 21 sites in the North East, with 1,805 jobs secured so far against a long-term target of 26,935. The investment decisions in 2021 by Equinor to locate its Dogger Bank Wind Farm Operations and Maintenance base at Tyne Dock, and JDR Cables Ltd announcement that it is to develop a £130m manufacturing facility on Northumberland Enterprise Park, are welcome commitments that give confidence to our belief that employment levels will begin to accelerate across several EZ sites over the next two-three years.

Overall, Steer-ED’s analysis of both the Local Growth Fund and Enterprise Zone programmes has positively assessed the long-term cost/benefit value, as well as the transformative impacts of both programmes through specific local case studies.

Enabling works on major employment sites, new office, laboratory, R&D facilities and industrial space, supported by investments to improve access to strategic transport corridors are benefitting local SMEs and attracting major private sector investment. At the same time new training facilities facilities are supporting local communities to acquire the necessary skills to secure employment in growth sectors.

It’s encouraging to see the impact both programmes are already having on the physical transformation and realisation of new regional economic clusters, in line with the aspirations set out in the North East Strategic Economic Plan to create more and better jobs in specific sectors.

The executive summary of the interim evaluation of the Local Growth Fund and Enterprise Zone programmes, and details of all the projects supported, can be found on the North East LEP’s Evidence Hub.

A copy of the full interim evaluation is available upon request. Please email [email protected].

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Future proofing the North East economy

The coronavirus pandemic has seen a period of accelerated change across the world that has left many businesses thinking long and hard about what the future holds.

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP) and its partners have been supporting the region’s business community to manage the impact of the pandemic and also plan for our economic recovery. Our work continues to be guided by the North East Strategic Economic Plan, which sets out our ambition to create more and better jobs by growing four specific areas of industry – digital, advanced manufacturing, health and life sciences, and energy.

To complement and run alongside the North East Strategic Economic Plan, we want to delve even deeper into the emerging markets and future trends that will dominate the UK and global economies. What are the sectors and areas of industry that will provide the greatest economic growth opportunities in the future? And how can the North East capitalise on them?

To help us answer those questions, we’re seeking to appoint a specialist contractor that can undertake an independent markets foresight analysis on behalf of the North East. We want to identify the short, medium and long-term opportunities our region should focus on to support our immediate economic recovery, and those that will help grow our economy in the future too; creating jobs for local people, attracting investment in the region, and improving our economic activity rates and productivity.

Some of the potential areas of opportunity are in response to our current situation. Active and sustainable travel, for example, has rocketed during the coronavirus pandemic and there is more demand for environmentally friendly transport solutions. How can the North East use its world-renowned expertise and skills in the automotive sector to drive forward this green revolution?

Renewable energy made up almost half of Britain’s electricity generation in the first three months 2020, further bolstering the green energy sector. What does that mean for the North East? How can we grow our share of the market?

How well positioned are we in the region to respond to future technology developments that will affect trends in key sectors; for example autonomous vehicles, the ageing population, and the rollout of 5G – or even 6G capability?

This project is about future proofing the North East economy and making sure we’re ready to respond to global economic opportunities in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The North East LEP would like to undertake the economic markets foresight analysis this year, and we invite interested suppliers to join us at a online supplier briefing event on Monday 05 October from 10:00-13:00.

Find out more about this exciting opportunity to help the North East shape its future competitiveness, and sign up to attend, by visiting the eventbrite page.

By Alan Welby, Innovation Director at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.

Home / North East strategic economic plan

A refreshed plan for delivering more and better jobs in the North East

In February the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) published the updated Strategic Economic Plan for the North East. The Plan, which lays out the roadmap for creating 100,000 more and better jobs for the region by 2024, has been updated to reflect progress made since its initial launch in 2014, and to take account of changes in the economic landscape.

North East LEP Skills Director, Michelle Rainbow, talks through some of the changes you can expect to see when it comes to supporting skills, employment, inclusion and progression in the North East.

We have revisited the Strategic Economic Plan for a number of reasons. Changes to the economy both nationally and globally and of course the changes which lie ahead of us, including Brexit and the opportunities that could be available to us through the Industrial Strategy and global opportunities, mean that we chose to lay out how we will continue to work towards achieving our ambition of creating more and better jobs.

The updated Plan makes clear links to the development of the North East Local Industrial Strategy, which identifies how we will make the most of our particular strengths to maximise productivity and improve standards of living for people here in the North East, and how the region will make an important contribution to the overall UK Industrial Strategy.

In the updated Plan, the skills programme and the employability and inclusion programme have been brought together into a combined skills, employment, inclusion and progression programme. The work we do in this area is all about progression and improving social mobility in the North East. It’s about supporting people as they make transitions throughout their lives and careers, whether that is school pupils learning about the world of work and further education, people preparing to return to the workforce later in life, or graduates who are choosing where to live, work and stay after university. It’s all intrinsically linked and the updated Plan reflects this.

Our focus is on all age groups and circumstances and our programme of work will help us achieve our long term ambition for the North East: that demand for skills and the quality of jobs continue to improve, leading to higher productivity. We want individuals, regardless of age or employment status, to have a good understanding of employment opportunities available and how to access them, we want to continue to strengthen links between employers and education, and we want everyone to understand the importance of skills in raising productivity and living standards.

You will see a cross-cutting theme of digitalisation throughout the Plan. If the North East is to continue to compete on a national and international stage then it’s vital that digitalisation and digital skills are embedded across our businesses and communities. As we move into Industry 4.0, our workforce and our young people must have access to the digital skills and related opportunities this fourth industrial revolution will bring.

Alongside our board we have advisory boards made up of representatives from the public and private sectors, the voluntary sector, trade unions and business representative organisations including the CBI and Chamber of Commerce. Our advisory boards have valuable experience in each of our focus areas of industry – energy, digital, health and life sciences, and advanced manufacturing – and in innovation, business growth, and employability and skills.

The guidance of our board members and our advisory panels becomes ever more important as we continue to deliver the SEP and the Local Industrial Strategy, and we will make use of their expertise and our close working relationships with partners across the North East to deliver on our ambition of creating more and better jobs.

Read the North East Strategic Economic Plan.