The Northern Growth Strategy has taken its next steps, which is excellent news for a policy document that has finally reached the stage of pointing at the road and asking whether anyone has seen the destination. The Government has published actions for growth and investment across the North, while every high street waits to learn whether the plan includes that pothole beside the chemist.
The next phase was developed with mayors and local leaders, because a regional strategy works better when it has met someone who knows where the buses vanish, which road floods first and why a temporary diversion has acquired its own folklore. This is partnership in its natural habitat, somewhere between a consultation room and a queue of people explaining the same junction.
The document does not pretend to be a magical final answer. It sets out what happens next and invites views from a wide range of stakeholders over the summer. The North has therefore been given questions, a response process and the rare privilege of helping improve a plan before somebody turns it into a glossy diagram and calls the arrows delivery.
That restraint is welcome. Growth cannot be summoned by pointing at a map with sufficient confidence, although this has not stopped policy documents from trying. The strategy builds on the earlier case for change and promises further work with local partners. Investment is expected to bring a plan, a guide and reassurance that nobody will make it attend a committee meeting without biscuits.
The arrangement also recognises that northern places are not interchangeable boxes on a national presentation. A city centre, a coastal town and a former mill may all want prosperity, but they will not share the same transport problem, economic history or enthusiasm for an arrow labelled opportunity.
Stakeholders can respond to the questions, with the Government planning to review the answers with partners before a further update in the autumn. Summer must now add structured thinking about regional prosperity to its duties, alongside rain, barbecues and the annual discovery that sandals were a mistake.
The pothole is preparing its submission. It will explain that it has been locally led, repeatedly consulted and demonstrably ready for investment. If accepted as a stakeholder, it may become the only infrastructure project already sitting at the table.
Source: GOV.UK.
