Mass collaborative approach needed to transform economies of the north

HS2 cannot transform the economies of the north on its own, a senior city hall official has told the HS2 Economic Growth Conference. 

Edward Highfield, Director of City Growth at Sheffield City Council, said: “I don’t believe faster trains to London will be on their own transformational. Faster trains to London, investment across the north, enhanced local connectivity, better supply chains all together can be transformational. I don’t believe knocking half an hour off journey times is sufficient.”
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“You can’t talk about HS2 without talking about integrated transport for the north, creating a single labour market across the market.”

He said that better rail connections across the north would address the ‘second job syndrome’, which means that young people often have to leave cities like Sheffield to further their careers.

Highfield said that having that a ‘tube like’ arrangement of regular, fast connections across the north would add to the stimulus for businesses, like professional and financial services, that HS2 would provide in places like Sheffield.

But he acknowledged that Sheffield is already starting to see investment decisions taking place on the basis that HS2 is coming to the city.

Citing HSBC’s decision to open an office employing 2,000 workers in Sheffield, Highfield said “The fact that they knew HS2 was coming and had certainty over that decision was not irrelevant to that decision.”

He said the city council and private companies are both making strategic acquisitions, while certain residential areas are becoming more attractive as a result of HS2.

Sheffield City Council is currently in the middle of its master planning process with Atkins, which will be complete by May next year. This work will then feed into the south Yorkshire city-region HS2 growth strategy in the middle of next year.

But he said that it is taking a bit of time to work through’ the interface between HS2 and Transport for the North’s plans, which he hoped would be resolved by the second quarter next year.

Christopher Hayton, Director of Corporate Affairs at East Midlands Airport, said that HS2 would not replace the need for air travel, but it would enable the East Midlands to expand its catchment area to the north of London and Leeds: “HS2 allows us to massively broaden our catchment areas: you could shave 15 minutes off journey times just by conventional improvements to infrastructure, which would bring our catchment area to 7m people, then HS2 would double that.”

Rather than being ‘a silver bullet on its own’, he said HS2 would supplement improvements to existing infrastructure, notably the M1 and Parkway railway station, which serve the airport: “This gives us the opportunity to look at infrastructure: we have to improve surface access.”

Liam Brooker, Phase 2B Senior Sponsor of HS2, said the rail organisation is ‘just about’ to go out to consultation on its proposals for the second leg of the scheme: “This is a proposal and let’s work on it to make it better: we can improve our proposals when we work with people.”

He said the hybrid bill, which is the tool used to secure consent for big railway lines like HS2, offers scope for making changes while it is going through Parliament.

Cllr Kay Cutts, Chair of the Toton Delivery Board, said Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station would create an enormous brownfield opportunity when it shuts by the middle of this decade: “It’s about grasping that opportunity and being brave.”

Cutts, who is also Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, said she would like to a see a hoarding on the derelict sidings that have been lined up for the Toton HS2 station: “At the moment we have sidings but would love people can see what we are talking about.”

Andrew Pritchard, Director of Policy & Infrastructure at East Midlands Councils, said that the east of England would benefit from the capacity that would be freed up on the east coast main line following HS2’s opening.

Responding to a question about how Lincoln would benefit from HS2, he said: “We can have more reliable and improved services from Lincoln onto the main line.”

 

PBA, now part of Stantec; Our perspective of the East Midlands and Sheffield Hubs

 

The East Midlands story should be about these locations being able to renew their reasons for being.  Rather than simply creating locations where people can join or leave trains to go elsewhere, the HS2 connections could, and should, be a catalyst for a new way of thinking in these locations.  Places like Nottingham and Derby already have a rich manufacturing and industrial heritage, and we think HS2 could create the impetus to breathe new life into these parts of the economy – but in a wholly 21^st century way.

The Universities – including the teaching hospital at Queens Medical Centre should play their part here too.  They will be close enough to the HS2 station at the East Midlands Hub to take advantage of the connections that will exist.  The combination of skills and experience that exist across the East Midlands cities suggest to us that taking the “mini-Canary Wharf” model of office and residential mixed uses around the HS2 stations may be a mistake.  This would only create a model where these locations competed with other UK cities for investment. 

Sheffield is different again, as it is more city centre focussed, and needs to recognise that HS2 will create new economic opportunities. 

But for both they need to draw on their economic and industrial, their social and commercial heritage to define themselves with a unique proposition alongside HS2.

We think that the HS2 opportunity that is in front of these cities is to be markedly different, to use their inherent and historic DNA to position themselves as centres of excellence for key aspects of manufacturing, research and new models of industrial economic activity.  We know that Sheffield is already promoting itself as a technology hub for manufacturing, and so the links to HS2 here are important.  The East Midlands hub needs to build on the combined legacies in Nottingham, Derby and Leicester.  And we see this closely associated with the strong and creative further education sector across the region.   As undergraduates increasingly consider studying close to home to reduce their ultimate debt burden the potential for HS2 to bring these people into the region, and then retain them as they develop their careers is obvious.

In order to do this though HS2 needs to deliver the right schemes – and we aren’t sure that they are fully invested in this type of model as things stand.  At the East Midlands Hub, the delivery of a station with some parking and a dual carriageway connection to the Trunk Road network is too predictable a way to respond.  And the risk is that at Sheffield the opportunity gets embroiled in the aspiration for light rail and classic rail connectivity which isn’t part of the HS2 scheme. The reality is that HS2 and the local stakeholders need to plan the future of these places together. 

At Toton, the risk that abortive infrastructure will be delivered, that has to be ripped out and changed, at great cost, to allow the growth that should always have been planned, is too great.  The potential for this to stifle investment, slow down growth and undermine opportunity is real (we have seen it at Ebbsfleet on HS1), and the same mistakes need to be avoided along the HS2 corridor.

The hybrid bill isn’t finalised for this section, there is scope to do it better, and this is what we believe the railway promoters, local stakeholders and the community should be working towards.
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