31 August 2010
George writes on the need for investment in Norfolk’s infrastructure for the Eastern Daily Press.
For more information on The Norfolk Way, please visit (www.norfolkway.co.uk) or email george@georgefreeman.co.uk
As we emerge from the rubble of the Credit Boom, we need to get the real economy moving again. We need to rebalance our economy away from an over-dependence on the public sector, the City, and booms in housing and consumer spending. How? What does this mean for Norfolk? Whilst some fear that we will be hit by the cuts but not benefit from the growth, I think Norfolk has an extra-ordinary opportunity which we should seize.
Our area has the potential to be the next 'Silicon Valley' of sustainable technologies. We have the research base, industrial innovation and finance to lead in the world’s three fastest growing markets: agriculture; renewable energy; and biomedicine. The A11 corridor links Cambridge University and Europe’s leading biotechnology cluster with Norwich’s John Innes Centre; Institute of Food Research; the UEA Climate Research unit, the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, the new Genome and Innovation Centres, and a cluster of precision engineering and renewable energy expertise. Add the Ipswich telecoms cluster around BT at Martlesham, and you have a golden triangle of technology which could power new jobs and businesses for years to come. As Cambridge and other clusters have shown elsewhere around the world, you don’t have to be a ‘boffin’ to benefit. High tech clusters like this generate jobs and opportunities across the board.
But one major obstacle is holding us back: underinvestment in infrastructure. We will never unlock the potential of our region unless we invest in the necessary rail, road, broadband and sustainable housing development to get our region moving. Why is it that whilst Cambridge and Norwich have been booming, we still have deep pockets of deprivation around East Anglia in Peterborough, Kings Lynn, Cromer, Yarmouth and Lowestoft, parts of Norwich and rural pockets? The simple answer is the poverty of our communications links. If people and businesses cannot access opportunities then unemployment and deprivation follow. The benefits of the Norwich-Cambridge corridor will not spread if people cannot get around easily.
Investing in our rail, road and broadband infrastructure will also allow us to develop a more sustainable model of development. The beauty of new communication technology is that it allows people to live and work closer to home. Instead of the last Government’s policy of ‘dumping’ massive housing developments in zoned ‘growth points’ for commuter housing, whilst the market towns and villages we all love wither, the Coalition has implemented a new planning framework to empower local councils and communities. With some local vision we could pioneer a new ‘high tech’ rural economy in which post offices, pubs and local shops can thrive with people of working age with disposable incomes living and working back in villages again. Our area has the potential to be in the vanguard of a ‘rural renaissance’ which can combine heritage with opportunity.
For too long we have become dependent on begging for the infrastructure handout from Brussels and Whitehall. I’m proud to be working hard as part of the ‘pack’ of Norfolk MPs pushing for the A11 dualling and other investment we need, but as well as lobbying for Government funds to pay for infrastructure I think we need also to be imaginative and bold in thinking of new ways of funding it. Perhaps we need to think about giving our local councils more powers to raise money locally? Maybe we should think about road pricing to generate some local revenue to be ring fenced and reinvested in our local infrastructure? Think of all the money we could raise from the annual migration to our beautiful coast from people who don’t have to struggle with our communications all year round.
Around the world there are many different models being pioneered. In America, a number of cities have pioneered ‘Tax Increment Financing’ as a new way of raising finance for infrastructure. Basically, a local council negotiates with Government to keep a share of the tax and other revenue increments that flow to the Treasury from an infrastructure development. If Norfolk could, say, retain 50% of the additional revenue flowing from the A11 dualling or laying down fibre optics, we could get on and finance it ourselves.
Why not go further and think about a new "Regional Infrastructure Building Society" to raise the multi-millions we need for a world class network of fast rail, road and broadband links, funded through the development gain it unlocks. That was how the Victorians funded the railways in the 19thCentury.
Our region has the talent and technology to lead the sustainable technology revolution. But we need the infrastructure engine to get it moving. Government is facing unprecedented constraints on public spending. We need to think of news ways to finance infrastructure.
This is the county that gave Britain the seeds of the agricultural and therefore industrial revolution, our first Prime Minister and our greatest military hero. We should aspire to lead again. A new way. The Norfolk Way.
For more information on The Norfolk Way, please visit (www.norfolkway.co.uk) or email george@georgefreeman.co.uk
As we emerge from the rubble of the Credit Boom, we need to get the real economy moving again. We need to rebalance our economy away from an over-dependence on the public sector, the City, and booms in housing and consumer spending. How? What does this mean for Norfolk? Whilst some fear that we will be hit by the cuts but not benefit from the growth, I think Norfolk has an extra-ordinary opportunity which we should seize.
Our area has the potential to be the next 'Silicon Valley' of sustainable technologies. We have the research base, industrial innovation and finance to lead in the world’s three fastest growing markets: agriculture; renewable energy; and biomedicine. The A11 corridor links Cambridge University and Europe’s leading biotechnology cluster with Norwich’s John Innes Centre; Institute of Food Research; the UEA Climate Research unit, the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, the new Genome and Innovation Centres, and a cluster of precision engineering and renewable energy expertise. Add the Ipswich telecoms cluster around BT at Martlesham, and you have a golden triangle of technology which could power new jobs and businesses for years to come. As Cambridge and other clusters have shown elsewhere around the world, you don’t have to be a ‘boffin’ to benefit. High tech clusters like this generate jobs and opportunities across the board.
But one major obstacle is holding us back: underinvestment in infrastructure. We will never unlock the potential of our region unless we invest in the necessary rail, road, broadband and sustainable housing development to get our region moving. Why is it that whilst Cambridge and Norwich have been booming, we still have deep pockets of deprivation around East Anglia in Peterborough, Kings Lynn, Cromer, Yarmouth and Lowestoft, parts of Norwich and rural pockets? The simple answer is the poverty of our communications links. If people and businesses cannot access opportunities then unemployment and deprivation follow. The benefits of the Norwich-Cambridge corridor will not spread if people cannot get around easily.
Investing in our rail, road and broadband infrastructure will also allow us to develop a more sustainable model of development. The beauty of new communication technology is that it allows people to live and work closer to home. Instead of the last Government’s policy of ‘dumping’ massive housing developments in zoned ‘growth points’ for commuter housing, whilst the market towns and villages we all love wither, the Coalition has implemented a new planning framework to empower local councils and communities. With some local vision we could pioneer a new ‘high tech’ rural economy in which post offices, pubs and local shops can thrive with people of working age with disposable incomes living and working back in villages again. Our area has the potential to be in the vanguard of a ‘rural renaissance’ which can combine heritage with opportunity.
For too long we have become dependent on begging for the infrastructure handout from Brussels and Whitehall. I’m proud to be working hard as part of the ‘pack’ of Norfolk MPs pushing for the A11 dualling and other investment we need, but as well as lobbying for Government funds to pay for infrastructure I think we need also to be imaginative and bold in thinking of new ways of funding it. Perhaps we need to think about giving our local councils more powers to raise money locally? Maybe we should think about road pricing to generate some local revenue to be ring fenced and reinvested in our local infrastructure? Think of all the money we could raise from the annual migration to our beautiful coast from people who don’t have to struggle with our communications all year round.
Around the world there are many different models being pioneered. In America, a number of cities have pioneered ‘Tax Increment Financing’ as a new way of raising finance for infrastructure. Basically, a local council negotiates with Government to keep a share of the tax and other revenue increments that flow to the Treasury from an infrastructure development. If Norfolk could, say, retain 50% of the additional revenue flowing from the A11 dualling or laying down fibre optics, we could get on and finance it ourselves.
Why not go further and think about a new "Regional Infrastructure Building Society" to raise the multi-millions we need for a world class network of fast rail, road and broadband links, funded through the development gain it unlocks. That was how the Victorians funded the railways in the 19thCentury.
Our region has the talent and technology to lead the sustainable technology revolution. But we need the infrastructure engine to get it moving. Government is facing unprecedented constraints on public spending. We need to think of news ways to finance infrastructure.
This is the county that gave Britain the seeds of the agricultural and therefore industrial revolution, our first Prime Minister and our greatest military hero. We should aspire to lead again. A new way. The Norfolk Way.
