Powerhouse plan to boost areas of ‘hidden potential’
A CONSORTIUM has called for a single “powerhouse” for the South West as part of a vision to level up the four super regions of England.
Its plan suggests 12 “interventions”, including infrastructureled housing and employment development in towns and cities with “hidden strategic potential” such as Weston-superMare, Cheltenham-Gloucester, Plymouth, Tiverton and Taunton.
Bristol’s Temple Quarter, the Bristol Port, the AvonmouthSevernside Enterprise Area, and Filton Enterprise Area are all named as “key investment sites”.
The One Powerhouse Consortium, funded by a charity set up by Bristol-born industrialist Sir Hugh Sykes, together with the RSA, has produced a draft spatial blueprint for each of the regions in the North, the Midlands, the South East and the South West. The plan for the South West says the region has been held back by underinvestment and “fragmented” planning and needs an overarching body to take a strategic approach to unlock its potential. That organisation would work with existing organisations, which include six Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), as well as universities and businesses to produce a single spatial plan for the region. It would be responsible for establishing the strategic priorities and targets for housing, infrastructure, the economy, the environment, health, and social wellbeing.
The draft plan says: “This would enable the region to have ‘one voice,’ giving it more presence nationally, setting out its priorities clearly in one place and giving it more influence to attract investment into the region.
“Our region has been held back by under investment and a lack of coordination. Yet it has enviable economic, social and environmental assets that, properly harnessed, can address inequalities.”
The One Powerhouse Consortium is supported by The Sir Hugh and Lady Ruby Sykes Charitable Trust. It says its draft spatial plans will be “vital” in guiding government and local authority planning.
This would enable the region to have ‘one voice’
Draft plan