Lancashire needs to “shout” with a more collective voice about its potential in order to ensure it gets the government and private sector backing needed to realise it.
That is the message from one of the county’s MPs, who is chairing a forum that brings together all of her parliamentary colleagues to promote Lancashire to those in – and with – power.
Ribble Valley’s Labour MP Maya Ellis is heading the Lancashire All-Party Parliamentary Group, which has been reformed after a four-year hiatus.
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The aim is for the 16 county representatives who have a place in the Commons to work as one in order to help attract investment, boost growth and improve infrastructure.
Ms. Ellis, who won her seat at the last general election, said that Lancashire has plenty of strengths that it can trade on, but could benefit from harnessing an overarching vision of the county’s capabilities.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that while Lancashire is already recognised by the government as “one of many places that plays a role” in the nation’s economy, there is “a missing link”.
“At the moment, all the things Lancashire does well are core bits of this government’s plans – but I don’t think we’ve linked up well enough yet the fact that Lancashire can do that stuff.
“Individual assets are definitely on the government’s radar, [such as] BAE Systems…[but] I think it’s about trying to make people aware of Lancashire – and doing that more collectively,” Ms. Ellis explained.
She acknowledges that some of those who need to hear that collective message are ministers in her own party’s government – which is why she was pleased to welcome local government minister Alison McGovern to the inaugural meeting of the reformed APPG late last month.
She also lauds the publication last September of the Lancashire Growth Plan – a document which sets out a detailed strategy for the county’s economy in the decades to come. It also includes a pipeline of projects, which – if they all came to fruition – could generate £20bn of additional investment.
However, Ms. Ellis says that potential benefits like that need a strong case making for them if they are to come to pass.
“The MPs [should be] playing a role where we can in bringing [the growth plan] to life to all stakeholders: private investors, developers, people like that. I’m [also] trying to get copies of that onto ministers’ desks.”
She is keen to see an elected mayor playing a part in the push for Lancashire as soon as possible – but with no firm date for when that post may finally be created, she hopes the APPG can help fill a gap in the meantime.
Although cross-party working is no doubt simplified by the fact that 13 of the 16 MPs representing constituencies that cover Lancashire are Labour – with one Tory, an independent and the Speaker of the Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle – Ms. Ellis believes the APPG is a forum where it is easy to put party and local area affiliation aside for the collective good.
“While individual investments in each of our areas are beneficial, the biggest thing that is going to improve life for most people in Lancashire is going to be [its] collective economic development – collective investment into big, strategic [projects].. And we don’t get that unless we all talk together.”
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