Place Strategy Consultation Launch

A Place Strategy for the North – NP11 Place Strategy Consultation Launch

• The Place potential: An estimated additional £2.7bn GVA for the Northern economy.
• ‘A Place Strategy for the North’ presents twelve ‘oven ready’ investable propositions.
• The strategy responds to all twelve Levelling Up missions, and specifically to ‘Pride in Place’.
• The North’s ‘Screen and Green’ assets – its Film, TV and Broadcasting capacity and nature-related Big-Ticket Items – are highlighted as transformational opportunities for investment.
• Collaboration lies at the heart of the strategy which has been developed in partnership with key culture, heritage, creative and nature partners.
• A public consultation on the interim strategy is open until 11th March 2022.

The NP11 is pleased to release the NP11 Place Strategy – ‘A Place Strategy for the North’ – as an interim draft for consultation. The strategy sets out a series of ‘oven ready’ investable propositions designed to maximise the economic potential of the North’s arts, cultural, heritage and environmental assets. It estimates that the potential value of the Place agenda could be an additional £2.7bn GVA for the Northern economy.

The NP11 Place strategy has been developed in partnership with Arts Council England, Historic England, The National Heritage Fund and the Environment Agency. It builds on a year-long strategic development programme and has been supported by broad scope engagement with colleagues from across the arts, culture, heritage, creative and environment sectors, and with key stakeholders from the Northern business community, voluntary sector, higher education and civic leadership.

Co-sponsored by Lord Inglewood DL, Chair of Cumbria LEP and Helen Simpson OBE, Chair of York and North Yorkshire LEP, the investment proposals put forward in the strategy include support for cultural and creative reanimation of places and spaces, including finding new purpose for the North’s underused historic mills, former retail spaces and industrial heritage, and investment in the North’s creative talent, with targeted support for young people and freelancers.

Co-sponsoring Chair Helen Simpson OBE says: “People are at the heart of the place agenda and integral to the North’s diverse and distinctive place identities. Place is an untapped opportunity for the North that offers real economic outcomes whilst also generating wellbeing benefits for people and their families, livelihoods and communities”.

Co-sponsoring Chair Lord Inglewood DL says: “Place is an idea whose time has come. The NP11 Place strategy presents a set of evidenced propositions for investment that have been made in the North, by the North and for the North. The strategy speaks to all twelve missions set out in the Levelling Up White Paper and represents an ‘oven ready’ response to the Secretary of State’s clarion call”.

‘A Place Strategy for the North’ is released as an interim document for further consultation with partners and stakeholders across the North. The strategy can be read here and comments and feedback submitted here.

A finalised strategy and companion delivery plan will be launched in Spring 2022.