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The Public Sector Executive Podcast is the new podcast bringing you closer to the public sector leaders in the UK. Covering everything from the environment to the economy to transport, our podcast will bring you the latest news, views and insight from the people responsible for shaping the country's future.
Cllr Amanda Hopgood Podcast Transcript
We need to look at something really unique with transport because it's not just the urban areas, so I'm not saying that's easy because it's not, but we need to think outside the box when it comes to transport local authorities, combined authorities, government that can't do things on their own. It's got to be partnership work and it's got. To be collaboration and I'm a huge believer in that moving forward. On the top the scales for the highest unemployment. We have good quality jobs. We've reduced the gap between us and the rest of the country in terms of income.
This is the public Sector Executive Podcast bringing you views, insight and conversation from leaders across the public sector, presented by Dan Benn.
On today's episode, I am joined by councillor. Amanda Hopgood, leader of Durham County Council, and we're going to be discussing the devolution deal for the North East of England. So Amanda, thank you for joining me as the leader of Durham County Council. How big is this deal?
The deal's fantastic for the North East, so we were the last remaining part, or at least four of the constituencies were without the devolution deal, so it's really important that the seven leaders have come together and managed to secure a deal that actually is probably one of the best in the country. Certainly per capita. Is going to be the fourth biggest devolution devolved area with a population of just shy 2 million people.
That all sounds absolutely brilliant, and when I was I was reading up about it and and I I brought a news article about it as well. It was highlighted about £4.2 billion worth of investment that can come from it, that kind of funding boost. How important is that to the region?
Absolutely immense for region like ours that sadly on many of the indexes and scales is top of all the wrong ones. So while we can make huge inroads around adult education, housing, jobs, and health, all of which will be hopefully change aspirations and the future for our residents in a positive way. That for me is is the most important thing. What we're doing here is bringing that power and. Money to the local decision makers, who know what the residents in the northeast need. We know what skills we need as opposed to someone in Whitehall or Westminster telling us.
That was one of the things I wrote down, wasn't it the the biggest thing about devolution that I've seen is the fact that the local leaders make those decisions, you know, you know where the funding needs to go.
Yeah, absolutely. So here we've got a workforce. And who we can re skill where we need to for future employment. We're doing an awful lot around the green economy, so that's huge. Using a lot of our natural assets as a region because when it comes to devolution, we're probably the trailblazer in more than just the traditional trailblazer sense. In that, I don't think there's another deal across the country that has caused cities and the countryside in, so it's got a huge rural community. A coastline and some major cities. Whereas a lot of them are focused around cities and and and around that type of that type of focused area. So we'll be bringing something new with how devolution works for our rural communities as well.
That's the most important thing, isn't it? Because like you say, you've got the big city, so you look at Liverpool City region or Greater Manchester, they're are very urban, whereas obviously in the North East you have got those rural communities and the coastline as well. So you mentioned before about making those decisions locally. With things such as transport and housing. What kind of a difference can this deal really make on those two areas?
Housing what we've got is and we've got an awful lot of old stocks or bringing new houses into brownfield sites that will make an immense difference to people's quality of life to make sure we've got energy efficient housing. We've still got quite a lot of coal-fired. We we've got a lot of people who aren't even on the grid, let alone getting rid of gas. They've never had it. In the first. Place. So we we've got loads of properties like that that that that we can develop and around transport. Again we need to look at something really unique with transport because it's not just the urban. Areas. So I'm not saying that's easy because it's not, but we need to think outside the box when it comes to transport, how we connect our rural communities to employment. And how we still keep the urban areas running and how we work in the 21st century now post covered how people work, what transport looks like going forward and and make sure that we're as a region we're connected internally, but we're also connected externally to the rest of the country as well.
It's absolutely such an important thing as well, because you have your rural communities, which isn't something that when I've spoken to to leaders before about these kind of things, it's about linking the big cities, it's. About linking to London or to Birmingham, whereas I wrote a news article not too long ago about how a lot of rural communities going to struggle because there's not as much opportunity in them and they get kind of getting left behind a little bit. So it's I I think it's so important that you need to. Look at that and it's.
Important that we have those job. Opportunities within rural communities because it's everything that goes with it. So all of the pressures that local authorities face is because we have smaller rural community. Cities that are no longer self-sufficient in terms. If you just look at things like education. So years ago, every every village had its. Own primary school. And therefore you didn't have to spend a lot of money transporting children towards the schools. That's just not the case now. So here and count you down. For example, we're closing a primary school just this year that had one time left on roll. And and you just that is neither good other. For the child who's there? For both mix and education varied and also the costs that that's incurring are across rural areas with home to skilled transport where we now have to transport children. So if we can. Take jobs to. Rural communities, we can recharge those rural communities in terms of. Bring him back, hopefully in years to come. A community that has younger generations there because there are jobs for them. There's housing for them. And with that we'll bring the services as well. So it's really important and that's also good for the environment. If we haven't got people travelling as far. To work every day. So again I think it's got lots of positives that we could do for that and how we bring our rural communities back into existence and not just a weekend destination, but it's there for the whole week, for people to live there.
No, I I completely agree. Some of the the numbers that, that, that were jumping out the page at me when I was looking, you know, 24,000 extra jobs, it's not to be sniffed at. I don't think when you've got communities like that.
Yeah. And it's about making sure that those jobs are there for everybody to access so that everyone has the opportunity to be successful within the North East that you don't go through school, you don't go your university and then you have to leave because there isn't that opportunity here. And that's what we want to see for the for future generations. That, yes, you'll always have the choice of where you go, where you live, but it's not because you have to move away because there's nothing here. There will be plenty here for people to to work and to live and to enjoy.
I want to go over now to the private sector side, so something like 5 billion. Than pounds worth of private sector investment can be a lot through this deal. Obviously the public sector side is massive. The collaboration with private sector unlocking that private sector investment, how important. Is that as well?
That's absolutely essential. Local authorities combined authorities. Government. They can't do things on their own. It's got to be partnership work. And it's got to be collaboration. And I'm a huge believer in that moving forward. Is that this can be a facilitator for change, a facilitator for development, but it can't do it alone. It can pump prime things, but ultimately it's not the delivery of the finished article, so we need those private sector developers to come in, so we need to work with them and how we can. Bring that investment. Bring those jobs to the North East. I mean, we've just seen huge announcement by Nissan and we've also got things within the cultural sector coming to the North East. So we've got some huge opportunities. And and now's the time to move forward and work with. That sector, and make sure that that investment that the NE is on their radar is a place to come because as I said before, we've got the assets, we've got the land, we've got the people and now we've got the devolution and and the plan to make it work.
Yeah, yeah, I guess not. Just letting these companies know that it isn't just London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool that are these big cities that they can go to. There are places like Durham and the northeast.
We do have really good natural links to the rest of the country, so from Darren, you're less than three hours by train to Kingston. Bus with 40 minutes from Newcastle Airport which can connect you anywhere across the country. We've got the M1 runs through the NE. We've got the nineteens, we've got the 68 that takes you off to the West Coast. So there really are the opportunities there. The infrastructures in place. So yeah, Northeast is most definitely open for business.
Yeah, obviously there are all these positives or devolution, but are there any challenges that you can see kind of as this starts to be implemented?
And the challenge is because most people, as always, are sceptical of another for another tier of possible bureaucracy in local government. So the biggest. Challenge we have is to make sure that when that mayor, whoever they may, they are elected next year, that we hit the ground running and we have some things that are delivered quickly. So people say the. Benefit and see why it's important to them that we also have this within the North East. And as the seven leaders were working in the shadow cabinet formation and we want to make sure that whoever comes in next year, because we'll still form part of their cabinet has got a plan of what we've got in the pipeline ready to hit the ground running.
Definitely. I think making sure that you can show residents straight away or show communities straight away that you are delivering what they want to achieve or what is best for them is being done straight away. I think that is a brilliant way to start.
I think that's the only way that you can start. People will become more sceptical if it happens next may and then they're waiting for three or four years for anything significant to happen. So that is what we want. We want to make sure that there is something there for people and that they can say that, yeah, this is a really positive thing. Like we believe it is for the region.
You mentioned that some of the people might be sceptical about the devolution deal inside local government or the the levels of local authority, whether it's nationally or regionally. Do you think that there are any hesitations from? People within the sector about a devolution.
Deal. I think there probably was initially again if government just gave local authorities the anonymity and the finance to get on with it, this would be delivered. But we are where we are, the major parties all support devolution. There would be no change if we had a. Change of government. And so we've secured a really good devolution deal for the Northeast. So we just have to carry on, that's what's on offer. It's either that or we get left behind and the leaders within the region eight years ago kind of left us behind a bit. And that's why it's really important now that we move this forward and and we carry on and we do what's best for the Northeast because we've seen without a doubt that just the status quo doesn't work. We're not progressing in terms of all those indexes that I mentioned earlier, the deprivation, the, the quality of life, the. And we need to turn that around. So we need to do something differently because if we just continue to do what we've always done, we'll get the same results. So it's really important that we do that differently.
Yeah, I think the same can be said across the sector, across anything that you know at at the minute there are certain indexes like you mentioned that aren't quite developing as they should are progressing as they should and going forward or innovating maybe is the way to go.
And to get out of this mindset, like I said before, about working with the private sector. Out of the mindset that we can deliver everything because we can't local. Government is really. Good at what it's good at, but it's not. Good at everything. And nor should it be, because nobody is able to do everything in life. It's like shops. It's like businesses. If they diversify, it's not always the best. So I I do think that this gives us the perfect opportunity to deliver and deliver in a different way, but in a positive way.
Completely agree there. So just to round off with the. Deal. Where do you see the future of the NE? What does the future hold for the region then?
The future for the NE come back to us in a few years time and you'll see that we no longer top the scales for the highest unemployment. We have good quality jobs, we've reduced the gap between us and the rest of the country in terms of income. I would like to think we've got a much better health outcome. So no longer is there a difference of 15 years depending on which part of the area you live as to how long you can expect. To live a healthy lifestyle. So All in all, I would hope we will no longer be the bottom of the economic pile for the country and we will most certainly be on the map internationally as well as nationally.
One more thing, how would you go about achieving that?
Again, I think a lot of this, it's got to be about collaboration. It's got to be about work. Together and the seven leaders who form the cabinet with whoever the new mayor is need to work together to drive the NE forward because in turn, that will benefit every single local authority within the North East and every one of our residents. So we need to park whatever. Differences you have at the door and we go in there and we do a miss for the North East. And up until now, that's exactly what we've done. So saying no reason for that to change.
Absolutely brilliant. I think that's a really, really good place to pull things together, knowing that as long as everyone works together, things will improve. So thank you for joining me, Amanda.
Yes, you're welcome. Thanks very much. For having us.
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