Powerhouse debate: Time to increase the power

Is Lancashire failing to seize the opportunities the Northern Powerhouse brings and what can we do to make sure we have a seat at the table? Those were the questions we asked our panel, drawn from inside and outside Lancashire and brought together with Downtown in Business at the Hallmark Hotel in Leyland.

Does the idea of the Northern Powerhouse resonate in Lancashire?

FM: The county sees itself very much a part of the north and as a place which is extremely well connected to the big cities of Manchester and Liverpool. So the Powerhouse agenda provides us with plenty of opportunity here. Whether or not we’ve been capable of taking advantage of those opportunities is the question, and my short answer is ‘no, we haven’t’.

While everybody else is trying to create bigger governmental units to cope with the new agendas, the global challenges and opportunities that we have, some people in Lancashire are actually trying to go in the opposite direction and shrink the county’s governance structures.

Lancashire has a great opportunity with the Northern Powerhouse; its business community certainly feels that there’s a good opportunity. The politicians, I feel, in some parts of the world here, have continued to be parochial and are not fully understanding or appreciating those opportunities.