North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll believes he can create 14,000 jobs with a regional wealth fund similar to that run by countries like Norway and Saudi Arabia.
Mr Driscoll’s call for a regional wealth fund is one of a number of ideas he has proposed to ‘irrigate’ the area’s economy in a report called Regional Wealth Generation.
He said that a regional fund created by taking advantage of current low interest rates can create thousands of new jobs, bring redundant land back into use and invest in community groups.
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He also wants to be allowed to keep a portion of tax receipts from new jobs created in the North of Tyne to be used to further boost the region’s economy.
His ideas have been backed by former Treasury Minister Jim O’Neill, the architect of the Northern Powerhouse Initiative and a key negotiator in the North East devolution deal that ultimately led to the North of Tyne mayoral authority.
Mr Driscoll has written the report for the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, an independent charity that promotes work tackling major challenges for society.
Mr Driscoll said: “The best way to improve people’s lives is to put more money in their pockets. That means generating more wealth here by investing in our economy and paying good wages. That requires investment in skills, in transport, and directly in local firms.
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“The challenges of the climate crisis are coming at us whether we are prepared or not. The drag of poverty is just as urgent as the climate crisis, and it causes long-term scarring to our whole society. They are two sides of the same coin.
“This paper offers solutions, long term solutions, without increasing taxes. It pays for itself with the wealth it generates. Forget levelling-up, this is levelling-beyond.”
In the report, Mr Driscoll says the North of Tyne mayoral authority is easily beating Government targets on job creation, but admits that the area suffers from problems including low productivity, poor life expectancy and widespread deprivation.
Arguing that “you cannot level up the North from Whitehall”, he calls for a “levelling up board” with representatives from every Government department to be created at each mayoral authority to make sure public schemes set up to tackle economic challenges in regions work more effectively.
Mr Driscoll also argues for a new “invest-to-save” approach to long term health problems, which allows the future money saved by improving housing and public transport to be invested upfront.
Former Treasury Minister Jim O’Neill, who chairs the RSA Cities Growth Commission, said: “During Covid-19, I became a public voice calling for regional equivalents of some so-called Sovereign Wealth Funds, citing the example of Singapore’s Temasek, as what might be considered around some areas of the 海角视频, to try and provide more patient capital to help truly develop a new economy, with stronger productivity, higher incomes, higher shared wealth, and a better society, in the spirit of never letting a crisis go to waste.
“Jamie’s proposal for a specific such Fund for the North East is an idea that is easy for me to endorse, given the scale of the area’s challenges. I hope it isn’t dismissed out of hand, or even worse, ignored by Whitehall.”
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Dr Alice Mathers, Director of Research at the RSA, said: “The North East is not a problem to be solved, but a national asset we have under-invested in.
“The levelling-up debate is often polarised between cities versus the red wall, London versus the North, or GDP versus wellbeing. In truth, we need an approach with four key elements: growing local economies, powerful local governance, public services focused on reducing social inequalities, and stronger community voice.
“All of which require commitment to effective participatory approaches, creating an equal platform for more local people to have a voice on matters that affect them, to help shape future services and systems.”
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