DON'T PANIC
I've gone with a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy theme for this, the 42nd edition of Wor Room
There are just a handful of spaces left on the first Wor Room event, which is happening in central Newcastle on Tues 18th July, and is on the theme of ‘Building a Positive Narrative for the North East’ - find out all the details and snap up one of those last few spots here.
“You’re not going to like it…”
The answer to the Great Question, of Life, the Universe and Everything is, of course, Forty-Two - so I couldn’t let this 42nd edition of the newsletter pass by.
I definitely don’t have all the answers, maybe a few more questions though - and quite a few quotes to enjoy this week.
“This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
Let’s start with Boris shall we - whose resignation honours have finally been (mostly) approved and caused a bit of a kerfuffle.
There were two North East names on the list, with MP Simon Clarke getting a knighthood and the Tees Valley mayor becoming Lord Houchen.
With this, several resignations leading to a set of by-elections (coming soon), the continuing saga of the Privileges Committee investigation, not to mention the Covid inquiry kicking off yesterday, no one could suggest Johnson is becoming irrelevant.
Still, it’ll keep his after dinner speaking fees up, eh?
“Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so”
You may have spotted the news this week that AI has finally solved the puzzle of where the North begins - using Greggs as the key metric.
The analysis saw academics plot the propensity of Greggs vs Prets to decide where the line was - and it’s Watford Gap services on the M1, just like we always thought.
Clearly, it’s a bit of fun, but there are some serious points underpinning it.
One is of perception - is food from Greggs inherently Northern, or is it just associated with the North? There are all sorts of assumptions and stereotypes that come with that, most of which aren't entirely helpful.
A second point is that what this really tells us about isn't where the North begins, but rather it explores the expansionary strategy of two semi-rivalrous brands. For Greggs to have spread its market reach from Gosforth to the comically far south Watford Gap and beyond suggests it is currently the more successful at that. It's less that Watford Gap is where the geography of the North begins and more that Watford Gap is how far south one of the North East’s most celebrated exports has colonised.
“Brain the size of a planet and they ask me to pick up a piece of paper”
From the North East heading south, we move to Whitehall heading North.
The Institute for Government has published an analysis of the Civil Service project to relocate jobs to the Darlington Economic Campus.
The IfG are fairly positive on the move, suggesting the site retains the required attention of ministers and senior Civil Servants, has had a modest positive economic impact on the area, and that it has improved policymaking through housing multiple departments which now work better together, and through having more of those non-London voices in the mix.
When it was announced, I was sceptical - it felt like a bit of a hollow symbol, and the experience of the ONS move to Newport suggested that it would result in a loss of senior staff which would result in a loss of institutional knowledge that would take years to replace.
But, so far at least, the DEC seems to have avoided the worst of those outcomes, managed to attract the best of the policy talent in the region (and beyond), and the Civil Service has responded with a more open, hybrid approach which means Darlington-based staff can play a full and active role. No picking up bits of paper for them.
Future success is far from certain - especially if changing personnel at the top (i.e. a change of government) means it loses ministerial buy-in, or if it fails to develop a decent pipeline of policy professionals within its radius.
All of us with policy and policy-adjacent roles in the region have a stake in it doing well, so when they come looking for stakeholders to engage with, or when young people come asking about working in policy, let’s speak well of Darlington.
“The hours are good…but now you come to mention it most of the actual minutes are pretty lousy”
A quick note on jobs, based on this week’s figures. There are over 50,000 more people in work in the North East than there were a year ago, and for the first time since they started collecting data this way, back in 1992, the North East unemployment rate is below national average. It’s 3.6% here, and 3.8% across England.
For anyone (me) who has been banging on about economic inactivity, there was decent news there too, with a fall to 22.7%, which puts it mightily close to Yorks and Humber (22.6%) and the North West (22.5%).
Nationally inactivity has fallen too, with much of that fall driven by people who had previously been inactive for the nebulous ‘other reasons’ or because they were looking after family or the home. Long term ill health remains at record highs.
We’ll need to wait until mid-July (for some quarterly updates) to find out if that is reflected in the North East, as well as to find out whether we’ve replaced unemployment with the underemployment of part time work, when people would prefer full time roles.
Staying on health, a recent Resolution Foundation report looks at young people, ill health and employment, and the North East does not come out of it well - so we need to work out how to improve it and fast, before disparities set in for the long term. It sits at 5.1% of 18-24 year olds not working due to ill health across the North East outside of Tyne & Wear - which is a staggeringly high number, and well above the UK average of 2.9%.
What I’ve been reading this week
Juliette Garside on the CBI, who are trying to rebuild but can’t quite seem to be credible about it yet. There’s a gaping void between business and government at the moment, so strong trade and representative bodies are vital
Jonn Elledge mentioned the Leamside Line in his newsletter, concluding “it really isn’t that fantastical”, which is an accurate take on it, IMO
A man who really knows where his towel is, Darren Tate of Suitability, is crowdfunding to cover the cost of storage for another year. Suitability provide interview wear to men in the North East who need it, and Darren has helped nearly 200 gents so far, with a huge proportion of those guys successfully ending up in work
Centre for Cities have had a think about how to improve local government funding by streamlining it and combining economic development funding into a single pot
What’s coming up in the next week or so?
Reaction to this morning’s GDP and trade figures
There’s a standalone ONS report out on Friday called ‘Understanding AI: Exploring the uptake and sentiment for people and businesses in the UK’ - sounds interesting
There’s some regional productivity data coming on 20th June
There’s also possibly some regional labour productivity figures for 2021 due to be published - at some point in the next few weeks anyway, just the 18 months after 2021 finished
The TechNExt festival is on next week, 19th-23rd June. I’ll be attending the big main stage day on 21st June - find out more here and come and say hi if you see me there
Working with me
I’m available for freelance policy-related commissions, with time to take on new things from August.
I do things like:
translate your big research or academic paper into a useful policy briefing
help you take your big pile of data and tell stories with it
interview people and turn it into really nice written content
You can find out more about me on my website.
You can email me on worroom@substack.com or arlen@arlenpettitt.co.uk
I’m @arlenpettitt on Twitter, and you’ll find me on LinkedIn.