Wor Room is a year old!
A year ago today, Boris Johnson resigned and I started a newsletter...this week: concrete, transport and mortality
Unbelievably, Wor Room is now a year old.
On 6th September last year, Boris Johnson resigned and - giddy with excitement - I made the questionable decision to commit myself to a weekly newsletter.
The idea behind Wor Room is a simple one - to give the North East angle on national political stories, while sharing the latest data relating to the region.
I think I achieve that most weeks, and it’s hopefully useful for those of you who read it.
People are usually quite coy about this stuff, but as it’s a special occasion, I’ll take you behind the curtain to look at the numbers:
I have 341 subscribers, of which 39% of you were new to Substack
I share an 8% audience overlap with
and his , a 5% overlap with and his and a 4% overlap with ’s - which I enjoy, because it suggests I’m hitting the North East / Policy / Comms triple axis I was aiming forIn the last 30 days, I’ve had 2,340 views and a newsletter open rate of 42.55% - both of those are down a bit on the previous 30 days, which I’m optimistically attributing to August, not to a declining quality of output
The two most read posts were DON’T PANIC back in June, which has been read 1,100 times, and It’s boat week! from mid-August, which has 1,000 reads
But what’s been most lovely has been the response from people in real life.
I’ve had so many wonderful bits of feedback and positive conversations, and of course, 50-odd of your turned up to the in-person Wor Room event in July to talk about a narrative for the North East.
What’s next?
I’ve set myself the goal of reaching 500 subscribers by the end of the year
More events - I’m planning to fit in three more in-person events between now and May’s mayoral elections
What can you do?
As an anniversary present to me please SPREAD THE WORD - if you could share this newsletter and recommend it to people, I’d love it, that’s how the readership grows
Give me feedback - requests, tips on interesting data and reports and let me know what you like (or don’t)
You can work with me! This newsletter might be free to read, but I do have to pay the bills, so think of me whenever you have a policy-related project
‘MOST SCHOOLS UNAFFECTED”
Short of everyone somehow managing to stay sober in a brewery, schools literally crumbling days before the start of a new academic year is about as on the nose an assessment of this government as it’s possible.
As things stand (on Tuesday night), we don’t yet have a definitive list of the schools across the country forced to close due to the presence of RAAC - although the BBC has been attempting to keep a running list.
There are six fully closed and two partially closed from the North East on that list - mostly in Co. Durham and Darlington.
We aren’t getting a full list so far because they don’t have one, and Education Secretary Gillian Keegan (who has been endearing herself to everyone this week) has told education leaders to “get off their backsides”. Sure to go down well, the first week of September being a notoriously quiet week for schools.
Long-time readers will know I have a soft spot for departmental social media graphics, so imagine my delight when I saw this one.
Give them some credit, MOST schools don’t have crumbling, asbestos ridden concrete about to rain down on pupils…as far as we know.
I think Keegan is heading rapidly towards getting the boot - abrasive, defensive, reports of trying to minimise fallout, of shortcutting proper processes, a PM who has distanced himself from this and will need a sacrifice.
We're expecting a full reshuffle around the King's Speech in early November, but once we start digging back into each school - where had building work cancelled, where had maintenance budgets cut, where had known issues…then it goes on and on, and you need a swift resolution.
Newcastle's Catherine McKinnell has just been given the shadow schools brief, so expect to hear from her on this.
The use of RAAC also extends to universities and hospitals, so there are new frontiers to discover in this crisis too.
NATIONAL TRAVEL SURVEY
Last week the results of the annual English National Travel Survey for 2022 were published. There’s loads of information in there about how the modes people use to travel, the average distances, and comparisons over time and by region.
I’ll just give you a first quick look now, but I’ll probably return to it in future newsletters.
We walk more in the North East - 295 trips per year - than the national average of 267 trips. In fact, that’s the same amount of walking as London. It’s also up on last year, and on pre-pandemic.
The North East has the second highest number of trips as a car or van driver - 402 - beaten only by the South West with 405. The English average is 337 trips per year. That’s getting back close to pre-pandemic levels.
Local bus usage is three times higher than the national average - 69 trips per year compared to 23 across England. That’s back more or less where it was pre-pandemic, but as we’ve mentioned previously, is down longer term.
Overall we travel more, taking 1,009 trips on average per year, compared to 862 as the national average.
INEQUALITIES IN MORTALITY
A cheerful one to end on this week, the North East has the highest ‘all causes' mortality rate in the country.
As you can see above, 1114.3 deaths per 100,000 person years - that’s between March 2021 and January 2023.
For individual conditions, the North East tops the list for colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer, kidney cancer, liver and biliary tract cancer, lung cancer, mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and COVID-19.
That’s 12 of the 34 individual causes included in the figures.
As a region, the local authority breakdown looks like the above - Northumberland is the lowest with 996.2, and Middlesbrough is the highest with 1236.7.
What I've been enjoying this week
Double me in this week’s enjoying section, but it is my newsletter anniversary.
First, I interviewed Thom Lewis, the man who produced Sam Fender’s two platinum albums, for Pattern. You can read that here.
Second, on my other Substack, Go Out Yonder, I shared a piece on Sunday from my archive commissioned by a US outlet in 2016 but never published, about Swansea City’s takeover by their now owners. Worth a read as a little time capsule of April seven years ago.
What’s coming up in the next week or so?
Regional migration stats from the 2021 Census later this morning
Natural capital accounts data for urban areas, tomorrow
Housebuilding data for Q1, also tomorrow
Labour market stats on Tuesday
Working with me
I’ve got space to take on one or two projects in October - if that could be with you, let’s grab a coffee.
The sort of thing I do is…
Write you some excellent content - especially on projects that are in and around policy-issues - that could be blogs, case studies, white papers, stakeholder comms, anything like that
Advise on how to present what you do to different audiences - again, I’m at my very best when that relates to policy or societal issues…or when you’re trying to speak to policymakers or the business community
Interview people for features, research or case studies
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.
Thanks for the shout-out. Keep up the excellent work!