How Future North West was developed

Background

In 2008, 4NW - the Regional Leaders Board and the Northwest Regional Development Agency agreed to work with partners in the North West to develop a new Single Integrated Regional Strategy in light of the emerging proposals of the then Government's Sub National Review of Economic Development which were ultimately translated into section 5 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009.

It was envisaged that the Regional Strategy would provide a new and clear strategic investment framework for the region, which built on the learning gained in the process of developing the Regional Economic Strategy 2006 , the Regional Spatial Strategy and Partial Review and the Regional Housing Strategy .

In doing so it was agreed to:

Refresh and revise economic development actions and priorities
Focus on setting out a vision and key principles on strategic issues
Integrate spatial and housing priorities with actions to achieve sustainable economic growth

Work commenced under the RS2010 branding.

Following the Coalition Government's announcement in June 2010 to remove the statutory basis for Regional Strategies and place decision-making on planning and housing matters solely in the hands of local authorities, work on the RS2010 was reviewed. The Regional Strategy Advisory Group agreed that the Northwest would benefit from a shared vision and an agreed set of integrated priorities.

As a consequence a decision was made to refocus the Regional Strategy and develop it as a succinct and streamlined non-statutory, high level framework. "Future North West" was published in August 2010.

Development Timeline

2008 / 09	Evidence base for Principles and Issues Paper developed
Feb 2009	Principles and Issues paper published
	View P & I Paper here
Feb to April 2009	Principles and Issues Paper consultation
	View Consultation summary report here
January 2010	Draft Part 1 (the high level strategic framework) of the Regional Strategy published
	Download FULL RS2010 Draft Part 1 Consultation document here - FULL VERSION
	Download SUMMARY RS2010 Draft Part 1 Consultation document here -SUMMARY VERSION
Jan to Feb 2010	Draft Part 1 Consultation
	A report summarising the response to the consultation is available here
	For details of all the responses in full click here
August 2010	Future Northwest published
	Download Future North West document here
Throughout	Ongoing strategy development

A Project Plan was developed at the outset. This outlines

the scope and coverage of RS2010
the timetable and key milestones of the Regional Strategy process
information on how the evidence base would be compiled
how stakeholders could be involved
risks to achieving the Regional Strategy and how we proposed to mitigate those

Download the RS2010 Project Plan

However with the subsequent radical change in the style, format and purpose of the strategy following the General Election in May 2010, this Project Plan and timeline was superseded.

Who was Involved

The NWDA and 4NW, the Regional Leaders Board were jointly responsible for preparing Future North West on behalf of the region and have been assisted by a Regional Strategy Advisory Group (which became the Future NW Advisory Group).

The Regional Strategy Advisory Group was made up of members from the public, private and voluntary / community sectors. The main purpose of the Advisory Group has been to help guide the development and implementation of RS2010 and then Future North West. The Group has offered advice on changing circumstances in their own areas of expertise, and acted as a conduit with organisations they represent to share information on and gain views / input into the Regional Strategy process.

Download details of the membership of the Future NW Advisory Group.

Promoting and Informing Integrated Sustainable Development

Throughout the process we have undertaken a Sustainability Appraisal to ensure that it fully integrates social, environmental and economic considerations. In doing so we have sought to take on board, as appropriate, the principles of Strategic Environmental Assessment, Habitats Regulation Assessment, Equality and Diversity, Health, and Rural Impact assessments. These have taken place alongside, and been integrated with the strategy development, since we believe that this is a vital part of truly integrated and long-term strategic development. The Sustainability Appraisal was undertaken in two distinct phases.

Bridge / Ursus Consultants undertook the Sustainability Appraisal of the process up to and including the publication of RS2010 Part 1 (the high level strategic framework) in January 2010. The accompanying Sustainability Appraisal report and supporting annexes can be downloaded from the right hand side of this page.

After January 2010, a different consultancy, Scott Wilson, was appointed to undertake the Sustainability Assessment on emerging RS2010 / Future North West documents. The non statutory status of Future North West presented us with the opportunity to ensure the approach taken to assessing the sustainability of the document was appropriate and proportionate in its status, scope and content.

The 'Future North West: Our Shared Priorities' Sustainability Assessment Report can be downloaded here.

Building an Evidence Base

Building an evidence base was essential to the development of the new Regional Strategy. This work has been led by the Regional Intelligence Unit (RIU) in the Northwest. The vision, priorities, themes and objectives set out in Future North West have all been informed by this extensive evidence base.

View Regional Strategy Evidence Base, which includes the following elements:

Summary of the evidence base
Evidence papers
Independent Peer Review
Future Scenarios
Independent Think Piece by SQW Consulting
State of the Region
Regional Economic Forecasting
Places Research
Initial Technical work on Housing Provision and Job Growth Figures for the North West

Documents

NW Forum on Ageing | NW Coastal Forum | Extranet

4NW Signup: