Abi Brown is the Leader of Stoke on Trent City Council
There’s been much talk in recent weeks of whether levelling up is dead. For Red Wall Conservatives like myself, who’ve proved that with the right campaigns locally and nationally you can turn apathy with Labour into support for our agenda, the Chancellor’s announcement about investment zones shows that, far from being dead, levelling up is alive and kicking in those places with the ambition to deliver.
In 2015, I achieved what was thought impossible: an element of Conservative leadership for Stoke-on-Trent. That was boosted to full control in 2019, and over the years have shared snippets with ConservativeHome readers of how we achieved that and built on it, with the city council today being Conservative-led, and working alongside 3 Conservative MPs.
One of the key planks of that success has been delivery sometimes against the odds. In the second wave of David Cameron’s Enterprise Zones, Stoke-on-Trent‘s proposals got the nod, and I’ve spent the last 7 years demonstrating how you can take the idea of a basket of incentives, and turn them into a range of opportunities.
Of the 6 Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone sites across Stoke-on-Trent (including one in neighbouring Newcastle-under-Lyme), all were either long term derelict or lacking the impetus to turn them into viable employment spaces. Today, the story is very different – the sites almost all boast thriving and growing businesses on them, and by the end of 2023, 50 per cent of the land in the Enterprise Zone will have been completely developed out.
It’s worth pointing out here that land in Stoke-on-Trent more often than not needs a significant amount of remediation, and whilst land values are low, there was also a need to stimulate the market and promote the opportunity of a city that had essentially stopped marketing itself properly as a great strategic location with a loyal and committed workforce, all available at a very competitive price.
However Enterprise Zone status gave these natural benefits a real boost, and alongside some dynamic leadership – hello! – today it’s one of the most successful zones nationally, having played a significant part in the economic resurgence of Stoke-on-Trent.
That combination of being able to offer rate relief for businesses, a mixture of high quality different-sized floor space units, and enviable location right in the heart of the UK that is served by excellent infrastructure links, made a real difference for us. But that’s only part of our story.
The Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone has transformed landlocked and vacant brownfield sites that have been developed through our clear strategic thinking and focus on prioritising economic growth for the city. Within the next three months, we will see a further phase of new businesses opening on the site and the opening of one of our most ambitious engineering feats in a generation, with a multi-million pound link road connecting the enterprise zone to arterial road networks.
The success of the Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone has seen, since 2015, millions of square feet of land developed across the city which has helped to springboard growth for national and international businesses which have chosen Stoke-on-Trent as their home and who have gone on to become major employers in the city. With an investment zone, we could go even further.
We have proven in Stoke-on-Trent that the incentives to locate in an area can really drive change, transforming brownfield land and creating agglomeration, supporting resurgent economies and driving growth. With the right approach, a strong narrative and ‘brand’ can literally make a place, as we’ve shown with the Ceramic Valley, based on the reimagined traditional industries of our area and championed as a location for great things to happen.
Stoke-on-Trent still has a long way to go. However, economically we are showing the way with one of the best regional recoveries from Covid-19 and suffering a much reduced impact on our GVA than many others nationally are experiencing. We are determined to raise aspirations for our children and young people, and demonstrate that the city that brought forth great industrialists like Josiah Wedgwood who sent his wares around the world, and RJ Mitchell who designed the Spitfire, can still do the same today.
Levelling Up for Stoke-on-Trent means our children can have every encouragement to think big and the potential to be part of a world beating, ambitious city, right here on their doorstep. I look forward to working with the Department for Levelling Up to secure an investment zone in Stoke-on-Trent which wouldn’t just bring business and jobs, but would raise aspiration and demonstrate how commitment to better opportunities for all really can happen in an aspiration nation.