A private sector-led partnership looks set to support local authorities on the Humber to maximise the “great potential”.
Michael Gove’s Levelling Up White Paper appears to underline the importance of the Energy Estuary as an economic entity, ring-fencing key elements of the disbanded Humber Local Enterprise Partnership’s position.
It will be chaired by consumer healthcare brand Reckitt's chief executive Laxman Narasimhan, with the name Opportunity Humber. It was a business founded by a man who crossed the Humber to start up in Hull from Lincolnshire, and comes after freeport success and major strides have been made with the Net Zero agenda.
Latest: Opportunity Humber - Reaction from across the Energy Estuary
Revealed on page 236 of the 332-page document presented by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, the report reads: “The Humber economy has great potential.
"Recent government announcements and initiatives such as the Humber Freeport and Net Zero, coupled with private sector investment, provide the opportunity and catalyst for the region to realise its potential. The Humber is playing a key role in energy. Through its natural geography and emerging cluster, the Humber will help to ensure that offshore wind, industrial decarbonisation, carbon capture, and other technologies will sustain key industries and create high quality jobs at scale for years to come.
“To achieve the full economic potential of the estuary, major businesses with a stake in the area and the four local authorities have come together and recognised the need to strengthen leadership on pan-Humber economic priorities.
“Opportunity Humber will be a private sector led board, chaired by Laxman Narasimhan, chief executive officer of Reckitt, which will sit alongside future local devolution arrangements. It will work with the local authorities to provide a single voice for the Humber nationally, globally and into government, and will provide strategic leadership to drive the development and delivery of agreed pan-Humber economic priorities, including the Humber Net Zero cluster.
"The Humber is the UK’s largest trading estuary and has the capacity to make significant inroads into decarbonisation and the application of new and related technologies. The UK Government welcomes this leadership provided by the private sector and local authorities and commits to a new cross-government approach to engaging on pan-Humber priorities through a ministerial-led single conversation as part of the agreed final proposals.”
As reported, the Humber LEP was disbanded when government insisted on single membership. North and North East Lincolnshire Council elected to join Greater Lincolnshire, leaving Hull and East Riding - now set to emerge as a combined authority with a county deal, having been encouraged to do so.
Mr Narasimhan, who recently oversaw the return of the Reckitt name to RB, has also been appointed to the Levelling Up Advisory Council. It is described as bringing “a diverse, independent and expert group of voices into the policymaking process”.
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