14 Jul 2009

Nowhere is immune to the effects of the global recession, and Norfolk is suffering like the rest of the world. One thing that marks Norfolk out from the rest however, is the way it is addressing the situation. A key part of the response to finding ways to ease the county’s economic pain has been the recent ‘Norfolk Fellowship’ tour. Funded by the Norfolk Charitable Trust, the tour was an intensive fact-gathering journey around the globe, undertaken by four highly motivated individuals, selected to represent different aspects of Local Authority management and community stewardship.

Their objective was to find out how similar sized communities are coping in other parts of the world. To learn how their local governments interact with national governments and play a role in supporting local economies and communities. And to bring the lessons learned back to Norfolk , to see if and how they might be adapted to help the County.

The group, Jennifer Ashby, Deputy Director for Race & Diversity in the Department for Communities & Local Government, Neil McInroy, Chief Executive of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), David Southworth, Assistant Director of the Region’s Economic & Investment team and Norfolk County Council Leader, Daniel Cox, was to learn at first-hand, in a variety of economic environments worldwide, how local economies have been developed and how local governments have played their part in that growth.

From Gdansk in the North to Coimbatore in the South, and from Yokkaichi in the East to Portland, Oregonin the West – the four research ‘Fellows’ had a punishing schedule of meetings with business and local government leaders. Carefully selected by Laura Foster, Head of the Norfolk Charitable Trust, the fellows shared a wealth of knowledge and experience from their respective working backgrounds, so meetings with local governments and economics experts were swiftly focused on the areas of greatest interest to the County.

From the insights gained throughout the tour, the Fellows are currently delivering a short series of lectures on how the strategies they have examined in other communities might be implemented by local governments in the .

Taking over EPIC, the East of England Production Innovation Centre for their lecture in Norwich , the Fellows spoke to a specially invited audience with a wide range of associated interests. Norfolk County Council Leader, Daniel Cox, began proceedings by explaining the purpose of the 2008 Norfolk Fellowship Tour, saying. “The tour sought to explore and determine the factors which make some places economically strong and resilient to change, and others less so. By visiting such a diverse range of cities and conducting our research in a time of unprecedented global change, we saw how the global downturn and recession was beginning to affect local economies and what the local governments were doing to ensure their regions remain sustainable during this time.” He continued, “Whilst it was still early days, this global pressure on the locations meant that we were witnessing first-hand how localities were coping and what their worries, hopes and fears were.”

Despite the many opportunities seen by the team, Jennifer Ashby cautioned against believing in “transferability without change” and, in common with her other Fellows stressed the importance of local identity, referred to throughout the lecture as “pulse of place”. The Fellows agreed unanimously it was important for local government to get to grips with identifying and focusing on what “really matters” to the economy and people of their regions. Local authorities, they said, need to be sure they understand exactly what they are governing; warning trying to attract inward investment to boost local economies without that understanding, posed the  very real danger that “planning becomes a spectator sport”.

In the context of attracting investment to regions, the Fellows found it increasingly clear during their tour that, “investment needs a reason to stick around”. They posed the question, “Can we foresee the day when people and businesses move to an area simply because they like the way it is governed?” They cited their experience in Portland, Oregon quoting Portland’s local government’s pride in its approach, known in the as a ‘Weak Mayor’ system, in which the leader has to garner public and political support through inspirational leadership rather than statutory rights. The Portland authority was very happy to tell the Fellows of success of the concept that, “Giving power away is power in itself”.

This prompted one recommendation from the team that local authorities learn to create the environment for success for their region and ‘then leave well alone’. The two keys to creating that success initially were agreed by the team as being ‘flexibility at local levels and engagement with local business community groupings’. In debating that flexibility, the Fellows expressed concern that national government policies were frequently too inflexible for the demands of local environments and needs. Making national policies meet local needs was, they suggested, one of the biggest challenges faced by local communities around the world today.

Concluding the lecture, Norfolk County Council Leader, Daniel Cox said, “We all feel privileged to have been part of the Norfolk Fellowship Tour. The experience has helped transform our understanding of local government’s role in supporting economies across the globe. The many opportunities to learn, through debate with our peers around the world, have allowed us to reflect on our contribution to the national, indeed, global, financial and economic context.”

Laura Foster added, “Because of the quality of their work in the , the Fellows quickly established their credentials with their counterparts in these centres around the world. This allowed them great insight and first-hand knowledge of what was being done to ensure they are developing resilient, ‘change ready’ economies that are strong enough to survive this economic downturn. Critically for Norfolk , the Fellows were able to understand how even the smallest economies, many of them in far less developed areas of the world, are enhancing their economic sustainability.”