Cheshire and Warrington leaders welcome plans for 'Northern Arc'
Cheshire is working closely with Liverpool and Manchester
Cheshire and Warrington leaders today said they were working closely with colleagues in Liverpool and Manchester on newly unveiled plans for the “Northern Arc”.
Leaders in Cheshire believe the plans represent a major opportunity to bolster growth in the region, across the wider North West and their goal “to make Cheshire and Warrington the healthiest, most sustainable, inclusive and growing economy in the UK”.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham and Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram attended Parliament and met with Treasury ministers and MPs on Tuesday to share a working paper setting out the Northern Arc vision, which is based on new analysis carried out by economists at Metro Dynamics.
The Northern Arc concept is a series of economic areas stretching from the North West to the Pennines and connecting into West and South Yorkshire, underpinned by transport links that would include a new railway from Liverpool to Manchester.
New analysis shared by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority suggests that if the untapped potential of the North West can be unleashed through new infrastructure investment, the region could help turbocharge economic output to the tune of £90 billion by 2040 – complementing the up to £78 billion generated by the Oxford-Cambridge Arc by 2035.
The plans have been welcomed by leaders in Cheshire and Warrington.
Today Cllr Nick Mannion, Vice Chair of the Cheshire and Warrington Joint Committee and Leader of Cheshire East Council said: “Cheshire and Warrington is proudly home to over 41,000 businesses across diverse, growing and highly productive sectors including energy, life sciences and manufacturing, a £3.9bn visitor economy and is an integral part of the North West Net Zero Industrial Cluster plan, which centres around a £30bn pipeline of clean energy projects that will make Cheshire and Warrington the world’s first decarbonised industrial cluster
“A Northern Arc could enhance our cross-border collaborations and has the potential to stimulate further growth, support our collective ambitions to make Cheshire and Warrington the healthiest, most sustainable, inclusive and growing economy in the UK.”
The Northern Arc working paper can be read here.