At last the Humber becomes a real region, with Hull at its heart

It’s a pleasant change - the Government makes significant announcements about the economy and investment and this part of the world is a major beneficiary.
Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement contained confirmation that the cost of crossing the Humber Bridge by car will be halved to £1.50 next April. After years of calls for the bridge burden to be lifted, the Government has finally listened, wiping out £150m of the structure’s crippling historical debt.

The news is a huge shot in the arm for the Humber region and promises to finally unite both banks of the Humber in an economic region that is greater, and more powerful, than the sum of the parts.
The details are still surprisingly scant - I suspect ministers want to drip out the good news, bit by bit - so some caution is advisable. In particular, the business community will be anxious to hear what the new toll levels will be for freight journeys. The Government must be as fair to business users as to private drivers and also halve the tolls for vans and lorries.
However, the positive implications are huge. Hull City Council’s portfolio holder for Economic Regeneration & Employment, Councillor Steve Bayes, is correct in noting in the Hull Daily Mail, that slashing the tolls can make Hull truly a regional capital for the first time. The city will have an economic and social hinterland stretching south to North and North East Lincolnshire, as well as north towards Scarborough and west in the direction of Leeds and York.
The bridge was built to unite the north and south banks of the Humber, but that never happened. Instead the crippling cost of journeys became a barrier to the movement of people, products and trade.
Once the tolls become affordable, people will no longer avoid journeys back and forth. Certainly Hull should benefit from trips to the city for shopping and leisure. In truth, it’s worth paying £1.50 to cross the bridge for the sensational views alone! The £1.50 every driver saves from every crossing will be available as disposable income. Most of that will be spent within the region, benefiting shops, bars, restaurants and leisure venues.
Many more businesses will also look to invest and trade either side of the bridge. One business with operations on either side of the Humber, specialist engineering business Spencer, will save around £40,000 to reinvest in developments, such as its plans for a waste-to-energy plant in Hull. Imagine the savings for businesses that have considerable freight traffic across the bridge.
The Chancellor’s statement also included news of a second enterprise zone in the Humber. The new enterprise zone includes the threatened BAE Systems site at Brough, a vacant site at Paull, part of Queen Elizabeth Dock in Hull, and Grimsby docks.
It follows the designation as an enterprise zone of an area in total twice the size, which includes the Green Port Hull development site at Alexandra Dock and the Able UK site at Killingholme on the south bank. The first enterprise zone is the UK’s biggest.
What is happening here is effectively land assembly on a grand scale - bringing all the pieces together into a coherent and attractive whole. It forms a hugely attractive proposition for the burgeoning renewable energy industry to make the Humber its UK home.
So much has been written and said about whether Siemens will build offshore wind turbines in Hull. Well, after yesterday’s news, surely the case for the German giant investing in Hull is unbeatable. A final “yes” from Siemens could, and should, be just the start of a series of major investments on both banks of the Humber in developments that would transform the region’s economy, bringing substantial and sustainable jobs and unprecedented prosperity.
It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revitalise the region’s economic fortunes and the foundations are being put in place rapidly to make it a reality.
At last, the Humber can become genuinely an economic identity, with the sub-regional capital of Hull at its heart. That’s great for investment, jobs, prosperity and regional pride.
But, just remember, don’t dare call our united region Humberside!

This is Hull: Second enterprise zone for Humber confirmed

Humber LEP: Second Humber enterprise zone approved

The story behind the story of Siemens and BAE Systems at Brough

There was a very interesting report in the Hull Daily Mail about what are described as "informal talks" between Siemens and BAE Systems, apparently about the threatened Brough site and its workforce (see link).

The article originated from a blog posted by Chris Boardman, managing director of BAE's military air and information division, on the company's internal website. Knowing how deeply sensit...ive Siemens are about publicity and the confidential and exploratory nature of the discussions, the post appears exceptionally naive. The reference to the Siemens talks was bound to become public rapidly, given that 900 workers at Brough are under threat of redundancy and there is intense media interest in both the future of Brough and the Siemens plans.
BAE are now seeking to play down the matter but have said Siemens were "keen to explore various opportunities with BAE Systems". Characteristically, German giant Siemens were said to be "unavailable for comment" - for that, read not prepared to say anything at all about what they may or may not be planning to do in Hull, Brough, or anywhere else, for that matter.
The Hull Daily Mail quotes Gareth Russell, business development manager at Associated British Ports in Hull. ABP are the landowners of the Alexandra Dock site in east Hull, which Siemens had selected as their preferred location for an offshore wind turbine manufacturing plant. Siemens signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development, but this has since expired.
Mr Russell stresses that ABP's discussions with Siemens over Alexandra Dock remain "on track". He has voiced scepticism about the possibility of Siemens switching the plant to the Brough site, which also has a Humber riverside location, mentioning issues over the depth of the water at that point.
I suspect that nobody outside the most senior executives at Siemens really knows what their thinking is. It has become apparent that Siemens are, absolutely understandably, driving a hard bargain and that the Government has been somewhat deficient in courting the German investors. However, Hull's MPs and Hull City Council are doing everything possible to seal the Siemens deal and the Government, from David Cameron down, have belatedly voiced strong commitment to making it happen.
As Editor of the Hull Daily Mail until recently I was briefed regularly on the Siemens situation, so I'm a reasonably informed observer. My reading of the situation is that it remains highly likely that Siemens will commit to a manufacturing facility at Alexandra Dock. The Humber is the best location for the plant and Alexandra Dock is the best site, with the smoothest planning process, enabling it to be developed for production of turbines by 2014.
I cannot believe that, at this stage, Siemens would consider an alternative site, further up the Humber estuary.
It would also be deeply embarrassing if Siemens scrapped their Hull plans. The Government would take the heat, and face accusations of failing to support manufacturing employment in the UK, following the proposed mass redundancies at BAE.
My informed guess is that Siemens have been encouraged to initiate discussions with BAE about transferrable skills among the Brough workforce, perhaps by Government officials keen to do something positive to take the sting out of the loss of hundreds of skilled manufacturing jobs.
If that is the context, fair enough, provided such discussions are not allowed to undermine the battle to maintain Brough as a manufacturing facility - a campaign championed by the Hull Daily Mail.
And then there is the challenge of time. The Brough workers could be thrown on the scrapheap as early as the new year. It simply must not be allowed to happen, but the current BAE plans foresee a shutdown of aircraft manufacturing at Brough in 2012. Jettisoned workers will need to find alternative employment - difficult though that will be given the stalled economy and rising unemployment.
The fear is that the BAE workers will be condemned to unemployment or jobs not employing their skills, in the short to medium term. They have mortgages to pay and families to feed. They can't wait around for two years for jobs with Siemens to come to their rescue.
Despite the intriguing Hull Daily Mail report and continuing rumours over Siemens, my view is that nothing has changed. Local and regional leaders should continue to pursue a twin-track strategy - supporting the Battle for Brough and lobbying to secure confirmation of the Siemens investment. The regional economy needs both BAE Systems and Siemens, rather than one for the other, or God forbid, neither.
http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/Siemens-talks-future-BAE-Brough-site-workforce/story-13598152-detail/story.html