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Northern Powerhouse Q&A with Simon Eastwood

Simon Eastwood, Managing Director of Carillion Developments, an Airport City Manchester Joint Venture Partner, discusses the Northern Powerhouse, its impact and future opportunities.

Simon Eastwood, Managing Director of Carillion Developments, an Airport City Manchester Joint Venture Partner, discusses the Northern Powerhouse, its impact and future opportunities.

What does the Northern Powerhouse mean to you?

Carillion has had a longstanding presence across the North of England. We employ many thousands of people and deliver work, which ranges from maintaining and cleaning 476 stations for Arriva Rail North, to upgrading parts of the M6 to Smart Motorway and extending the main stand at Liverpool’s Anfield stadium and our Developments business is active across the region from Manchester in the North West to Durham and Sunderland in the North East. 

In Manchester for example, we are a Joint Venture partner in Airport City, which exemplifies the ambitions of the Northern Powerhouse.  A £1billion project, Airport City is acting as a magnet for inward investment, helping to share the message of what the North of England has to offer to the rest of the world and highlights the region’s strength of connectivity and quality infrastructure.

Our presence in the region gives us a great understanding of the opportunities for growth and development of the economy, which can be achieved by harnessing innovation, investing in skills and improving infrastructure to deliver a positive impact on communities.

We welcome the way local and national politicians, businesses and other groups have come together around the agenda and believe we can make a positive contribution.

Three years have passed since the phrase 'Northern Powerhouse' was first coined. Has enough happened since then?

The ambitions of the people engaged in the Northern Powerhouse idea are huge and it would be unrealistic to expect everything to be done in a short space of time. I expect everyone would have liked to have done more but we should recognise the major steps that have been made, including investment in transport and devolution of powers. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will the Northern Powerhouse. The aim has to be to create a legacy, which lasts as long as Rome!

What is the single main issue you would like to see dominate the Northern Powerhouse agenda?

No one issue should dominate the agenda. The Northern Powerhouse is about creating a vibrant and growing economy. To achieve this work must be done on a number of fronts at the same time, with multiple stakeholders.

How would the success of the Northern Powerhouse agenda benefit your business?

The Northern Powerhouse involves changes to the traditional way in which towns and cities have operated. We have already seen a willingness to embrace new ideas and new ways of working together and we look forward to further developments.

A dynamic Northern economy will benefit many businesses and organisations and Carillion is committed to being part of that. Because our activities range from providing initial project finance, through design and construction to ongoing maintenance and facilities management we would expect to have a long-term stake in the region’s economy, creating jobs and building local communities.

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