Putting the great back into Great Grimsby!

The Greater Grimsby Town Deal is beginning to bear fruit, a delegation in London has been told.

The leader of NELC, Councillor Philip Jackson, delivered a speech about the Greater Grimsby Town Deal to a Westminster Social Policy Forum seminar in London, entitled “The Future for Town Regeneration and Investment Infrastructure, Wellbeing and Placemaking”.

He said: “If you visit Legoland Windsor, you might be surprised to find no less than four Grimsby landmarks:

• The iconic Dock Tower.
• The imposing Dock Office.
• The majestic Victoria Mills.
• The engineering gem that is Corporation Road Bridge.

The point is, you’d need to have a connection with Grimsby and North East Lincolnshire to realise that’s where these structures are located, which, for some time, epitomised our challenges as a place… identity, external focus, ambition.

Grimsby has a proud maritime and fishing heritage. Rightly so, at one time, the town boasted the largest fishing fleet around. But for all sorts of reasons, and many years ago, the international fishing industry, the UK economy and industrial development all moved on. The town went into slow, long-term economic decline and a low sense of aspiration prevailed. This is the perception that many still have, both locally and nationally, and we needed to face it, head on.

It was clear that in order to meet our challenges and tackle those perceptions, we needed to do three very specific things:

Firstly, articulate a bold ambition for growth through a partnership-led economic strategy, with an equally ambitious Local Plan to back it up. A strategy that focused strongly on our key sectors – ports and logistics; chemicals; seafood processing; renewables; the visitor economy. A strategy that, to have any gravitas or impact, needed private sector buy-in, ownership and leadership. A strategy that clearly links jobs, housing, infrastructure and skills with local opportunity and our biggest challenge of all… aspiration.

Secondly, develop a direct working relationship with Government to ensure that our story, ambition and capacity to deliver was understood.

Thirdly, foster a strong set of relationships with investors, business, the Greater Lincolnshire and the Humber Local Enterprise Partnerships (we are currently members of both) and other key Government agencies to engender a real sense of external confidence and credibility.

We’ve rightly majored on the positive impact of the renewable energy sector. The Humber region is resurgent, and the huge investment of Orsted in the Port of Grimsby is having a transformational impact. Hosting the world’s largest offshore wind operations and maintenance base servicing the world’s largest offshore wind farms in the North Sea has engendered a real sense of opportunity for local communities and local business. Confidence is growing.

Throw in other factors such as our Borough boasting the largest port by tonnage in the UK (and the fourth busiest in Europe) at Immingham and more than 60 per cent of fish consumed in this country being processed in Grimsby (by the likes of global players Youngs and Seachill) and you have a package that demonstrates the capacity of our small part of the world to punch above its weight.

But growth does not happen in and of itself, not the right kind of growth anyway. Educational attainment, housing delivery, skills, culture, heritage and aspiration are all material to the plans we’ve developed over the last three years to help shape the right offer for our Borough and our place.

Housing Zone status and major regeneration initiatives such as our flagship South Humber Industrial Investment Programme (SHIIP) – a programme of strategic land assembly and ecological mitigation that is unlocking a swathe of employment land for jobs growth (with significant council investment to back it up) – are integral to taking the area forward sustainably.

But above all else, town centre regeneration is key to a place like Grimsby. A town that had largely turned its back to the water has started to be transformed, through a constructive and proactive working relationship with Associated British Ports. Major steps forward are the designation of the largely derelict old fish processing area of the Port of Grimsby, the so-called Kasbah, as a Conservation Area ripe for re-purposing, and the Council’s acquisition of the iconic Victoria Mills, all further emboldened by the designation of Grimsby as a Heritage Action Zone, working very closely with Historic England.

Our work is being overseen, challenged and supported by the Greater Grimsby Board, chaired by entrepreneur and philanthropist David Ross, who has a major Grimsby family connection. Other key members include Lord Kerslake, Lord Lamont, the chairs of both LEPs, Historic England, both local MPs, Matthew Wright (MD of Orsted), ABP, major local oil refinery Phillips 66, the Universities of Hull and Lincoln, and representatives from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The board has the credibility, experience, knowledge and passion to support our ambitious plans for local and inclusive growth. The board and the Council are ensuring that the regeneration conversation is one that links jobs, housing, skills, culture and heritage – a place offer. Local leadership and partnership, enthusiastic cross-Party commitment from North East Lincolnshire Council and support from a Board of the willing is having a clear positive impact.

In so many ways, Grimsby and the wider coastal community of North East Lincolnshire fits with the thrust of the Government’s Industrial Strategy approach. The council saw that opportunity when we were actively engaged in the Greater Lincolnshire devolution bid. That bid unfortunately faltered, not through any fault of North East Lincolnshire. However, we continued the engagement with Government on the back of that positive experience, raising awareness of our Borough, the challenges we face and how we’re addressing them, in partnership with the private sector and other key stakeholders. Grimsby, a so-called “forgotten town”, had got its act together.

Our engagement with Government and the role of the Greater Grimsby Board had an impact. Our inclusion in the Industrial Strategy with the announcement of our pilot Town Deal, on page 226 to be exact, was not the result of a traditional bid. It was the culmination of some fantastic work by a lot of people, starting with the articulation of our economic strategy, building a credible and visible external focus, engaging over a sustained period with Government, business and investors and taking the initiative at the local level.

When the Minister for the Northern Powerhouse visited Grimsby recently to make our latest Town Deal announcement – confirmation that an Onside Youth Zone would be developed in the town centre backed by Council-led strategic land acquisition and further direct Government funding support – it signalled that the Town Deal was indeed for real.

Housing Zone status, Heritage Action Zone status, Coastal Communities funding, Estates Regeneration Funding, LEP funding has not happened by accident. Our bespoke Town Deal model brings these, and future funding opportunities, under one strategic umbrella. It enables us to have a direct conversation with MHCLG and BEIS, acting as the conduit into other Departments of State, about further capacity, funding and resource to support our ambition.

The Town Deal is fundamentally about developing a new model of working with central Government, to share the story of Grimsby and North East Lincolnshire, and to leverage the freedoms and flexibilities that will enable us to deliver at the local level over the medium to long term for the benefit of people and our place. We have paved the way for the recent Towns Fund announcement that 99 other towns will be able to submit cases for Government support and investment.

So, the four key limbs of our ground-breaking Town Deal – driving economic growth, education and skills, accelerating housing delivery; and town centre and port regeneration – are all now starting to bear fruit. North East Lincolnshire is leading the way and we’re putting the great back into Great Grimsby!