Future Cities Forum - 'Innovation Cities' report part one

Image:: FUTURE CITIES FORUM 'Innovation cities' discussion participants gathered at Deloitte in the Halo Building, Bristol

Future Cities Forum was hosted by Deloitte in Bristol for its ‘Innovation Cities’ discussions. The event looked at the future economy of the west of England, and In particular the three cities of Plymouth, Bath and Bristol. There was a special focus on innovation at universities and how renewed emphasis on defence technologies is shaping these cities.

Dave Tansley, Partner and Lead for the South West and Wales at Deloitte was asked to open the discussion. He said:

‘I look after south west business at Deloitte, growing our presence in the region. You will se quite a few young people in the offices today and we inducted eighty one new graduates into the business with a good few from local universities. We think the region has huge potential to drive inclusive economic growth and for our people it's a great place to live. Increasingly the business and professional services sector has been called out by the government's Industrial Strategy as a catalyst for growth, so we must be properly connected into the ecosystem an enabler and not just a sales operation.

'I think this region is one of the most exciting in the UK for innovation clusters, as it is blessed with leading universities, the Catapult, Science Creates, the Brabazon development, and Bristol Temple Quarter. It also has the potential for a new town, and as a colleague described it 'we can increase the surface area of luck by being hyper-kinetic'.

'The recent publication of the West of England Growth Strategy has really been really helpful. It has given businesses clarity. It is great to have the ordinary economy showcased too. We can have all the science and so on but the economy must be underpinned by hospitality, travel businesses etc, and it all has to work together otherwise we can’t make it work as a society. We are being impacted by emerging technology and shifts in the marketplace such as AI. We are looking to become the professional services firm in residence on the Bristol & Bath Science Park and we are discussing how to knot together the different sector clusters which are geographically separate..

'We are a small corner of a small island trying to compete globally so we need to commit to a strategy on where to compete. New towns are a good example. Do we recognise that we have three new towns in the region and do we present that strength as an investable proposition or do we just let them compete with each other?

'On social licence, we have a very large defence business but we have recently integrated that with aerospace. It's important to point out that defence does not have social licence everywhere in society so the challenge is how do we make sure that defence can benefit the pacifist and show that investments there have trickle down benefits to the whole population?

In this region we need to do a really good job of showing how investment and innovation in defence industries can benefit everyone.'

Above: view over central Bristol with Temple Quarter and Bristol Temple Meads station top right (courtesy Bristol City Council)

Stephen Peacock, Chief Executive of the West of England Combined Authority then joined the debate and commented on the importance of growing the brand of the region and launching the Growth Strategy:

'Don't get hung up on the geography as the investors don't care about that. We are in a much better place now. The competitive streak is important. You need to know your strengths and have humility. Having worked in Whitehall in central government, you are sceptical of every city claiming to be 'biotech capital of the UK'.

Stephen was asked what areas should the south west focus on?

'You need to understand what you are selling and what the buyers want. Otherwise it's an empty gesture, one just designed for local media. You need to lobby for more money for new roads, new housing and so on from a blended mix of public private investment but you need to frame it correctly. You need to be clear what you want to deliver.

'I was heavily involved in the new towns conversation and we got Sir Michael Lyons, Chair of the government's New Towns Taskforce - down here in the summer, and we - the combined and local authorities including South Gloucestershire - were able to speak with one voice. We showed him Temple Quarter, and the development at Brabazon with YTL bringing £4bn into the region and so we are now 'on the list'. It was a proposition with a concrete delivery plan.

Stephen was then asked to comment on whether it is better to focus on defence industries as a sector where the region is strong?

'When you say defence I would say 'sovereign energy capability' and I am very interested in small modular reactors and this region with Oldbury-upon-Severn, Berkeley, University of Bristol and Rolls Royce is world-leading. I might call this clean energy. . The question is really do we want to have well paid jobs and strong IP? We have at the Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Somerset which is the biggest building site in the country.

'We are also the aerospace capital of UK, possibly of Europe, if you discount Toulouse. Some of those aerospace companies do defence as well. Advanced manufacturing and aerospace is a calling card.

' Of course the largest employer in Greater Bristol and South Gloucestershire is the Ministry of defence at Abbey Wood with 14,000 staff. But we are not just one industry in the south west. Between digital and aerospace, engineering and creative industries that is the space. It's more important that we leverage this.

'It's true for Plymouth too! It's not just defence - it's team-working, it's place-making, it's people, it's jobs.'

Above: HM Naval Base Devonport and and the estuary of the river Tamar, looking beyond to Plymouth Sound and the Rame Peninsula (courtesy Babcock International Group / BAM)

Adrian Dawson, Director of Research & Innovation at the University of Plymouth described the value of the newly formed Team Plymouth project and the need for city centre investment:

'Plymouth has a rich history with navy and defence. Devonport is the biggest naval dockyard in Western Europe. When we speak to the navy now they talk about a fleet of 4,000 ships of which 3,900 plus are autonomous drones. It's a different sort of war as we have seen in Ukraine. It requires national energy infrastructure, it requires cyber skills, it requires dual use technologies. Team Plymouth is a perfect example of all stakeholders coming together with a single aim to drive the defence dividend benefits for a city.

'We have a national prerogative to maintain the continuous at sea nuclear deterrent programme and that's what the £4,5 billion of the government money is for. What was realised however was that we can do this in the city but we will suck all the talent out of other manufacturing and engineering industries and we can create massive wage inflation. There will be a 25,000 person jobs gap.

'The city came together and said we can do so much more and that's how Team Plymouth came to pass..

It's game changer for the city. We can deliver improvements and growth for the defence sector, and the other innovative marine sectors as well. The partnership has a number of strands - it's about post-16 skills, pre-16 skills, it's about transport infrastructure, housing with input from Homes England, as well core regeneration of the city centre making it an attractive place where people want to come and live.

'Most innovative and important however is how we can drive social value out - as Babcock is looking to do - of these enormous sums so the defence dividend will be felt by everyone in the city. Team Plymouth will have succeeded when it has achieved these things in a city that has massive disparities in health, income and standards of living.

Above: submarine maintenance in progress for the Royal Navy (courtesy Babcock International Group)

'Brendan Staniforth, Business Planning Director at Babcock International Group commented how the aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering company, is tacking neuro-diversity across its workforce and making employees feel valued:

'We employ 7,000 people in the dockyard out of 12,000 employees in the wider south west and also 21,000 in terms of supply chain. This has a £1.3 billion impact on the regional economy. Of that seven thousand person workforce 30% are neuro-divergent. Two and a half thousand are industrial workers, many living just beyond the wall of the dockyard. If you catch the 21 bus and travel the six odd miles or so you will lose almost nine years of life expectancy. Some of the most deprived wards in Europe are just next to the dockyard.

'We have to rebuild the dockyard and this is a systems issue. We need people who can think laterally. We have to go on a journey with our workforce and we partner with a organisation called Genius Within to profile staff members on neurodiversity and this allows us to support our workforce better. Recognising that some of the children growing up near the dockyards do not naturally fit the school system - on English and maths for instance - we have started to gamify our role application and selection process using Minecraft for Plymouth. If you can show you can solve problems this way you can move onto the next stage. Creativity is an essential skill for our business and some of the traditional training programmes have not been able to deliver or unlock this.'

Part two of our report from 'Innovation Cities' will be published shortly.