THE Cheshire and Warrington Enterprise Partnership is tasked with helping to ‘transform the economy of the region’.
As a distributor of funding from Government and EU sources it is well-placed to provide an initial investment in major projects to get them off the ground.
Their primary task is to generate greater output by supporting infrastructure and industry development.
Their interest in Warrington is in it being a part of the Liverpool-Manchester ‘Science Corridor’, the Atlantic Gateway development (including Port Warrington) and potentially in supporting an ‘Energy Cluster’.
The last of these is not a ‘done deal’ as this continues to be a developing capability.
Although the nuclear industry in Warrington is thriving the north west also has shale gas (contentious) and opportunities for alternative power generation through wind or possibly wave.
With a strong engineering, research and development capability in and around Warrington there is the knowledge and skills in place to create a national or international leadership in energy.
Given that then why is the energy cluster only a ‘potential’. In order to turn potential into performance then the Enterprise Partnership should invest in Warrington.
After all, long term energy costs are only going one way!
LAWRENCE Bellamy is associate dean at the University of Chester's Padgate campus and writes a regular column for business.
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