Decades of focus on central public sector service provision, financial sector concentration and infrastructure have created incredible synergy for business and people in and around London, that other parts of the country find difficult to compete with.
Regionalizing Britain
In terms of regions, we would like the UK to consider making a new set of regional units with capitals that mirror a measure of the political autonomy of the nations but with added devolved representation assemblies regionally and with the regional Governor represented in a new modified assembly to replace the House of Lords:
Existing Regions
(Nation) Capital 2nd Administrative Capital
1. Scotland Edinburgh Inverness
2. Wales Cardiff Aberystwyth
3. Northern Ireland Belfast Londonderry
New Regions
(Nations).
1. South East London Portsmouth
4. South West Exeter Bristol
5. Central Birmingham Liverpool
6. North Manchester Newcastle
Supporting Regionalization in Law, Finance and Agriculture
The additional thinking is to devolve apex institutions such as Civil Service, Parliament, Supreme Court and Regional House of Lords. The structural change required will include and not be limited to making changes in the fabric of delivery of law, finance and agriculture:
Law
• Establishing a supreme court for English and Wales in the capital or administrative centres of Wales, South East, West, Central and the North
• Political Representation matching the autonomy provided to the devolved nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to the new regions
• Creating legislation that allows a measure of autonomy to provide an incentive on taxation measures: corporate, land rates, vat and discounts to incentivize activities for key business units in the area.
• Allowing all administrative areas to submit and apply for free port grant inland or at sea that harnesses a unique regional resource for enhancement and re-export to create industrial hubs.
• Developing a system where regions have the discretion to borrow against central government guarantee with either bank debt or tradeable instruments
Finance
• Establish Bank of England representation in each region with associated clearing arrangements that benefit regional banking licensing
• Create an incentive for regional financial entities through lower capital requirements and limitations on activities to benefit the area through either open banking/digital legislation or stricter lower asset allocation.
• Creative incentives for the relocation of insurance activities that can price risk in the regional areas that allow lower capital requirements but a more focused local activity
• Allowing local regions to create and manage under the Bank of England a digital cryptocurrency backed by Sovereign guarantee (FreeBit)
Agriculture
• Reformat policy to encourage small, organic, high-quality agriculture and animal husbandry
• Reduce legislative obstacles for innovative artisanal trade and development through regional markets • Rethink the town, regional market format and constitution to encourage daily trade, consumption and purchase of produce: farmer to consumer.
• Create a rule of origin in regions to be able to add value to the product by limiting supply such as Somerset Cider etc
Rethinking Business, Industry and National Competitiveness
1. What constitutes core manufacturing and service business of the future for the UK?
a. Energy (renewable/traditional) and their offshoots
b. Aerospace
c. Electrical Cars and Buses
d. Consumer Electronics e. Health Care.
2. Who might be a national champion in these industries?
a. Ineos
b. Dyson
c. Arrival CIIC
d. Rolls Royce
e. Family-Owned Merchant Banks
f. NHS
g. Astra Zeneca
The above list again is not exhaustive but tries to identify the business headed by British nationals and that operate in great measure within the country. The key to establishing industrial core thinking is that we need to encourage the concentration of firms that manufacture, develop in an area, and create industry excellence clusters that self-support and spurn innovation and feed into large decentralized SME growth and development.
New Thinking for Key Financial Sector
In infrastructure, we spoke of opening of finance by developing local clearance, houses, debt markets for regional government and digital cryptocurrency with regional signatures. The infrastructure change and lower capital requirements (but higher reporting and restricted activities) allow the development of several other regional financial excellence centres outside the city of London. We must create an ecosystem that creates a steady stream of tech in finance and entrepreneurial development in the business of finance. Before the big bang, the city was filled with numerous family-owned merchant bank and new financial institutions. The scale and growth of the City of London must continue, and in the words of the CEO of Barclays, it must set its eyes not to compete with Europe but to rival and exceed the centres of Singapore and New York. But, at the same time, Britain must rediscover the entrepreneurial financial backbone that built and sustained its growth for centuries.
New Educational Thinking
New educational thinking is key to developing skills that support the strategy above in industrial, financial and public sector infrastructural development. The key suggestion is to develop a new 6 Form Plus college (Accelerator Colleges) that not only works with young people from 17-21 but acts as a community centre to retool and upskills all its adults. The elements are listed below and should be trialled in one of each region’s administrative capitals to start.
1. College format that delivers certification including A level and Diploma level 6(degree) level certification
2. Core focus areas of engineering, finance, health care, information technology and entrepreneurship
3. An apprenticeship program linked with critical industry leaders
4. A continuing education centre that allows people of any age to acquire new skills using the resources of the college
In conclusion, COVID 19 and Brexit combine to bring about not even a once in a generation opportunity but a much larger chance to reset and rethink the essence of the United Kingdom in a way that can unlock value for all its citizens and the world at large.
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