Northern Powerhouse

As someone who lives in the north of England who's seen successive promises of transport improvements that have not really been delivered, I cringed when Rachel Reeves said today the Northern Transport Powerhouse or whatever.

Our ambitions for Northern Powerhouse Rail.

You know, I think Northern Powerhouse as a slogan is more a representation of the North-South divide than it is this proud war cry for Northerners.

I think they need a new slogan.

You know, we want the money to go to the people who really need it, people with the most severe disabilities, people least able to get to work and so on.

What do I, I mean, the main thing I, it's not really a regret because I don't, You know, I think I, as I said, I think I tried to make as much, as most of the jobs possible, but there's no doubt when you leave, there were things I did like the Northern Powerhouse, create the mares in places like Manchester, which Andy Burnham became, the sugar tax, which was very unpopular.

In your rule, we'd be like, oh my God, you're taxing, you know, the sugary drinks, the poor people, you know, drink, it's very unfair.

but absolutely the right decision made a huge impact on health.

You know,

you want to actually connect the rest of the country to that.

That was the whole concept of building things like a Northern Powerhouse to complement London.

But I think if you're looking at the UK from abroad, you would say several things.

And I will state that with over 30 years of experience, Stephen has led business transformation programs across Europe, Europe and the Americas for clients in the consumer products, life sciences, energy and public sectors.

Stephen is also the regional markets leader for EY, so a colleague of ours, oversees our work with DFT, and I should note as well is a founding member of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, so super relevant to the government's current agenda.

Stephen, great to have you here.

Thank you.

I'm going to start with a question as I may, and I'm going to pose this being a steadfast southerner, so bear with me here.

But Stephen, with Andy Burnham's succession to Westminster, creation of number 10 north and major programs such as northern powerhouse rail has there ever been a more exciting and dynamic time to be based in the north i won't be moving there personally but what's your sense

well um first off thank you um you're usually in my ear when i'm walking the dog of weekends and whenever the episodes are released so it's lovely to be sitting around the table with you both um so to your question i think um definitely just the glow of Andy becoming prime minister and previously being the mayor of Manchester, then there has been more focus and attention.

That's just natural because of where he's come from.

Today, I am excited to be sitting down with Phil Mayall, Managing Director of Yous, to share more about his career journey, some of his highlights and lessons learned along the way.

Alongside leading news and being a board director of ECF, Phil is also a board member of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, the vice chair of the Regional Policy Committee at the BPF, and a fellow for the RSA.

Somehow, it's still a fun time to join us today.

So Phil, welcome to the podcast.

He was the mayor of Manchester and as chancellor I helped create that job.

Um, and then I, after I left Parliament, you know, I, I set up a organization to promote the Northern Powerhouse, the Northern Powerhouse partnership.

He was kind of key, uh, person we engaged with.

So I like him and I just, you know, spent time with him showing him around the Bayeux Tapestry.