Framing a place-based investment strategy for Rochdale

A research project from The Productivity Institute has examined how the community capitals framework in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, is working in practice using a mixed methods approach. The research analyses indicators for the capitals in an experimental data tool and combines these with qualitative information from surveys, a workshop and interviews.

As part of the Investment in Places project, researchers from The Productivity Institute were asked to examine how the capitals identified in the UK Government’s 2022 Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper, are operationalised within Rochdale.

The white paper’s broad objective was for policy makers to provide every citizen of the UK with the opportunity to flourish, meaning they lead longer and more fulfilling lives, and see sustained improvements in living standards and well-being.

It defined spatial inequalities largely in terms of different levels of resources or ‘capitals’ – physical, human, intangible, financial, social and institutional – with the objective to strengthen specific capitals in places where they are comparatively weak. We analyse the capitals of physical, human, financial and social in an experimental data tool. Rochdale has strengths in financial and social capital.

Focus on Rochdale

The Rochdale borough in the north east of Greater Manchester has a population of 223,800. Once part of northern England’s textile trade, Rochdale was a successful town in the Industrial Revolution, but its economy began to decline in the middle of the 20th century, along with the UK’s textile industry. The firms that built the textile mills developed engineering strengths and these specialisms in manufacturing textiles and engineering are still evident in Rochdale today.

Rochdale has focused on improvements in medium-level technical skills that will feed into the creation of good, innovative jobs through a recent investment boost of government funding for the Atom Valley enterprise zone.

Two new training and research institutions have also been set up: the Centre for Expertise in Advanced Materials and Sustainability and the Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Centre. Connecting job opportunities with technical courses at the Further Education College has further helped in fore-sighting future jobs.

These investments will benefit from infrastructure improvements to realise the Atom Valley Mayor Development Zone innovation cluster by way of improvements in bus and tram routes as part of the Places for Everyone spatial plan. Atom Valley development is based on the triple helix approach whereby government provides initial funding, and then industry, university and regional authorities work together to anchor and grow higher value jobs in a region.

To build a broad-based investment strategy for Rochdale, it is important to draw on the key strengths of the local economy and highlight the successes including:

• Rochdale’s productivity is at a lower level than the UK and North West averages, but since the end of the financial crisis in 2009, productivity has grown and is catching up to the UK.
• Regeneration of the Rochdale town centre (the Riverside development) has helped it transition from a failing high street to a vibrant shopping area with a complimentary focus on improving heritage assets (the town hall) with an improved cultural offer.
• There has been growth in the value added for the share of tradeable sectors within the local economy, with increases in the contribution from manufacturing. Although manufacturing is the second largest employment sector in the borough, it brings in the largest share of the value added and has specialist strengths compared to the UK in the manufacture of textiles, chemicals, rubber and plastic products, fabricated metal products and machinery along with engineering.

For improvements in economic outcomes, further investment in physical capital is required as it has long life times and there is need to build up a critical mass. Future planned infrastructure investments, like a tram connection through Middleton, will help with connectivity issues, but better bus routes to employment sites would be more beneficial in the short run.

In targeting measures beyond GDP, the social, human, intangible and institutional capitals need to align to jointly create and share a narrative on Atom Valley enterprise zone that has a common purpose. Improvements in human capital have seen the share of skilled residents grow and those with no qualifications fall. A policy drive to target more employment starts for apprentices in the higher value added manufacturing sector is needed. The planned public sector funding boost to local investment should leverage in more private sector investment in the long term.

In terms of better welfare outcomes for Rochdale citizens the strength of the social capital networks could be deployed to encourage inclusive stakeholder engagement around Atom Valley. The returns from investments (e.g. new job opportunities) need to be shared more widely within the Rochdale community to strengthen the social fabric.

For higher well-being outcomes, the natural capital in Rochdale should be utilised to improve health inequalities. This could be a co-operative action between the public and third sectors working with local residents, again building on strong social networks linked in to institutions (NHS and Rochdale Borough Council). The Marmot review (2020) highlighted the importance of access to green space as being key to improving life expectancy rates. It is also crucial to target preventative health measures to tackle deprivation with a greater focus on the commercial determinants of health (like restrictions to fast food outlets).

Building on the key strengths of the Rochdale economy with a collective policy focus on all these areas should help develop an enduring investment strategy to benefit all.

The Productivity Insights Paper for Rochdale is available to download, with policy recommendations and the experimental data tool in a separate summary.