Innovacion

Fast Forward for the British Library

Innovacion recently prepared the British Library’s application to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) Fast Forward programme for funds to support the initial development of six Business & IP Centres in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield. The project will develop a Blueprint and operational guidelines for the national roll-out of a branded network of Business & IP Centres to Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield.  The project will unlock the potential of the Patlib network, increase the knowledge exchange between business and universities and develop shared services to achieve economies of scale.  

Dare to Believe...A New Airport for London Part 2

Yesterday the Mayor of London launched his second report examining the economic importance of a new hub airport for London and the UK. What this process is helping to do is make some decisions explicit. And the argument goes something like this. London's success is linked to internationally traded sectors. But London's relative connection to future growth areas like central Chinese cities is declining and it is already falling behind other European airports. Inbound tourism and cargo generate the most potential for the sort of export-led growth that the UK desperately needs now and in the long term. Only a hub airport can provide a comprehensive network of direct long haul routes. Incremental improvements in other airports ('sweating the assets') do not solve the need for a hub airport which is a long term 50 year solution to projected air traffic demand. Regional airports will not be able to operate as a hub of this scale and Heathrow, already at capacity, is suffering 'friction' and resilience issues. High speed rail will only complement rather than replace air travel.  And airports (and to some extent their construction) are good at providing job opportunities at all levels in the labour market. For example we found that there are at least 58,800 air transport and cargo jobs alone in the 15 Local Authorities within a 20km footprint of Heathrow. So with constrained capacity the conscious decision is how much the UK wants to stay in the airport business in the future and how much we are willing to travel via Paris, Amsterdam and Franksfurt if we want to get to the BRIC economies.  As well as some sensible economic arguments there is a sense that a project of this scale will be important to build the UK's ambition and present a confident outward looking face to the rest of the world at exactly the right time.

The London Airport conundrum...

Machiavelli's dictum about the introduction of new things, "There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage...for the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old system and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new one."

And so it is with airports in London and the South East. However as the Mayor of London makes clear in his consultation response to the Government (‘Developing a sustainable framework for UK aviation’) something will have to be done and a Thames Estuary airport may be the least worst long term option.

Our economic and strategic development thinking that fed into this work highlighted that a Thames Estuary airport would:

• Support the £532 billion Greater South East economy which is the powerhouse of the UK - though its relative competitiveness is declining.
• Provide the economic catalyst that the Thames Gateway has been missing - and a key part of a long term UK Growth Plan focussed on international trading.
• Give a clearly defined focus and location for economic growth - the UK is now the only NW European country without any national and regional planning.
• Offer a long term rather than a 'muddle-through' response to Heathrow’s inherent capacity constraints - which will require the elusive element of long term cross party political comitment.

Yes it would be expensive but big visionary projects are and the UK's competitors seem to (a) make the business and political case and (b) find the money. Yes it would have engineering challenges but again no bigger than elsewhere in the world. But in the long run airports can have huge regional and national economic spin-offs. Washington Dulles airport and its technology corridor is now home to more telecom and satellite companies than any other place on earth. Stockholm Arlanda Airport has 65,000 associated science city jobs. We have to remember that we are where we are because Heathrow's original growth was unplanned and resulted from a series of incremental decisions.

Docklands Light Railway extension to Olympic Park opens

It is always a rewarding and comforting day when a large transport or infrastructure project that you have been involved with comes to fruition.  And today is one of those days. With just under a year to go to the London 2012 Paralympic Games the fully accessible Docklands Light Railway (DLR) Stratford International extension opened today (31 August 2011). Costing £211 million, the 3.7-mile expansion from Canning Town to Stratford International forms a key part of the London 2012 Olympic Games transport network and includes four new stations.

Innovacion produced the Statement of Case for the Stratford International Extension which successfully secured planning permission in October 2006 as part of a Transport Works Act Order application. Innovacion also reviewed potential sources of European grants and loans to support the development of the extension and provided bidding advice to DLR. As a result Innovacion produced a successful bid to INTERREG IVB for station enhancements to the DLR extension and secured €1.57 million in EU funds.

More about the extension from the BBC and Transport for London.

Regeneration effects of upgrading the Woolwich Ferry

Innovacion are helping Transport for London to develop the best approach to assess the regeneration effects of a range of options to upgrade the Woolwich Ferry. The Woolwich Ferry carries around one million vehicles and over two million passengers a year.

National Infrastructure Plan - Beware the strings with private investment.

While the £200 billion outlined in the  National Infrastructure Plan sounds a lot some estimates suggest that the UK needs £300-£400 billion of investment in road, rail and air infrastructure alone over the next 20 years to meet demand and existing power generating capacity is expected to fall by one third in the next decade. And the numbers in the NIP are summing public and private investment. While private investment will have to avoid the dangers of TfL's PPP for the underground it is also likely to come with specific characteristics such as increased tolling of any new roads, tunnels and bridges if we want them. Nothing is free.

 

The Regional Growth Fund - Regional, sure, but Strategic?

The Local Growth White Paper which includes  the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) suggests that the coalition is very much committed to regional rebalancing. The RGF will be deployed along with Tax Incremental Finance (TIF), more local controlled business rates, as yet undefined Growth Hubs and new Technology and Innovation Centres which are to be set up by an expanded Technology Strategy Board. However the first Round of the RGF (£325 million of £1.4 billion) feels like it is being done very much on the hoof (it only has a full application stage) and the workshops in London come almost after the 21 Jan 2011 deadline. Though anyone in London will do well to secure these funds and even the weight of a potential London-wide Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) may not help much. However the RGF suggests there is a clear desire to stimulate the private sector in areas of high public sector employment dependency and this extends to aspirations for high levels of cash support from the private sector and social enterprise in bids to the RGF (60% is suggested as being achieved in Wales). The assessment criteria are drawn from the Treasury's Green Book on value for money so the first round bids will have to be at a well developed stage and have this detailed financial information easily available. The fund seems to be flexible and include capital and revenue elements but bids from the public sector alone are not permitted. However a number of questions emerge:

• Will this approach actually bring forward the right and the right scale of projects rather than the projects that can meet the RGF criteria? Theoretically middle ranking (and urban?) areas in the regions where there is more private funding available may actually do better if this is a key metric. It may also favour those areas with well established public-private partnerships.
• It is not obvious how a sub-£1 million social enterprise project can genuinely be compared with all the other areas expected to be funded from the RGF including housing and infrastructure? And £325 million may not go very far if there are chunky capital projects.
• Projects with less evidence of tangible financial benefits may suffer from this approach (e.g. social inclusion, sustainability)?
• Is any existing strategy being used to co-ordinate these "competitively assessed" projects?

And the RGF is not to be confused with the Business Growth Fund.  In parallel the £1.5 billion Business Growth Fund (relatively small considering the Goldman Sachs bonus pot is £8.3 billion this year!) that has been pulled together by the six largest banks is providing equity finance (£2m-£10m) to firms with turnovers of £10m-£100m though a programme of free mentoring from former bank employees is being offered.

Innovacion develop economic options for London's Royal Docks

As part of a Regeneris team Innovacion have been commissioned by Newham Council, Design for London and the London Development Agency to develop and appraise the strategic economic options for investment priorities in the Royal Docks over the next 25 years. The economic study will explore development scenarios and options based around the current array of economic assets and identify the supporting infrastructure required to bring forward sustainable development. This commission forms the initial stage in the production of the Royals Development Framework which runs through to March 2011.

Innovacion advise on potential Crossrail regeneration benefits

Adding 40% to London’s rail transport capacity and opening in 2017, the £16 billion Crossrail scheme will be the largest transport project in the Greater South East for 50 years. With Regeneris and Cyril Sweett, Innovacion have been commissioned to help the LDA to identify and secure the wider regeneration benefits that Crossrail could provide around the location of the 29 London stations and their hinterlands and to identify where there are market failures that could benefit from public sector investment. The end product will be an investment plan outlining key milestones and timescales for specific interventions by the LDA.

Innovacion investigate business impacts of congestion at Blackwall Tunnel

Innovacion is helping to assess and review the business impacts of traffic congestion at the Blackwall Tunnel as part of Transport for London’s short listing appraisal of proposed river crossings in east London. Evidence was brought together from a range of literature and secondary sources as well as through a roadside survey and selected business case studies.

Midlands Highways Alliance: collaborating to save £11 million in maintenance costs by 2011

Working under the East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership, the Midlands Highways Alliance will save the region £11 million across highways maintenance and improvements by 2011. Supported by Constructing Excellence, the nine councils in the region and Highways Agency have been making efficiency savings through procurement frameworks for major and medium sized highways schemes and professional civil engineering services, sharing best practice in maintenance contracts and by the joint procurement of commodities such as salt.

Read more in Innovacion's case study in IDeA's Partnership and Places library

Barking up the wrong tree

The halting of the development of the light rail extension needed for 11,000 new homes at Barking Riverside throws up a number of questions about our appetite for seeing through major developments in urban brownfield locations.

In November 2008 the Mayor of London halted the public inquiry process for the proposed Docklands Light Rail (DLR) extension to Dagenham Dock to give time for DLR to negotiate with the Mayor’s office and the Government over who will fund the ongoing developmental costs as well as the final £500 million bill. This pause gives the opportunity to reflect on what the DLR scheme’s progress to date tells us about our appetite for bringing forward major urban developments and transport infrastructure schemes, and what this means for the policy that espouses such an approach.

Rumfitt A; "Barking up the wrong tree"; Town & Country Planning (March 2009)

Download Barking up the wrong tree (TCPA March 2009) 

Innovacion advise Transport for London on objective setting for river crossings

Innovacion have been appointed to advise Transport for London on objective setting and the economic benefits of river crossings in the context the revised Mayor's Transport Strategy (MTS), the London Development Agency's draft Investment Plan and the revision process for the London Plan.

Innovacion complete Year 3 Monitoring of the Docklands Light Rail extension to City Airport

Innovacion were today commissioned to produce a monitoring report to assess the impact of the London City Airport and North Woolwich extension after the third year of operation.  The review investigated impacts on airport journeys, local accessibility, regeneration, equality and inclusion and built on the year one and two monitoring reports, which were also completed by Innovacion.

Innovacion considers the economic benefits of the proposed Thames Gateway Bridge for North Bexley

Innovacion reviewed the potential economic effects of the package of East London river crossings (including the Thames Gateway Bridge) proposed by Transport for London on the future aspirations, strategies and masterplans for the development and regeneration of North Bexley.

Innovacion to produce Statement of Case for proposed DLR extension to Barking and Dagenham

Innovacion have been appointed to draft the Statement of Case for the £500 million Docklands Light Rail extension to Dagenham Dock which succinctly lays out the evidence to be presented by QC and a range of expert witnesses at the Tranpsort and Works Act Public Inquiry in late 2008.

Innovacion to produce regeneration case for Dagenham Dock DLR Extension

Innovacion with Paul Hackett of Ester Consultancy (and former Special Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister) will develop a wide regeneration narrative and top level business case called “Catalyst for Change” for the proposed extension to Dagenham Dock.  This work looked at the current baseline in Barking and Dagenham and the contribution of the scheme to delivery of London’s housing policy and targets and the Thames Gateway Delivery Plan.

Innovacion monitors second year of DLR Extension to London City Airport

Innovacion will produce the monitoring report to assess the impact of the London City Airport and North Woolwich extension after its second year of operation.  The review will investigate impacts on airport journeys, local accessibility, regeneration, equality and inclusion. Innovacion also looked at the performance of the extension in its first year of operation.

Download DLR London City Airport Year 2 Monitoring Report 

Innovacion secure €1.6 million for DLR

Innovacion produced an initial bid to INTERREG IVB for station enhancements for the Stratford International DLR extension.  As a result DLR were successful in securing €1.57 million in EU funds.