On 6th June, senior politicians and executives from the local authorities that comprise the UK Innovation Corridor met in the Council Chamber in Harlow together with me, John McGill and Cheryl Davenport from EELGA.

The focus for our workshop, facilitated by Glenn Athey from the Mylocaleconomy consultancy, who provided the background data and underpinning research to shape our discussions, was to determine and agree shared priories for the Innovation Corridor going forward into and beyond the forthcoming General Election. I am pleased to say that we achieved our aim and our decisions will be formalised by the Board at its forthcoming meeting next month.

We reached agreement on priorities logically and with relative ease and John has captured these in his introduction to this edition of the Chronicle.

In my view, there are three key reasons for this, which I outline below:

Firstly, the strength, along the UK Innovation Corridor, of the collective cross-party political leadership matched by the collaborative and committed approach of local authority senior executives. Since I was appointed to the role of independent business Chair six years ago, this has been a hallmark of the Corridor. Indeed, it was one of the reasons I was attracted to take on the role across a viable economic region, having served for 8 years as the inaugural Chair of the SE Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP).

Although the political process over the years has resulted in changes in individual Council leadership, the cultural bedrock laid by the founders of the original London Stansted Cambridge consortium has remained solid – assisted hugely by the consistency, commitment, and connections of John McGill who has steadfastly and unassumingly supported the Innovation Corridor at every point in its journey since its creation in 2013.

As the Corridor embarks on the next decade of its development, I am optimistic that this leadership will prevail.

Secondly, the regional economic geography of the Innovation Corridor has even greater currency and authority in the post Covid, increasingly devolved and multi-dimensional political landscape in which we now operate. With its brand secure and a strong identity forged with the East of England through the partnership with EELGA, recognition of the UK Innovation Corridor is assured - at home and overseas.

It remains only for that brand awareness to increase more widely, for the potential of the Corridor for major beneficial growth to be recognised and funded. This is why agreement on where to focus over the next 3-5 years with a new Chair and possibly a new government is critical - and it is why it is so encouraging the group which met at the beginning of this month to determine priorities for action reached agreement so amicably and assuredly.

Finally, the skills, employment, and inward investment opportunities along the whole of the Innovation Corridor are immense. With the Corridor’s distinctive focus on technology and health, life, and data sciences, spread between the globally renown mayoralty-led cities of London and Cambridge and Peterborough, there is no reason why this area of the UK cannot compete on the world stage to bring huge benefits to the communities it serves and to the whole of the UK as well.