Anchoring the Northern Powerhouse: Understanding anchor institutions and their contribution within a complex urban and regional system

The Northern Powerhouse vision (Osborne 2014), to create thriving Northern city-regions with a re-balancing of the English economy (Martin et al 2014, pp. 3-6) is by necessity a long-term ambition (Osborne 2014). City-regional sustainable development is a complex system (Martin and Simmie 2008; Martin & Sunley 2015; RSA 2014, p15) and will rely on local leadership for policies and decision making in a devolved environment (Cox and Hunter 2015, pp. 11-12). Experience from Anchor Institutions in the United States highlights new models of place-based leadership (Dubb et al 2013, p vii; Serang, Thompson and Howard 2013, p14-17) shared value (Porter 2010; ICIC 2011; Porter and Kramer 2011), investment (Serang, Thompson and Howard 2013, pp. 4-6) and community wealth building (Dubb et al 2013, pp. 24-29) for delivering city-regional development. New forms of multi-level governance institutions, such as Combined Authorities (Sandford 2015) and Local Enterprise Partnerships (HM Government 2010 pp. 12-14) will be significant in this shaping of place and economies (Cox and Hunter 2015, p 17). This paper provides an early analysis of the role and contribution of Anchor Institutions in the Northern Powerhouse geography. These institutions have the potential in a devolved administration (House of Lords and House of Commons 2015) to make a major contribution to the sustainable development of the Northern Powerhouse and to address the economic, social and environmental factors that contribute to the sustainability of places in the long term.

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