Cheshire is one of the wealthiest areas in the North West but levelling up should not skip the county, this is the view of Philip Cox, the Chief Executive of the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP).

Whilst Cheshire has one of the wealthiest areas outside of London, with the golden triangle contributing to huge wealth to the area, it is not always equal across the county. And this is something which the CWLEP want to tackle.

Philip said, "levelling up needs to happen at every level and it is wrong to say that Cheshire and Warrington don't need levelling up, it may have one of the strongest subregional economies in the UK but there are pockets of Cheshire where it is desperately needed."

The Partnership works with local agencies and councils to provide a business voice and enhance the local economy where it can through multiple initiatives.

Their role is broad but levelling up and their part to play in it is very much part of their to-do list.

The government announced in January the areas across the country that will benefit from the levelling up fund which included Ellesmere Port but bids from Cheshire East which had a bid for the Crewe train station cycle path scheme and Macclesfield's public space bid were all rejected.

Artists impression of the Southern Gateway Cycle Scheme at Crewe station - The scheme failed in it's funding bid (Image - Cheshire East Council)

But these rejections will not deter the county or the CWLEP from persevering with their own levelling-up agenda.

"Across the county, there are people who would benefit from more access to training, better jobs, and better housing conditions, so levelling up happens from a whole host of different levels, from streets to towns, to whole regions", Philip says.

"So, for Crewe, it could be the Crewe Hub which would be developing and using that to provide better-skilled jobs, better training, and better opportunity", he continued.

The CWLEP is helping at all levels to ensure leveling up happens within the region according to Philip Cox (image - Nub News)

Philip added: "At another level, I chair the Economic and Workforce Recovery Group, which was set up in the aftermath of COVID, with the high levels of unemployment we thought we'd encounter so the aim of that is to help people who are unemployed, into jobs more quickly and we're working with the DWP to do that."

The disparity of wealth and opportunity in Cheshire is quite alarming. Some areas within Crewe and the surrounding areas are among the UK's most deprived, while others are at the other end of the spectrum. Tackling that, for Philip is what levelling up for the county is.

He says: "It's about creating opportunities, people have multiple barriers to employment nowadays, physical health, mental health, and lack of training".

Philip adds: "They are all large reasons as barriers to employment so understanding and identifying who they are and working with DWP to identify the schemes and solutions best fitted with them is a large part of what we do."

Specifically, tailored programmes and funding where it can help both the employee and the employer is where the CWLEP can add value to the ongoing effort to level up.

"We have funding from DfE for skills boot camps to provide training for the unemployed for free through to more advanced up-skilling for companies and helping them bear the cost," Philip says.

He adds, "We know where we need to aim our resources, and trying to deliver that is part of our wider mission."

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