ONS: North West beats rest for GVA growth

The North West was the best performing region of the UK measured by the increase in gross value added per head in 2015, with Cheshire and Warrington performing particularly strongly, according to figures released over Christmas by the Office for National Statistics.

In 2015, GVA, a measure of the increase in the value of the economy due to production of goods and service, increased in all regions. The highest annual growth was in the North West at 3.0% and the lowest annual growth was in the East Midlands at 1.0%.

The average GVA per person in the North West was £21,867, equivalent to 86% of the UK average of £25,351.

The North West was also the fastest growing region in the UK in 2015 when looking at annual growth in total GVA in millions of pounds. Total GVA in the North West grew by 3.6% in 2015. East Midlands had the lowest rate of growth in total GVA at 1.8% in 2015.

At £30,000, Cheshire and Warrington had the second highest productivity per head of any area in England outside London, beaten only by the grouping of Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The worst performing sub-regions were Tees Valley, Durham, West Wales and The Valleys.

Cheshire and Warrington was further boosted last week by two announcements from the Department for Communities & Local Government, which unveiled funding for garden villages including one in Handforth in Cheshire East. The government also named Cheshire and Warrington as one of the first partnerships to access new starter home funding, in order to deliver residential units on brownfield sites, reserved for first time buyers between 23 and 40 years old.

Christine Gaskell, chair of Cheshire and Warrington LEP, said: “Cheshire’s economy continues to go from strength to strength, which our new regional income data demonstrates, showing significant economic growth in 2015. Together with these announcements from Government which will create much needed, new, affordable homes for local people, this is a great start to the year for our area, and will make a real difference in our aim to create high quality, sustainable places where people want to live and work, and where businesses want to invest.”

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Why does Warrington do so much better than other old industrial towns? Can someone please enlighten me. What does it have that Wigan and Bolton do not?

By Elephant

Its smack bang between Liverpool and Manchester, multiple connections onto the M62 and M6 and on the west coast main line.

By Rooney

Everywhere in the North West has easy access to the motorway network. I agree it is slap bang between Manchester and Liverpool,but it does better than both those cities,particularly on wages, so it isn’t a ripple effect,like you see in places near to London. There must be more to It than location. Is it education? Is it better local leadership? Is it because it has a Cheshire address?Then so do Runcorn and Widnes. It has always intrigued me as to why it is consistently the North’s most successful economy.

By Elephant

“Everywhere in the North West has easy access to the motorway network”

Apart from this morning when the M6 was closed for hours!

By Nordyne

This report is talking about increase. Liv/Man are both well-developed and therefore available gains diminish. While most of the north-west has good access to the M’way network, only Warrington has direct access both to the M6 and the M62 – i.e. north-south and east-west.

Cheshire address doesn’t hurt.

By Rooney

Good points Rooney.

By Elephant

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