The Northern Gateway Development Zone, a shared investment campaign for South Cheshire and North Staffordshire, has been renamed the Constellation Partnership, with the new brand unveiled in Cannes yesterday.
Jackie Sadek, independent chair of the collaboration of seven local authorities and two local enterprise partnerships, said: "The new brand is fabulous. It represents our ambition and our collective identity. One of the strengths of the partnership is our diversity, we will be the place in the UK where everything connects – people, businesses and ideas.
"The Constellation Partnership’s ambition is to deliver 120,000 new jobs and 100,000 new homes by 2040, supercharged by the investment in HS2. It’s an enormous opportunity that requires a new approach following the approval of the High-Speed Rail hybrid bill, one that communicates just how transformational the next decade and beyond will be.”
Sadek said that lessons had been learned from doomed attempts to rebrand South Eastern towns such as Purfleet, Grays and Dartford as the Thames Gateway. She told the event that HS2’s progress made a clear vision critical:
"We have not got a lot of time before HS2 is here – we have got to be ready, we have got to be match-fit. We will be the best-connected part of the country, and our aspiration has to match the size of the opportunity.
"This is an extraordinary opportunity for growth and the target is that we become the ninth English core city.”
"I believe that the Constellation name will have the right resonance with the markets and a lasting impact. This region, between the Northern Powerhouse and the Midlands Engine is not only nationally important, but also a distinctive constellation of inter-connected and complementary niche economies, each important in its own right.
"Constellation offers a competitive, accessible and sustainable investment geography, underpinned by high quality of life, a diversity of investment opportunities and a welcoming environment that embraces difference. It’s this fertile mix of ideas and energies that is generating new opportunities and growth.
"The Partnership is not just doing what every other city region is doing – we are offering something entirely new and different with our USP being the fact we are not what everyone else is. This is a unique mix of investment opportunities – no barriers to investment – no borders to opportunity. It brings together city and country, urban and rural, creatives and developers and manufacturers.”
Read more at placenorthwest.co.uk