On Thursday 11th September, Chamber Group, Curia and UKAI heard from Liverpool Metropolitan Mayor Steve Rotheram at the Get Britain Growing: North West Conference and Dinner. During his speech and subsequent Q&A session Rotheram discussed his city’s role in driving regional and national economic growth, his AI for Good initiative, and Liverpool’s thriving life sciences sector.
Liverpool and Industry
Rotheram opened by saying that whilst he is proud to represent a city with ‘such a rich and diverse history,’ he is even more proud with the work that he, his team, and his fellow Liverpudlians are doing in order to build a better future for, and drive growth across, Liverpool, the North-West, and Britain as a whole.
Next month, Rotheram will be realising a new ‘Liverpool City Region Growth Plan,’ which he described as ‘probably the most important strategic document’ that he and his office have ever produced. The plan will offer a ten-year blueprint for the city’s growth strategy and will allocate £11 billion to be invested into projects across Liverpool, in a scheme that Rotheram hopes will create tens of thousands of jobs, improve the lives of people across the city, and give them hope for a brighter future.
However, whilst he certainly seems excited by these plans, Rotheram made it clear that he felt even more could be done, were the right powers and competencies devolved to him, and more capital was invested into the city.
Liverpool is a city of great potential; as Rotheram highlighted, the Liverpool City Region produces 15% of all UK-manufactured cars, is home to the second biggest life sciences sector in the country and handles nearly half of American imports into Britain. Clearly Liverpool is a major contributor to the British economy, but Rotheram believes that increased regional devolution will help it to meet its full potential.
Rotheram’s Ambitions
Rotheram has great aspirations for Liverpool, with a target of increasing foreign direct investment in the city by 25% by the end of this decade and making it ‘the most attractive place to invest in this country.’ He believes that devolution is key to meeting these goals, as he and fellow local politicians are able to do more to shape Liverpool’s future ‘than a monolith of Westminster could ever do.’
According to him ‘devolution isn’t a debate about politics. It’s about growing the national economy by backing the regions that are already punching above their weight,’ and he believes that the government’s English Local Government and Community Empowerment Bill that is currently going through parliament can help Liverpool continue to do that.
Another strategy Rotheram believes will help drive Liverpool forward is increasing collaboration with its neighbours. Rotheram says he and his team view themselves as ‘at the heart of the northern corridor,’ and hopes that by working together with Greater Manchester, Cheshire, and Warrington, they can establish ‘super clusters that rival anything in Europe.’
But Rotheram didn’t just discuss economics and industry; he also spoke proudly about Liverpool’s history, from being one of Britain’s most important strategic ports during WW2, to being the music ‘epicentre of the world’ in the 1960s, to being awarded the European Capital of Culture in 2008. According to the mayor, you shouldn’t believe the bad things you may hear about Liverpool, and should come and see the city for yourself, at which point many will ‘fall in love.’
Education in Liverpool
It’s clear that some people do, with Rotheram highlighting that the city is now one of the best performing in the country for graduate retention, with many students who complete their studies at one of Liverpool’s 3 universities choosing to stay and pursue their career there.
However, this was not always the case; when Rotheram first took office in 2017, Liverpool was among the worst cities in the country for graduate retention. He says that such a change is no coincidence, and is instead the result of time and effort, collaborating with the city’s universities and businesses to improve the local job market, transport links and public services.
Harnassing AI
Conversation then shifted to the topic of AI, something that Rotheram is very passionate about, launching an initiative called AI for Good which aims to use artificial intelligence to solve real-world problems in healthcare, education, and transport.
As part of this initiative, schools across Liverpool are participating in an AI pilot scheme, trialling sensory technology that is typically only available to the most elite private schools. The results appear promising, with it being reported that schools participating in the scheme see an improvement of 15% to their attainment levels and that teachers are saving roughly 20 hours of time a week.
The city’s life science sector is also on board with Rotheram’s vision of using AI for good; local firms are busy using artificial intelligence to develop new medical procedures and technologies, with one on the cusp of a breakthrough with a heart-related treatment, that is due to be sold on to the NHS, whilst another has developed an AI programme that can carry out highly effective breast cancer screenings by predicting and identifying pre-cancerous cells.
Finally, Rotheram spoke of Liverpool’s close relationship with their twin city Hamburg, which uses artificial intelligence to map the whole city, predict where congestion is set to occur, and thus reorganise the traffic light sequence to prevent blockages. According to Rotheram, Liverpool will soon become the first city in Britain to have a similar programme, highlighting the mayor’s ambition to put his city at the forefront of technology and innovation, not just to make it ‘the most attractive place to invest’ in Britain, but also to improve the day-to-day lives of ordinary Liverpudlians.
