Building the Northern Powerhouse

The inaugural UK Northern Powerhouse International Conference and Exhibition took place on 25 and 26 February. It was attended by around 2,500 delegates keen to debate how the Northern Powerhouse aims and ambitions could be achieved. At the heart of the debate is the principle of devolution – the decentralisation of power from central to regional and local government.

• Download the report (PDF)

Ipsos North, was Research Partner for this event. The team is based in Manchester, the city region which is leading the ‘devolution revolution’. Having previously undertaken primary research with the public on devolution, it was the perfect opportunity to find out what the business community thought of the Northern Powerhouse concept. The research team carried out a varied programme of research before and during the event, including:

1. A representative (online) survey conducted with the northern public in the lead up to the conference;
2. An online (tablet) survey with 245 Conference delegates over the two days of the conference; and
3. Qualitative, voxpop style interviews with delegates about the opportunities, challenges and threats to establishing the Northern Powerhouse.

There were also speaker opportunities to share Brexit findings from the latest Ipsos Captains of Industry study and to share findings with Conference delegates at the closing drinks reception, plus debate with MPs and other key opinion formers who were co-panellists.

Earlier this week the research findings were published in an outcomes report entitled Building the Northern Powerhouse: Next steps for transformation, which was presented to MPs and wider stakeholders in the House of Commons. The report combined our research with insightful summaries of the panel discussions and made a number of recommendations in order to maintain the momentum on making the Northern Powerhouse vision a reality.

A summary of our research

If you want to discuss any of the research findings then please do not hesitate to contact us.