Civic leaders and universities in the UK regions need to show far greater ¡°shared culture and ambition¡± to succeed and win funding, while the United States¡¯ Boston area shows how UK universities could lead regional economic transformation, according to Lord O¡¯Neill.

The influential peer, a former Goldman Sachs chief economist, is vice-chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership and chair of Northern Gritstone, the investment company created by the universities of Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester.

The local authorities that are ¡°most effective¡± tend to be the ones where it is ¡°pretty hard to tell the difference¡± between ¡°who are the local authorities, who are the LEP [Local Enterprise Partnership] and who are the universities¡±, Lord O¡¯Neill told a Westminster Higher Education Forum event on the role of universities in their local economies.

In his home city of Manchester, ¡°you can¡¯t tell who¡¯s who, because they are all singing from the same hymn sheet¡± and there is a ¡°shared¡­culture and ambition¡±, he added, speaking in a session on attracting investment and driving growth in local economies.

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¡°Unfortunately, there are many other parts of England where I have met with people in the local civic leadership where that¡¯s simply not the case.¡±

¡°Unless you can get private business, universities and the local authority to be thinking along similar lines then it¡¯s going to be pretty difficult,¡± he went on.

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That collaboration is ¡°also something that¡¯s monitored by central government¡±, as central government is unlikely to award funding ¡°if they don¡¯t think it¡¯s going to be used better [locally than] if it¡¯s spent from Whitehall¡±, said Lord O¡¯Neill.

On wider policy goals to support growth in UK regions, the peer noted the call by Greater Manchester to follow the example of Germany and its federal system in achieving true ¡°levelling up¡±.

But Boston and the north-east of the US, ¡°especially as it relates to universities is an equally [useful] if not better example, given our strength in universities¡±, said Lord O¡¯Neill.

A few decades ago New England was seen as an ¡°old declining industrial power¡±, but the ¡°staggering role¡± of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has turned Greater Boston ¡°into the health tech sector of the world and one of the United States¡¯ most prosperous areas¡±, he continued.

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That was ¡°a really specific example of the art of the achievable if we¡¯re going to have people in these places [UK regions] achieve things that the last 50, 60 years haven¡¯t been able to do¡±, he added.

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com