Nigel Hamilton


(Introduction from Councillor Ian Crozier):
Thank you Michael and I just want to congratulate you on what I believe is an excellent piece of work. I think it has given us all plenty to think about. What I'd like to do now is to divide the perspective from the public sector, from the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service Mr. Nigel Hamilton.

(Applause)

Nigel Hamilton,
Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service

NIgel Hamilton - Thank you very much indeed Ian, it's a delight to be here today to share in this very important conference.

It's a pleasure for me too, to follow an old friend of mine, because Michael Parkinson and I met many years ago and our paths have crossed in many ways.

And the best thing that I can do in terms of starting is just read from a quotation from Atkinson who in 1823 wrote this about Belfast;

"Whether we regard this town, its trade, its shipping, its buildings, the magnificence of its bay. The symmetry and beauty of its streets or its people as near to perfection justifies us in referring to this city as" and I quote "the Liverpool of Northern Ireland". I think that is particularly relevant because of what Michael has just said.

But let me just for a moment or two take you back to another quotation, Frank McMoore in 1914 wrote this about the city

"Belfast really is a wonder. Today it can do what few other cities can do. It can launch the larges ships ever seen. It can spend a quarter of a million making a dock to enable the biggest ships to be repaired. It has the largest rope works in the world. It produces such luxuries as whiskey and tobacco. There is no city in the kingdom that can compete with Belfast. One spinning mill alone employs more than eight thousand people. The great boundaries also exist there. One of its companies makes tea drying machines for the Indian market. Another is an inventor of transparent printing. No matter what direction one goes in, one is brought face-to-face with stupendous statistics".

And what's the common theme about all of that? It no longer exists.

Those particular industries between 1954 and now have gone. And I think that is a very important point for me to start following on from what Michael said about Belfast as a European city. Because there are to me three very important drivers in understanding the future of this city and in ultimately producing a to-do list.

The first driver has to be understanding the international and European context in which we live. Because it has been that international context which has changed the nature of those businesses to which I have just referred. From Saturday we will be part of the European Union with 450 million people in it. That European Union has a bigger population than the United States and Japan combined and I believe that is very significant for us, in terms of challenge and in terms of potential. From Poland to Malta.

A friend of mine runs a business in the city. Two years ago the production of that business moved to Poland because international economics, because of pricing, because of trade, it made it much more beneficial for him and his company to source his product in Poland.

Belfast with its population, whether it be 300 thousand, or 500 thousand depending on what we count, assesses a market which is the biggest single market in the world of democratic states of 450 million people. Because we live in a global village and that global village and those economic trends, social trends and cultural trends that emerge from that will be a very important driver and I think we ignore that context at our peril.

But the second driver, and it's interesting that Michael and I didn't compare notes on this, is. the second driver has to be the regional context.

Belfast's role as the regional capital of Northern Ireland which gives the city a unique and strategic position which again we must not lose sight of when we consider the issues of public policy. Belfast is and must be the engine for Northern Ireland in terms of economic development and employment in terms of educational opportunities and a wide range of public policy initiatives some of which I'll come back to in a minute.

And so in considering the state of Belfast I think we also must consider the state of Northern Ireland. Because the two are completely interrelated. In the various planning policy documents which have been published recently be government that unique and important position of Belfast has been recognised. The regional development strategy, which provides an overarching framework for the whole of Northern Ireland, identifies the regional importance of Belfast. The draft transportation strategy, the regional transportation strategy, also does the same. As does the Belfast Metropolitan plan - referring to the metropolitan area that Michael identified earlier.

It is important therefore that the discussions today around Belfast as a city [are] set in the context of Northern Ireland as a region and the interrelationships of that are recognised by us all. In transportation terms, for example, we recognise, we as government and the various departments involved, recognise the communication importance. Whether by road, rail, port, airports or buses. But Michael was right. You cannot fly from Belfast to all of those European destinations that we talked about. And so having the physical facility isn't enough. The connectivity is extremely important. And that's why, as a start and only as a start we've set up this air-route funding to try to improve connectivity to European cities.

Referring of course to documents such as the Regional Development Strategy and the Regional Transportation Strategy and the Belfast Metropolitan Strategy, [they] identify both the strengths and the weakness again that Michael referred to.

And, by the way don't shoot the messenger because I am trying to be descriptive, we do have a situation in Northern Ireland where functions are delivered vertically. That's the system that was established and the system that we have at the moment and therefore we have got to ensure that those functional issues whether it be planning, transport, health, education, actually do come together on a geographical basis in respect of Belfast or indeed in a thematic basis. That's not easy and yet I suspect that is one of the main drivers behind both the production of the master plan for Belfast and the conference today.

Stephen Quinn said in 1915 "what should concern us all is the future of Belfast, for within it, is inextricably bound up for good or for evil the whole future of the nation".

And I can't emphasis that more. What are we then trying to do in government? This isn't meant to be a litany of all the things that we are doing but merely to illustrate some of the themes that I think are important.

Identifying the weaknesses; identifying the areas that we can develop further. The first one is the vibrancy of the city centre. It's regarded by everyone as a neutral area. For shopping, eating, entertainment and working.

But that's not enough because we have got to use that vibrancy of the city centre as an economic driver in terms [of] regeneration. That is what government is trying to do in way of its regeneration for Belfast city centre. That's what we are trying to do in terms of the work in Victoria Square and elsewhere. Because as our recent statement indicated, we believe that up to £1 billion of investment in the heart of the city in the next five to ten years can be stimulated by that work.

But it must also link to the work of Laganside (and Laganside of course was tremendously successful in both public and private sector input) in terms of investment in the order of £800 million. But we need to link the city centre, and Laganside and the regeneration opportunities in Titanic Quarter in some way to produce synergy for the benefit both of the city and of the wider region.

We need to ensure too that the regeneration strategies and policies are linked to the social exclusion difficulties of which we are all aware. That's why for example, in the Victoria Square development, there are intensive discussions with the developers to maximise the benefits of the regeneration for those living in the adjacent and beyond that most disadvantaged areas.

I believe that it is exciting and believe that it has tremendous potential but I also believe that we need to look clearly at the delivery mechanisms to ensure that that synergy is there. To ensure also that when we get into issues such as tourism and trade then we market, this very area that we are sitting in.

We market it to its maximum in terms of the potential of Belfast as a tourist area. I could go on through the rest of it. But let me just mention education very briefly.

The importance of the universities. The importance of physical investment, whether that be at Queen's [or] at the University of Ulster; at BIFHE; at Stranmillis, all of which have a very important contribution to make to the city but also to the wider region.

We are also trying to do the same in the health sector. Working for healthier people in initiatives such as Belfast Healthy Cities, and the North & West Belfast action zone. But let's also recognise that Belfast is the regional centre for cancer, for cardiology, for neurosurgery, for fractures.

Let's also ensure too that as we develop tourism, as we develop trade, as we develop education and health, we do need to improve the transport links from the Metropolitan area into the city.

That is a major culture change - all of us without exception want the freedom to drive our cars to Belfast city centre. Is that a contribution to solving the transport problems? Are we setting examples? Have we got the right policy framework to do that? Are we setting the right priorities, in terms of the transportation policies to Belfast city centre? Not just public policy but our response to that.

I remember not so long ago going to (actually a few years ago) going to a meeting at which the famous road through Belvoir Forest was being discussed. And we had a lobbyist in a room, full of folk like this, whip the room into saying "We must not have this road", "This road must not be built through this forest". "Don't we agree?", and there was a tremendously encouraging passionate response to that and he said "Fine, fine. But how many of you, if this road isn't built, are going to leave your cars at home and travel by public transport?"

And there weren't too many hands that went up.

The cultural attitude to this I think is very important. Industrial development, of course, it is extremely important. But of course FDI, Foreign Direct Investment is very scarce at the moment and therefore what we need to do is to grow our businesses; develop our trade links elsewhere. [E]nsure that we use the knowledge base sector such as software, telecommunications, biomedical sciences, etcetera - to develop our trade.

We have in recent years become a prestigious location, and a very successful location, for organisations such as Abbey, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and the Prudential.

Indeed only a fortnight ago I was in London talking to the chairman to Halifax, who told me that there call centre just a mile or two from here was there most successful in the United Kingdom. Something that we should be proud of but I think something that we need to market in terms of the opportunity for elsewhere. We need to ensure, that we market Belfast in that way.

But finally, wasn't it Shakespeare who said in Coriolanus "what is a city, if not it's people?" This is not simply about physical investment, or about economics or about trade. It's about the people; it's about the issues of social exclusion. Our neighbourhood renewal policy is designed to try to address some of those issues, but this is neither easy nor are there quick fixes.

We need to ensure that there is confidence. that the people in institutions are working with each other across the peace, in terms of public policy. We need integration in all of those areas. We need to develop capacity in those areas.

The North Belfast Community Action Group which is part of my department has had a very interesting experience in terms of developing capacity in what is a very difficult area. And there are many lessons for us all to learn, not least, from the successes doing precisely this in Liverpool, Sheffield and the other areas.

Let me finish (and I'm almost finished Ian!)

Actually, I'm reminded, as I finish, of a famous story of Belfast City Council when Paddy Devlin and Frank Miller where councillors. Frank, as you know, wasn't known for his brevity. So he was rambling on and on and on and the Lord Mayor banged a gavel to encourage him to stop and the head of the gavel flew off and hit Paddy Devlin on the forehead and Paddy was temporarily stunned. But when he shook his head Frank was still rambling on, to which he said

"Lord Mayor, hit me again. I can still hear him talking" (Laughter).

The end result of all of this is commitment. Let me on behalf of all my colleagues in the public sector in government departments particularly, offer our commitment to the City Council [and] to all the institutions involved in ensuring that we do have a vibrant outward looking dynamic city at the heart of our region. I commit ourselves to working with you.

I actually want to commend Peter and Marie-Thérèse for the work that they have already initiated, not least in relation to the Master-plan, because as Michael said in referring to the comments of the civil servants - what this city needs is leadership.

What this city needs, in terms of taking it to the future, is that leadership to which we can all relate. Led by Belfast City Council, with support from us all in terms of what we are seeking to do. A transparency and an accountability that needs to build on the foundations that have been established. We are committed to working fully with the elected representatives to ensure that we can deliver that accountability and that effective participation.

Yes, we need to be innovative. Sometimes we think that innovation means something quite unique in terms of quantum physics. Innovation means all of us trying to do something which is different, something which is going to produce some value added.

I love the story of innovation of the American astronauts and the Russian cosmonauts who came together at the end of the Cold War and the American astronauts produced a pen and said "Isn't it interesting we produced this pen, it cost $½ billion so that we could write on the moon". To which the Russian cosmonaut said "That's very interesting, they gave us pencils".

Innovation is not quantum physics. It's us being creative in the way we do things. It's being creative in looking for solutions. It's us being creative and supportive in what we try to do together. So that the dream that we have for Belfast can become reality.

William Drennen said "I make Belfast the eternal subject of my conversation. I always dream of Belfast".

We, of course, always dream of Belfast. This is our city. I am a citizen of this city of which I am proud, but the most important thing of all today is that we commit ourselves corporately, to produce the synergy, to produce that passion, so that our to-do list brings our dreams to reality.

(Applause).

[Councillor Ian Crozier]
Thank you Nigel for that very, very positive response on behalf of the public sector. And I am sure that that is a response that all of us will seek to build upon as this debate progresses in the weeks and months ahead.