Surprise: Northern Way is unpopular and confusing

This has been all over the trade press at the end of last week but I figured I'd better feature it briefly. Northumbria University interviewed 30 peple from across the North-East including at the RDA, in local government, charities and private sector developers. They said that they thought the Northern Way was all about Leeds and Manchester and not at all about the north-east. Moreover they found it hard to keep track of all the funding streams and strategies covering the North-East.

The RDA was also criticised, described by interviewees as "oversensitive", "puffed-up and self-important... with delusions of grandeur". They said it needed to be "more confident and able to take criticism".

So that will join the ranks of reports that Tell Us Things We Already Knew, then. It may be useful for people to highlight these issues with 'real' quantitative research, but nothing really changes anyway...