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The North West is a region of contrasts, covering the five sub regions of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. These contain 43 local authorities, of which four are unitary authorities.
With a population of 6.8 million, the North West is larger than several EU countries, and has a diverse mix of people representing many ethnic groups. 80% of the region is rural, but most people live in the urban areas, with 60% of people living in Greater Manchester and Merseyside.
Despite a decline in traditional manufacturing and engineering industries, new industries are growing - the region has the biggest film and television production industry outside London, and Manchester airport is the largest outside the South East. There is a strong tourism industry attracting 18 million visits per year which is worth £3 billion, and an important rural economy that accounts for 40% of all firms in the region.
The North West regional team consists of a Head of Region (job share role), two Regional Policy and Partnership Managers, two Regional Policy and Partnership Officers, a Regional Marketing Manager, a Regional Communications officer and an Administration Officer.
By tapping into local networks and partnerships, we are very effective in communicating messages and understanding regional issues in the North West. We hold regular meetings with funding advisers and key voluntary sector organisations, and work with statutory agencies like helper agencies and other funders. Part of our role is also about keeping MPs informed of awards.
An important part of the regional team’s work is to provide regional and local information to our grants staff and committee members. This work includes:
- providing a general, local, regional and sub-regional geographic context
- programme-specific context
- portfolio commentary
- ‘informal’ data and intelligence
- customer feedback
- analysis of funding data to help us focus our outreach work.
We regularly hold events for funding advice workers throughout the region so that we can update them on the latest funding opportunities and information from us. We also send out a monthly e-bulletin to subscribers. This contains up-to-date information and links to the regional web page on the our website. Regular news items include information about the latest awarded grants, funding updates, and upcoming regional events and news.
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