After the first year of the implementation of RES 2006, this report looks at the progress which has
been made. It follows the same format as the Baseline Report giving updates on the agreed range of
indicators/impact measures for each RES factor and progress with milestones for each RES action. It
has been compiled by accessing relevant data sources and by each lead organisation providing
information on action implementation.

It must be remembered that many of the impact data / indicators relate to the period before 2006,
when RES implementation started. If an indicator is moving in the wrong direction, or not improving
as much as desired, it does not therefore imply that RES action is being ineffective. It could be that
the action is entirely appropriate and effective, but that this is not yet showing through in the impact
data due to time lags. We must also be careful in drawing too many conclusions from one year’s
data changes, particularly given the confidence intervals around many of the datasets.

One notable feature during the year has been the revision of many economic datasets for previous
years, particularly GVA. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) now believes that the Northwest
economy did not perform as well as was originally thought in the early part of the century. Rather
than outperforming England, the region’s performance was equal to, or slightly worse than, England.
This has implications for our expectation of performance in the period 2006-9.

Despite good economic performance, the delivery of major infrastructure improvements and an
increasing feeling of prosperity in much of the Northwest (particularly our major cities) it must be
remembered that economic performance of this kind has been experienced elsewhere in the country
for some time. Closing gaps with the rest of the country will therefore be a tough job and the region
must not become complacent about the implementation of RES action or effects they will have in that
regard. As the rest of the country progresses economically, the region needs to as well, just to stand
still.

The overall conclusion from the analysis is that although many of the RES actions are being
implemented effectively and the region is making progress in a number of important areas, the rate
of progress is not as fast as planned or enough in order to close vital gaps with England, or meet
RES targets. RES lead partners did not mention many barriers to implementing RES actions in their
returns this year and although this should give us confidence that RES actions will be delivered, we
need to ensure that this does not turn into regional complacency about economic performance and
that the actions will indeed deliver the level of change we need to see in the region to compete
economically.

Given the data revisions (and the fact that all of this data is for the period prior to the RES) the
region needs to debate what more needs to be done to prioritise investment to ensure these key
economic indicators move in the right direction.