SOUTH Lakeland has the biggest economy in Cumbria – adding £21 million to its value of goods and services in the last year alone, a meeting has heard.

The news was announced by Cllr Graham Vincent, the cabinet member for the economy on South Lakeland District Council, who updated the chamber on the area’s economic performance during 2018.

He said percentage-wise, South Lakeland had recorded the largest percentage increase in gross value added (GVA) in the whole of the North West.

Other council areas in Cumbria including Allerdale, Barrow, Carlisle, Copeland and Eden had not fared quite so well, said Cllr Vincent (Lib Dem, Kendal West).

“South Lakeland is the only Cumbrian district to increase their GVA, all the others actually shrank,” he told a council meeting.

“Lancaster has also grown significantly which means our whole economic partnership is in sixth place in the whole of the north-west behind Manchester, Cheshire East, Liverpool, Cheshire West and Trafford.

“The Morecambe Bay area is now listed as an economy by the Office of National Statistics, so we have really started to establish our economic position in a wider way.”

He said in order to move up to fifth position it would require an additional half-a-billion pounds increase in its GVA, which is a measure of the value of the economy due to the production of goods and services.

“We have the ambition to get there, but it may take a little while,” he said.

Cllr Vincent paid tribute to some of South Cumbria’s advanced manufacturers including James Cropper, Gilbert Gilkes and Gordon Ltd, Ulverston’s Marl International, Siemens Subsea Ltd and Barrow’s BAE Systems.