Energy is one of the north-west’s big growth industries. It contributes around £5bn ($7bn) to the local economy, employs 50,000 people, and is set to play a dominant role in the renaissance of the UK’s nuclear power sector.

The vast majority of the UK’s nuclear research capability is located in the north-west and Manchester, in particular. John Dalton, who presented his atomic theory to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society just over 200 years ago, was one of the founding fathers of the Manchester Mechanics Institute (now part of Manchester University). James Joule, one of his students, developed the first laws of thermodynamics that led to an international unit of energy, the joule, being named after him.