North needs to be united

Reflections Liv

We’re all in this together…

It is a phrase that the chancellor has trotted out regularly during his near five year tenure in number 11 Downing Street, to explain and justify the austerity programme he has embarked upon since taking office, but it is now a mantra that should be adopted by northern cities as the devolution bandwagon continues to gather speed – but with only Manchester in a position to take full advantage of the progressive plans that are being presented.

I have had the opportunity of speaking with both the Leader and the chief executive of Manchester City Council in recent weeks, and they are naturally delighted with a ‘Devo Manc’ package that now gives them budgets, powers and responsibilities over a whole range of services including housing, health, business support and economic development; and following the budget on Thursday the local retention of business rates raised in Greater Manchester too.

But, far from cocking a snoop at their northern neighbours, who have failed miserably in grasping similar offers made to them by central government, Sir Richard Leese and Sir Howard Bernstein are desperate for others to ‘get with the programme.’

For, as Leese pointed out at the Northern Powerhouse dinner hosted by PwC in Manchester on Wednesday night, it will be much more difficult for any future government to dilute the Manchester devolution package if several others are enjoying the same or similar devolved powers.

He and Bernstein are also acutely aware of the need to connect the north far more effectively and efficiently through big infrastructure projects on road, as well as rail, if their city is to meet its full potential. And, they will also know that Manchester is now the undisputed capital of that Northern Powerhouse, meaning that they can be far more generous in supporting and ‘coaching’ other city regions to improve both in economic and governance terms.

To this end, I hope Leese and Bernstein continue to explain to Leeds and Liverpool that it is not only pragmatic to accept the notion of a directly elected leader to oversee and be accountable to the electorate for all the additional powers that are available, but it is, democratically, the right thing to do.

What government in its right mind would hand over billions of pounds in resources to a bunch of largely faceless councillors, who may or may not be in a leadership position in twelve months’ time, depending on the whims of not only the local electorate, but their own political group as well?

The idea that you can ask for radical changes to your power take, without accepting an equally radical change to your governance arrangements is clearly a nonsense.

Politicians in Merseyside and Yorkshire may cry ‘it’s not fair’ – but without any movement on the governance agenda from them, then it is most certainly right.

It’s Hard

Office Move

Downtown recently held a fantastic half day conference in association with the government’s flagship business support initiative Growth Accelerator.

The event was entitled ‘Limitless – developing a hyper-growth Mind-set’ and focussed on how successful business leaders and entrepreneurs from across the UK had ‘done it’.

Inevitably the contributions from the speakers were upbeat and positive, but almost to a person, every keynote speaker and panel member warned would-be growth ambitious businesses that taking your company forward is challenging, at times frustrating, and it’s hard!

Downtown has been evolving and growing, relatively steadily, for just over a decade now. On Monday we are moving offices, so that the team at our Liverpool HQ have a better working environment. It is also a facility that provides us with space and collateral to offer our members a more diverse range of events and business support services.

In 2015, you would think that an office move would be relatively simple. However, we have needed to find additional hours and resource from our existing team, and use some external help too, over a period of a few months, to make it happen. Telephones, internet services, the office fit out and new furniture are among a long list of things that were on the ‘to do’ list, and I can’t say I’m looking forward to the actual physical move next week. I’m sure though that the old adage ‘short term pain for long term gain’ applies here.

This is the latest ‘hard to do’ in my personal business growth journey and it would be nice to say that UK Plc, with its love of an enterprise culture and entrepreneurial spirit, has at least been there to help me through it.

Sadly not. There is no ‘one-stop-shop’ for a small business to seek guidance on who the best suppliers are when you’re moving office. There is no robot within HMRC who will accept that moving office to grow your business and secure, hopefully create, jobs, is deserving of some lee-way in terms of tax returns and VAT payments. There is certainly no business book, manual or course that can take you through the ‘office move’ project – or indeed many of the other issues you will face as an ambitious business owner.

This is why business support initiatives such as Growth Accelerator, and a few others that are genuinely private sector led, are so invaluable. It is also why public sector agencies, quasi-public sector organisations and failed middle managers should not be allowed anywhere near business support – but that is a rant for another day.

For now, I will get on with the latest ‘challenge’, and simply take on the chin the hefty fine imposed on me this week by HMRC for my VAT payment being a day late!

The UK is getting more enterprising – The North must catch up

Uk Enterprise

Britain is getting great at starting business again and rediscovering its entrepreneurial spirit. The latest statistics on start up’s show an all- time record for new company incorporations here – a massive 581,173, which is an increase of almost 10% on the previous year. That bastion of enterprise that is most often held up as the example to us all, the United States, suffered 70,000 more business closures than start- up’s in 2014. Government initiatives such as entrepreneurs’ relief and the Enterprise Investment Scheme, introduced by the last Labour government and continued by the coalition, have also helped small businesses grow. And get this – according to the Centre for Entrepreneurs one reason Britain has become such a hotbed for start-up’s is immigration. A survey it undertook last year showed that one in seven businesses here are run by migrants. A ‘hats off’ to StartUp Britain and the more recently launched GREAT campaigns. Both organisations are doing a damn fine job in promoting all that is good about starting your own business, and growing it!

But it’s still not enough, and in the North of England we are still failing to encourage and support enough people to have a go and setting up on their own.

There has been a massive push over the past five years to provide support to what are commonly known as ‘Gazelle’ type businesses – those companies that have been established for a time, and with the right mentoring and coaching can meet their ambitious growth potential.

This has been a reasonably successful approach, led by initiatives such as the Growth Accelerator, who partnered Downtown last week for the ‘Limitless’ conference that we hosted with 100 plus delegates in Liverpool.

However, just as I would argue that it is a mistake made too often to focus on big business, which make up a tiny percentage of the UK business community, I would equally express concern at the start up agenda being neglected.

The next round of European funding has just landed and negotiations are taking place as to what projects should be going forward and supported. I hope that the objective of creating a more entrepreneurial culture in the North is a big part of the new programmes that are agreed.

We need to start to see the establishment of tomorrow’s Gazelles today.

One job?

Jack Straw

Two more MPs were caught in a sting operation by Channel 4’s ‘Dispatches’ programme recently, with both allegedly selling their ‘black book’, influence and power to a bogus Chinese company.

That the two men involved, Malcolm Rifkind and Blackburn MP Jack Straw, have both been rather preachy when their peers have been revealed to be undertaking such unsavoury activities in the past makes it difficult to have much sympathy with either Right Honourable Gentleman. But the point that was highlighted to me during the half hour show was that our Members of Parliament are now, and have been for some time, significantly underpaid.

The £67,000 annual salary for what amounts to a job were you are in the public eye and under severe scrutiny for 24/7; base yourself in the not inexpensive city that we call London; be responsible for a small business as you employ staff; sacrifice your family life and weekends; and have to reapply for that job no matter how well you have performed every five years, is a scandal.

I get that in public life there is an acceptance that you don’t necessarily get the rewards that you would get in the private sector. Nevertheless, for local government officials to be paid more than the Prime Minister, as is currently the case, cannot be right.

Nobody has to sign up for the job of MP, of course, and so why should we be concerned?

Firstly, we are slowly but surely attracting two types of people to parliament. Those who are ‘professional politicians’, usually well -heeled and in a comfortable financial position; and those who think that, even with the job description I have outlined above, £67,000 is a decent wage. I predict that after the election in a few weeks’ time, this will get worse.

Secondly, if the MPs salary continues to be depressed as independent pay commission after independent pay commission is ignored, we open ourselves to the prospect of more UK politicians being open to ‘outside interests’, legitimate or otherwise.

The calibre of our MPs is getting worse. That will accelerate unless we begin to remunerate them fairly, and re-establish the respect that MPs once enjoyed.

Of course, that respect needs to be earned, and by and large Westminster can be proud of its record pre the expenses scandal reveal and its reaction and attempt to clean up its act since.

In principle I think Ed Miliband’s proposal that MPs have ‘one job’ in future is probably a good thing – but they should be paid the going rate that job too.

MP’s should be forced to do Work Experience

Work Experience

The more I listen to Westminster politicians talk about business, the more I realise how little they understand or appreciate the challenges entrepreneurs and business owner’s face. In particular, they are clueless about small and medium sized companies, basing much of what they say on business growth and business policy around the issues that impact on the Jaguar Land Rover’s and BAE’s of this world.

The Prime ministers call last week for private sector bosses to give their staff a pay increase because we had experienced seven months of growth following seven years of recession was actually beyond clueless, and he should hang his head in shame in what was clearly blatant electioneering speak.

This week Ed Miliband, no doubt trying to be helpful, suggested that training and apprenticeship budgets should be handed directly to employers. Again that is fine if you have an army of people around you, but for the vast majority of firms the red tape and bureaucracy that surrounds anything to do with ‘public money’ is an absolute nightmare. Far better to let registered providers and colleges manage these funds, and support businesses through the complex and complicated processes. As Downtown Liverpool chairman David Wade-Smith often says the most expensive ‘free’ money is public sector cash!

Part of the reason why our political leaders are failing to engage effectively with us is that an increasing number of them are professional politicians who have never worked outside of the fantasy land that is the Westminster bubble.

You only have to spend a day in the House of Commons to appreciate how easy it is for an MP to get caught up in stuff that, within that environment, seems to be the most important thing on the planet, whilst to the rest of us it is usually hot air and bluster.

Politics has been ‘professionalised’ and I see little chance of that dramatically changing anytime soon. We will therefore need to find a way of helping our MP’s get some real life experience.

I would suggest, as a starter for ten, six weeks work experience programmes that are compulsory for all MPs to participate in. They could help on the shop floor, attend board meetings and spend a day working alongside a business owner. The only other stipulation I would make is that any company they worked with are companies with a turnover of no higher than £10million.

The disconnect between our elected representatives and the community – business and otherwise – is getting wider, and it needs to be addressed.