Leeds

The highs, lows, laughter, tears and downright frustration of Football

Football

I have been a football supporter for as long as I can remember – and an Evertonian even longer than that.

As a kid, my Dad always told me that whoever was top of the table at Easter would win the league. If that still holds today, then in a few weeks time Liverpool will be crowned Champions.

This week on Merseyside football fans have gone through every single emotion that the beautiful game can throw at you.  At Anfield on Sunday, Liverpool finally overcame Man City 3-2, and then in mid week watched their Manchester rivals totally blow the title with a disappointing performance against relegation bound Sunderland resulting in a 2-2 draw.

After the euphoria of an incredible performance and win over Arsenal less than a fortnight ago, Everton seriously dented their prospects of joining their neighbours in the Champions League next season, falling to a 3-2 defeat at the hands of lowly Crystal Palace.

Amidst all this was the twenty fifth anniversary of a football related tragedy that remains an indelible stain on the English game – Hillsborough.

Far more qualified writers than me have put into words just how much of a catastrophe that totally unnecessary and wholly avoidable horror was. Those that lost loved ones have finally secured a modicum of justice and content through their sterling, relentless campaigning work.

Weather you support Leeds, Blackburn, Burnley or Carlisle, you will admire the work of those families. If you were going to big football matches during the seventies and eighties you will have thought at some point ‘that could have been me’.

It took twenty five years for the 96 who were killed at Hillsborough to get some kind of justice. It took about twenty five weeks before the powers that be recognised that if it was to survive as a sport and as a business football could not go on treating fans like cattle, sub human, cretins.

Today we have 21st century state of the art stadiums, sensible policing and clubs that by and large recognise the need to ‘entertain’ before and after the match even if what you are watching during the ninety minutes of play is not particularly riveting.

All the regeneration, television money and razzamatazz have made football a safer sport to watch in terms of your physical well being. Emotionally, it can still kick you in the guts when you’re least expecting it. And that’s why it’s still the greatest game on the planet.

Justice for the 96. And don’t buy the Sun!

Leeds’ ambition deserves Westminster backing

Leeds

The strategic economic plan recently produced by Leeds is evidence that innovative, entrepreneurial and deliverable policies can emerge from regional agencies – but equally demonstrates the frustration that Northern city leader’s face when trying to implement positive change.

An executive summary of the Leeds city region document can be read here and it is clearly an ambitious, realistic strategy that articulates the huge opportunities and potential of Leeds and its surrounding areas. It is a plan strengthened because of the broad support it has from an increasingly cohesive, co-ordinated public sector and a private sector that is keen to see economic growth accelerated.

In recent weeks there has been much talk about the growing North-South divide. To address that unhealthy chasm then, government should welcome and back ideas such as getting on with HS2, investing in major infrastructure improvements, building more housing and making Leeds an IT and digital centre of excellence. But more than this, Westminster needs to give the city region the tools to get on with the job.

Funding for transport projects, allowing Leeds to retain the receipts from the disposal of HCA assets across the city region, allowing the newly established Combined Authority to recover VAT and returning revenue funding to the Local Growth Fund are all reasonable asks that the government should agree.

Without these relatively minor changes at central government level, without a degree of decentralisation of finance, decision making powers and responsibilities, and without a recognition that Leeds knows what is best for Leeds, then this impressive plan will only be partially delivered – and that economic imbalance between North and South will get worse rather than better.

Who is ‘Everyone’?

Everyone

I am sure I am not the only business owner who gets feedback from colleagues and clients alike that starts with the immortal word ‘everyone’!

‘Everyone’ said that event was great; ‘everyone’ thinks we are wrong about that particular issue; ‘everyone’ is complaining that we haven’t delivered a date with Beyonce for them; ‘everyone’ thinks David Moyes is doing a great job at Manchester United.

It takes little probing to realise that ‘everyone’ is the last person they spoke to, or the author of the last tweet they read. But in an age where we increasingly get our news from Twitter and other social media networks, and conversation and considered opinion is becoming a lost art, ‘everyone’ is having a much bigger influence on everyone’s thinking than ‘everyone’ should.

A snap on line poll of a hardly watched debate between the UKIP lummox Nigel Farrage and the increasingly irrelevant Nick Clegg had many people declaring this week that ‘everyone’ thinks the UK should pull out of Europe. At an event I took part in on Thursday morning about the International Festival for Business I was told that ‘everyone’ thinks it is an event that will be a damp squib. In my office last week one of my team told me that ‘everyone’ thinks that Downtown should stop hosting sexy networking evenings.

It is all nonsense of course. The overuse of ‘everyone’ has infiltrated everyone’s vocabulary and we need to challenge and push back when someone’s evidence is ‘everyone’.

I hope everyone who is reading this agrees with me, and vows to abandon using the phrase ‘everyone’ in the future.

A blog dedicated to a number of Downtown staff – you know who you are

Three is the magic number

LLM

A report headed by esteemed economist Jim O Neil caused a stir last week with the suggestion that the great cities of Manchester and Liverpool should merge.

The City Growth Commission, an independent inquiry aimed at trying to boost urban growth in our major cities, suggests that ‘Manpool’ would enable the two Northwest giants to economically compete on the global stage more effectively by coming together, and help to begin to address the growing North –South divide which I wrote about here.

The argument goes that by creating a Northern super city we will see a genuine competitor to London, a capital city whose population and economic activity positively dwarves all other UK core cities.

As much as aggregating the might of Manchester and Liverpool would undoubtedly establish an economic juggernaut for the region, the practicalities of bringing the two traditional rivals together in a formal administrative sense would be challenging if not impossible. You only have to look at the deranged lobbying that took place over the name of the proposed Liverpool city region Combined Authority to see how difficult parochial local politicians find it to give up ‘power’ for the greater good.

Nonetheless, there is every prospect, indeed already existing evidence, that on issues of strategic economic importance significant co-operation takes place between Manchester and Liverpool. The two major transport infrastructure projects HS2 and the ‘Northern Hub’ are the most obvious, though not exclusive, examples.

Even on the international stage there is sharing of platforms and resource. The chief executive of Manchester city council and the mayor of Liverpool will share a stage in MIPIM next week. And Manchester is a key partner in the forthcoming International Festival of Business to be hosted in Liverpool.

So though a formal coming together of the two cities is as likely as Luis Suarez signing for Manchester United, the agenda for even greater collaboration should be explored and progressed.

However, why stop at Manchester and Liverpool? In both those transport infrastructure projects mentioned Leeds is a key partner too. And the attractiveness of a great northern economic hub, with three major conurbations working together rather than two, is a powerful and surely more compelling option.

By coming together to form a triumvirate of the north, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds could accelerate the work that they do together already, and extend it. Motorway connectivity is a major issue that can only be genuinely addressed by all three cities working in partnership and finding and funding a solution.

What of aviation? Is the wider region capable of sustaining three airports without greater dialogue between Leeds Bradford, John Lennon and Manchester Airport Group?

Beyond transport, there are many cultural and social projects where greater collaboration and a pooling of resource could bring benefit to the entire region.

Another area where the three cities are already at one is in their call for devolved powers, budgets and responsibilities. Ultimately this is the key that will truly unlock the potential of our great cities and begin to close the unhealthy gap that exists between London and the rest of us.

Flagship Finance Initiative Needs a Shake Up

RGF

In 2010 Michael Heseltine came to a Downtown event and waxed lyrical about the newly launched Regional Growth Fund.

This new financial pot would be available to businesses that were looking to grow and employ more staff. Essentially it would be aimed at the SMEs who are the crucial drivers of the UK economy, and the fund would be business friendly in terms of its processes and delivery, and as free from bureaucracy as it could possibly be.

Four years later and Hezza will be as disappointed as anyone at the latest report on the progress, or rather lack of it, of the RGF.

The National Audit Office has revealed that more than three quarters of the fund remains unspent, with only £492m of the allocated £2.6bn actually reaching business. The average cost of creating or safeguarding a job now stands at £37,400. And of the £917m paid out from the fund at the end of December last year, £425m is being held by intermediaries.

Bad though these statistics are, Downtown members’ experience on the ground is what is really concerning about RGF. Far from being ‘red tape free’ as the former Deputy Prime Minister intended, those companies who have applied to the fund have found it one of the most challenging and bureaucratic routes to finance.

Of those who didn’t give up part way through the cumbersome process, the few companies that were eventually successful have had to wait an age for their money, and have never received the business support and mentoring that was supposed to be part of the package.

Small and medium enterprises also question why companies such as AstraZeneca, Jaguar Land Rover and Lloyds Banking Group are being supported through a fund that was promoted and marketed as support for them.

What should have been a really positive and innovative addition to business support is turning into a bit of a damp squib. I hope Michael Heseltine and his government colleagues review how this important initiative can be shaken up and put back on track. The economy may be improving, but growing businesses still need all the help they can get.