National

The ‘Powerhouse’ isn’t just about the North

Northern powerhouse

It is very easy for us folk ‘up North’ to get carried away with the notion that re-balancing the UK economy means closing the North-South divide, with Manchester in the vanguard of securing the type of devolution deal that will hopefully be rolled out across the region, parochial politicians permitting.

However, the idea of ‘powerhouses’ and big, influential Combined Authorities, is not simply exercising the minds of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle et al. Everywhere located this side of the Watford gap are beating a track to Whitehall and shouting ‘Me too.’

No more so is this the case than the city that in modern times had managed to claim, and lose, the title of undisputed ‘second city’ – Birmingham.

Aesthetically, it is not the easiest on the eye, Brum. Indeed, you could go as far as to say that she is as ugly as she has ever been, as the city currently boasts a backdrop that could be happily used by Hollywood film makers for movies set in a war torn location of the Middle East.

However, there is good, and positive, reason for that. Birmingham is experiencing a long overdue facelift. A wholesale regeneration of the place is happening that will create a £2 billion plus ‘paradise’ project that cannot help but breathe new life into the economy, the night time economy in particular.

Additionally, the investment that has been confirmed by HSBC, the crucial role Birmingham will have in delivering HS2 and the fact that its city region takes in a population of 4 million people signals that this is a sleeping giant that has well and truly been awoken.

Of course, like all modern UK cities, it faces challenges, none more so than the crushing austerity programme imposed on the city council by central government, that has seen exciting initiatives such as an iconic new library and community facility turned into an albatross around civic leader’s necks.

At some point I hope the chancellor recognises that great cities can only continue to thrive and grow if they are allowed to maintain a level of service provision and activity that is relevant to the 21st rather than the 19th Century. But more of that post- Osborne budget statement.

Nevertheless, despite these challenges, Birmingham has so much else going for it that it is difficult to imagine that it is not approaching a period of huge renaissance.

I have spent the past eighteen months going down and up the M6 meeting a good number of Brummie businesses, entrepreneurs and decision makers to know that these guys and gals mean business.

Talk about energy – it is incredible. Commitment – in abundance. Determination – as Ed might say – hell yeah!

Coupled with this vibrant business community, a pragmatic public sector leadership that is keen to engage with the new up and coming business leaders of the future, whilst maintaining a strong relationship with its traditional commercial sector, makes Birmingham more than a little bit interesting.

All of this leads me to one conclusion. A city with so much attitude needs a business club to match. Downtown Birmingham in Business? We launch there in September, and I can’t wait.

FIFA is bad – Is the FA much better?

The FA

It has been an incredible week for the most popular sport on the planet, as its international governing body has been subject to fraud allegations, FBI investigations and, ultimately, the resignation of the head of the organisation Sepp Blatter.

FIFA has been on the edge of a major scandal for over a decade now, and the only real surprise about the spate of arrests and revelations that have emerged in recent days is that it has taken so long.

The Sunday Times ‘Insight’ team have been on the case for several years now, and the journalists involved deserve a great deal of credit for continuing to dig, harass and question the football authorities under extremely challenging circumstances.

For those like me who worry about the social media explosion destroying investigative journalism, this saga, and its conclusion, is a breath of fresh air.

UEFA and our own FA were front and centre of demands that Blatter should go; and indeed representations from Michel Platini, Greg Dyke and other senior European football officials, have been made over a period of months now.

Of course they are right to have raised their concerns, and take the stance that they did – but isn’t it about time they started to take a long, hard look at what damage they are doing to the beautiful game too?

UEFA have spent the past decade or more promoting the Champions League to the detriment of all of its associate member leagues and destroying the once credible EUFA Cup with the introduction of the competition nobody wants to qualify for, the Europa League.

And what of our own Football Association? The Premier League has been a huge success, become the UKs biggest export, and taken media coverage of footy to another level.

However, the unintended consequence of this have been a significant erosion of the club-supporter relationship; television dictating the fixture calendar and kick off times; an undermining of every club and league outside of the ‘elite’; the destruction of what was once accepted as the most successful cup competition in the world; and most worryingly financial mismanagement and club ownership going unchecked to the extent that long standing, well established teams have suffered bankruptcy and near extinction.

Ask Leeds United, or indeed Blackburn Rovers fans, if they think that the ‘fit and proper person’ test is worth the paper it is written on.

The explosion in agents, hangers-on and footballer’s salaries have further undermined a game that now only needs supporters in the same way that Coronation Street needs extras. They help create an environment and atmosphere that makes the TV experience all the more appealing. But it is the TV cash that is King!

I’m not suggesting that the FA is corrupt; or that its officials are taking backhanders to host the newly created pre-season money making ‘tournaments’ at the Emirates rather than Stamford Bridge. But they have ripped up and thrown away the set of principles that once led boys like me to develop such an emotional attachment to a club that as an adult is as important as political allegiance and religion.

Will the new set of replica wearing, friendship scarf buying, Sky subscribers be as loyal to their chosen ‘brand’ as the traditional support base that have kept clubs going for generations? Or will they find another pastime, or just follow the next club that gets a multi-billion pound foreign owner?

What happens to football when Sky gets fed up with football? That is what should be exercising the minds of the English FA, as much as the crisis that is FIFA.

Politics just got Interesting

Politics Interesting

As the old saying goes a week is a long time in politics, but it will take longer than seven days for political pundits and commentators to get over the shock General Election result witnessed on May 7th – and it will take the Labour Party much, much longer than that.

It was a devastating result for Ed Miliband and his team, made worse by its unexpectedness, but had we all looked at the campaign less tribally and more objectively, then the Tory victory, actually, should not have come as that much of a surprise.

No party in modern times that has gone to the electorate offering tax increases has been successful at the polls; wheeling out a cross dressing celebrity to campaign in Glasgow and getting the leader to have a cup of coffee with an elitist hippy shouted ‘out of touch Londoners’ to even the most traditional of Labour supporters; and the less said about the ‘Ed Stone’ the better.

Labour must now get itself up and dust itself off as quickly as it can practically do – and if the party has any sense they will leave the Blair/Brown days behind, jump a generation and take a risk of one of its up and coming young guns to lead it into the 2020 General Election. Labour needs a leader that can beat Boris – not someone who can go head to head with Cameron.

Talking of the Prime Minister, there was probably nobody more surprised, and relieved, than him when the ballot papers had all been counted.

Only a fortnight ago I and many others were predicting an early demise for Dave, as predators such as BoJo and Theresa May eyed his job. The election victory has bought him some time, but he will be more aware than anyone that he has a difficult balancing act of chastising his swivel eyed backwoodsmen and keeping his modern Conservatism agenda on track.

The EU in/out referendum was a panic promise too far, as he must surely realise when now analysing the UKIP performance, but he must go ahead with this folly now, risking the ire of both business and his own Europhile MPs.

His majority is far from huge, and therefore the chances of him going through the lifetime of this parliament without experiencing his own ‘bastards’ moment is highly unlikely. However, he has two big advantages over John Major. First, he has already announced he will not be fighting the next election, so on a personal level he has nothing to lose. Second, the official opposition will take some time to recover from what was a massive and unexpected setback.

Devolution remains a big part of the chancellor’s agenda, so opportunities for the north will offer themselves; whilst the whole issue of the Union, in light of the SNP’s surge, will keep the new government busy on many a front – and give us all plenty to talk about, and keep us interested over the next five years.

As for Farage and Co, and the almost extinct Liberal Democrats, for me, they got what they deserved.

More Evidence That the North-South Divide is Growing

North South Divide

There was little surprise with the news this week that for every one job created in the North since 2004, twelve have been created in the South, according to a Centre for Cities report that is summarised here.

The fact that this latest study covers the past decade also shows that neither the previous Labour government, with its push towards regionalism, nor the current coalition administration, have been able to reverse what is an unhealthy and unacceptable trend that has been part of the UK economic landscape for generations now.

The devolution programme that George Osborne has been driving through his ‘Northern Powerhouse’ initiative has not, of course, had a chance to prove whether it will be the key to finally solve this long-standing conundrum, but if the regions and cities across the north grasp the opportunities he is offering, then I have no doubt that more strategic planning and spending on transport, skills, training and economic development at a local level will contribute to a growth in city region jobs and wealth.

However, more radical proposals are necessary too, not least identifying new ways of supporting existing businesses, and as importantly encouraging start up’s.

The Northwest and Yorkshire is still way short of where it needs to be in terms of VAT registered businesses, and the ‘enterprise culture’ that successive governments have attempted to establish has not been delivered.

There are still too many public sector led ‘business support’ projects – I still shake my head in disbelief when I hear local government officers who wouldn’t know a balance sheet from the back end of a bus waxing lyrical about what business needs – and a range of financial incentives in place that actually favour larger companies who would have ample access to finance in the mainstream market anyway. The Regional Growth Fund is the most obvious culprit, but it is not on its own.

Our man in Manchester Michael Taylor has restated Downtown’s belief that we need a regional investment bank in his blog here and it would certainly be on the menu of change that is required if we are not to be talking about an even bigger North-South gap in 2025.

But a much bigger infrastructure spend than Osborne has announced, with house building and improving the regions motorway network at the centre of the plan; a drive within city regions to focus at least as much attention on growing our own talent as we do on inward investment; and a new range of genuine financial incentives for small companies who have ambitions to grow, with tax credits for those who take on more staff are just a few possibilities to be considered.

As we approach the General Election in May, Downtown will be agitating for change and suggesting as many new ideas as we can. Join the conversation and let me know what you think could begin to close the North-South economic gap.

Where did it all go wrong?

UDI

When Westminster politicians and mandarins met their Scottish counterparts back in 2012 to negotiate the terms of the referendum for independence, they believed that they had delivered a crucial blow to the devolution bandwagon by refusing to allow the Nationalists the opportunity to have an additional option on the polling slip that, basically, offered voters extra devolved powers within the union.

The thinking was that a majority of Scots would jump at the chance of more power for a Scottish Parliament that was still within the structure of UK governance arrangements, but they would run a mile from the notion of abandoning a 300 year union that, let’s face it, has been the principle reason for Scotland not becoming some sort of third world banana republic!

As if those north of the border would be daft enough to go for full blown separation given the enormous economic damage it would cause to their nation; why give them an easy third option that would offer Alex Salmond & co everything they wanted with the continued safety net of the United Kingdom?

Of course it is easy in hindsight to suggest that this was an arrogance too far, and that the third option, which is ironically now being offered in the form of ‘Devo Max’ as Westminster politicians scramble to recover lost ground in the final days of the referendum campaign, should have been accepted and put on the ballot paper. But in actual fact at the time the negotiation team was applauded for its strength and tactical genius in putting the Nationalists in their box. Few, if any, political commentators believed that the people of Scotland would vote for a divorce from the UK.

Of course what nobody could factor in back than was the absolutely shambolic nature of the ‘better together’ campaign that was to follow.

Putting the super bright but charisma- lite Alistair Darling in charge of the ‘No’ campaign was a stroke of lunacy that must have had Nationalists rubbing their hands with glee. Darling, in fairness, has had poor material to work with. The negativity of the messages from Better Together has turned people off massively; at best being seen as ‘same old politics’ at worse bullying.

By comparison the ‘Yes’ campaign have been consistent in simple messaging, time for a change, get the government you vote for, you can’t trust Westminster; and this has been articulated by a charismatic leader.

This has led to an incredible turnaround in opinion and latest polls show that the race is now too close to call. The Sunday Times poll last week gave ‘Yes’ a 2 point lead that has sent shockwaves through the corridors of political, establishment and financial powerhouses across the UK.

Salmond has secured the ‘big mo’ just at the right time, and the Nationalists can smell an unlikely victory.

Belatedly ‘No’ have woken up to the fact that it is in a genuine contest that it may lose. The big gun that is Gordon Brown, still a popular figure in Scotland, has been rolled out with the alternative proposals that, had they been included in the referendum poll in the first place, would have enabled us to avoid all this drama.

Despite the mistakes, the poor leadership, the lack of clarity and vision, I still think that the Union will prevail. The uncertainties that exist about an Independent Scotland; the unknown economic impact; a new nations place in the world…and of course the guarantee of ‘Devo Max’.

When people go into the polling booth next week the majority of them will, in my opinion, vote NO. I wouldn’t put money on it though.