Leeds

UDI for the North gets ever closer

UDI

As the Scots get ready to go to the polls to decide if they want total independence from the UK, or simply accept a generous additional devolution package that is on offer, the North of England continues to lobby Westminster in the hope that we can get some extra crumbs from the table that doesn’t include multi billion pound infrastructure schemes that, though much needed and long overdue, are at least a decade away from completion.

Local government cuts may have been necessary five years ago, but it is fair to say that those cuts were not imposed in an equitable fashion across the country, and cities like Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds; and indeed counties like Lancashire, have been tasked with taking more than their fair share of the pain since 2010.

Had the austerity programme been evenly distributed across the country then Manchester would be £1million a week better off. Similar statistics are also true in other northern regions.

But it is not only cash but power and responsibility that the north has been starved of. The Scottish parliament has enjoyed a huge amount of autonomy since 1999, whilst even the Welsh Assembly, representing a population that is fewer than Greater Manchester and many other English city regions, have more say over their nations affairs than we do here.

Downtown has long argued that structural reform of local government is vital. However, with that reform must include genuine decentralisation of real additional powers, not least the ability to raise and spend local taxes, greater planning and regeneration autonomy and the opportunity to spend education, training and employment budgets in a more locally relevant fashion.

These ‘asks’ have been made in a rather hopeful, half hearted way in the past; but the Scottish situation means that English devolution is right back on the agenda and this time political and business leaders mean business.

Already the mainstream political parties are talking far more seriously about how a new English devolution settlement can be progressed post the next election. The job now is to turn talk in to action, and once and for all give big northern cities the chance to shape their own destiny.

A new chapter for Leeds United?

Leeds united

The new Premier League football season kicked off last weekend, with all the usual hype and wall-to-wall media coverage that the Sky driven sporting extravaganza attracts nowadays.

For all the moans and groans from traditionalists such as myself, there is little doubt that the Murdoch money, as well as feathering the nests of many hundreds of footballers and many thousands of their hangers on, has also made the game a more appealing, family friendly sport.

Indeed, as an export, the Premier League is England’s most successful product, and as a competition it is, globally, football’s most exciting, and most watched.

Not that long ago the brand Leeds United was synonymous with top flight football, weather that be the old First Division or the new promised land of the Premier League. Indeed, it was as a result of chasing the ultimate fantasy of Champions League football that has arguably left United in the mess that its most recent history has been and to which I wrote about HERE.

Indeed a far more heartfelt and comprehensive ‘diary’ of the rise and fall of this great footballing institution can be found in the latest issue of men’s magazine Esquire in an excellent feature written by Leeds supporter Richard Benson. (http://www.esquire.co.uk/culture/sport/6825/the-fall-and-fall-of-leeds-united)

He paints a dire picture and seems to be as pessimistic about the clubs immediate prospects as any fan could be. To be fair, given the false dawns, broken promises and downright failure of all associated with Leeds in recent times, one can hardly blame him.

However, new season brings new hope – and in Leeds’ case a new owner too. One swallow does not a summer make, but a single goal victory on Saturday over Middlesbrough, with a late strike from new signing Billy Sharp, gives all of us who are hoping for a return to the top division for the Yorkshire giants a tad more reason for optimism. To follow that result up with a tame home defeat at the hands of Brighton mid week was not great – but let’s stay as positive as we can for as long as we can and give the new Elland Road regime a chance.

New Italian owner Massimo Cellino may seem a little eccentric, but his apparent enthusiasm for the project and his direct and robust style might just be what the club needs.

Of course, it could all go horribly ‘Pete Tong’ again – but surely, in the words of Labour Party activists circa 1997, when incidentally Leeds finished the season a very respectable fifth in the Premier League * – ‘things can only get better’. Let’s hope so anyway!

*Leeds United finished 5th in the 1997/8 season. In the 1996/7 season they finished 11th.

One North

George Osborne

Another week, another major announcement by the chancellor about big investment into infrastructure projects in the North, as the cities of Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool joined forces to launch the ‘One North’ document, which was duly supported by George Osborne.

Cynics suggest that this series of recent announcements is simply electioneering; a way of convincing northern voters that the Tories have not forgotten them. In reality there are few votes for the Conservatives in Liverpool or Manchester- though in Lancashire and Yorkshire several seats will be keenly contested at next year’s General Election.

In truth, post recession, all the mainstream political parties have woken up to the fact that a UK solely reliant on the success of its capital city is not a sensible long term economic strategy. The huge gap between the South East and the rest of the country has needed addressing for generations, and the planned investment in ambitious transport projects, improving links between northern cities, as well as the much debated HS2 project which provides greater capacity for the routes to and from London are good first steps.

However, it is still in the area of governance that the north can and must make more immediate progress.

HS2, HS3 and the other potential investments into the road network are medium to long term initiatives. Greater power to our region can happen now. Our political leaders, backed by the business community, should demand we get on with it.

The Big Partnership

Big Partnership

There has been much talk in recent weeks from government ministers, shadow ministers and political commentators about the creation of a Northern ‘super city.’

Evan Davies presented this solution to the growing North – South divide in his two part documentary ‘Mind the Gap’ earlier this year, and it is something that has been picked up by the chancellor George Osborne and Labour’s Lord Adonis who has the brain the size of the planet, in recent policy papers.

There is no suggestion that there should be any administrative governance arrangements for the whole of the region at this point; but clearly there has been a warming towards the establishment of city region or metro mayors. Scotland’s continued drive for devolved powers has no doubt impacted on the latest Westminster thinking.

But equally there has been a recognition that there is no sense in talking about bridging the economic gap between London and the rest of the UK unless you recognise the need for huge investment in big infrastructure projects north of the Watford gap, and that one of the essential ingredients for this to work is the need for the big northern cities to work in a more co-ordinated and cohesive way if those schemes are to be delivered effectively.

Business leaders are sceptical about the ability of politicians to put aside long standing city rivalries and parochialisms in order to create this new panacea. However, evidence on the ground is that there is genuine and positive dialogue taking place between Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.

This week Leeds chief executive Tom Riordan tweeted; ‘Very good meeting with Sir Howard Bernstein aligning Leeds & Manchester plans on HS2 and HS3. Transpennine working stronger than I have ever seen.’

Meanwhile, the chief executive of Liverpool Vision Max Steinberg announced last week that Liverpool and Manchester will be sharing a stand at MIPIM UK in October.

Conversations are leading to tangible actions and outcomes, and the ‘One North’ document that is due to be released on 5th August will further accelerate the process of the North working together in a far more collaborative fashion.

All of this is great news for the region, for the economy and for business. It is an agenda Downtown has been promoting for ten years. It is an agenda the North’s private sector should be vociferously welcoming and supporting.

Le Tour – what next?

Le Tour

There are many things that distinguish my home town of Liverpool from Leeds, and before you Yorkshire folk start quoting the fact that Leeds has the biggest professional services and finance sector in the UK outside of London; or that Leeds is the home of the most impressive talent as far as the health sector is concerned; or indeed that Leeds has a population almost double the size of its Merseyside counterpart, can I remind you that Liverpool has TWO Premier League football clubs, and both of them are competing in Europe next season!

On a serious note though, there are many similarities between these two Northern giants too. Both have fallen behind Manchester in economic and reputational terms and, albeit grudgingly, accept that we are playing ‘catch up’ with the region’s major powerhouse. Both Leeds and Liverpool failed to introduce a modern, twenty first century mode of travel in the way in which Greater Manchester has done through its super tram system, leaving Leeds to fight for a ‘Trolley Bus’ project, and Liverpool still searching for an alternative to its own failed tram initiative. Both cities have also successfully utilised physical regeneration to enhance their offer, most particularly, though not exclusively, through large scale retail developments.

Where Liverpool was slightly ahead of Leeds was in the area of events. Winning the title European Capital of Culture 2008 was its catalyst for a much stronger visitor and destination economy focus for the city, and since 08 Liverpool has hosted the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, hosted the world famous French ‘giants’ outdoor extravaganza and is currently the home to a seven week International Festival for Business which will be returning to Liverpool in two years time.

This will surely encourage Leeds to take full advantage of the Tour de France, which was so spectacularly and superbly organised across Yorkshire last weekend, and to begin to build a genuine legacy.

Things move so quickly now that the success of the Tour, however great it was, will soon be forgotten. Now we must move on to the next big thing for Leeds; find the next major event to host; cement the city’s position as a great venue for world renowned occasions.

I am sure Tom Riordan, his team at the city council, the inspirational Gary Verity and indeed Leeds & Partners are planning the next moves as far as a future events programme is concerned. I would simply urge them to engage with Leeds’ independents, creative’s’ and artisans, of whom there are many in the city, who can often bring a fresher more innovative eye to such things.

It is no accident that Liverpool built its success through the maverick figurehead Phil Redmond. Indeed twenty years ago a ‘posse’ of renegades that included Tony Wilson, Tom Bloxham, Colin Sinclair and Peter Saville formed the ‘McEnroe Group’* and were eventually engaged by the civic leaders to help shape Manchester’s future.

We need to use the Tour as Leeds’ catalyst as another great Northern events location. We need to build a legacy. We need to engage with the wider private sector across the city, those that are not necessarily ‘the usual suspects’.

*The McEnroe Group was formed by a group of independents and creative’s’ in Manchester following the publication of a blueprint for the rebuilding of the city by Manchester’s then regeneration agency following the IRA bomb of 1996. It was named the ‘McEnroe Group’ because they said the council ‘cannot be serious’ about those plans, which they believed lacked dynamism, imagination and ambition. Senior council leaders, to their credit, agreed, engaged with the underground Militia and twenty years later we can see the results.